You tell 'em! Writing these things can be so therapeutic.
Praise be to Allah.
-----Original Message-----
From: Sean Martin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2001 9:52 AM
To: MS-Exchange Admin Issues
Subject: Great, Powerful Piece by L. Pitts addressed to terrorists Wed
Sep 12 08:40:41 2001
They pay me to tease shades of meaning from social and cultural issues, to
provide words that help
make sense of that which troubles the American soul.
But in this moment of airless shock when hot tears sting disbelieving eyes,
the only thing I can find to
say, the only words that seem to fit, must be addressed to the unknown
author of this suffering.
You monster. You beast. You unspeakable bastard.
What lesson did you hope to teach us by your coward's attack on our World
Trade Center, our Pentagon, us?
What was it you hoped we would learn?
Whatever it was, know that you failed.
Did you want us to respect your cause? You just damned it.
Did you want to make us fear? You just steeled our resolve.
Did you want to tear us apart? You just brought us together.
Let me tell you about my people. We are a vast and quarrelsome family, a
family rent by racial, cultural,
political and class division, but a family nonetheless. We're frivolous,
yes, capable of expending tremendous
emotional energy on pop cultural minutiae-a singer's revealing dress, a ball
team's misfortune, a cartoon mouse.
We're wealthy, too, spoiled by the ready availability of trinkets and
material goods, and maybe because of that,
we walk through life with a certain sense of blithe entitlement. We are
fundamentally decent, though-peace-loving
and compassionate. We struggle to know the right thing and to do it. And we
are, the overwhelming majority of us,
people of faith, believers in a just and loving God.
Some people-you, perhaps-think that any or all of this makes us weak. You
are mistaken. We are not weak. Indeed,
we are strong in ways that cannot be measured by arsenals.
Yes, we're in pain now. We are in mourning, and we are in shock. We're still
grappling with the unreality of the awful
thing you did, still working to make ourselves understand that this isn't a
special effect from some Hollywood blockbuster,
isn't the plot from a Tom Clancy novel.
Both in terms of the awful scope of its ambition and the probable final
death toll, your attacks are likely to go down as
the worst acts of terrorism in the history of the United States and, indeed,
the history of the world. You've bloodied
us as we have never been bloodied before.
But there's a gulf of difference between making us bloody and making us
fall. This is the lesson Japan was taught to its
bitter sorrow the last time anyone hit us this hard, the last time anyone
brought us such abrupt and monumental pain.
When roused, we are righteous in our outrage, terrible in our force. When
provoked by this level of barbarism, we will bear
any suffering, pay any cost, go to any length, in the pursuit of justice.
I tell you this without fear of contradiction. I know my people, as you do
not. What I know reassures me. It also causes me
to tremble with dread of the future.
In days to come, there will be recrimination and accusation, fingers
pointing to determine whose failure allowed this to happen
and what can be done to prevent it from happening again. There will be
heightened security, misguided talk of revoking basic
freedoms. We'll go forward from this moment sobered, chastened, sad. But
determined, too. Unimaginably determined.
There is steel beneath this velvet. That aspect of our character is seldom
understood by those who don't know us well. On
this day, the family's bickering is put on hold. As Americans we will weep,
as Americans we will mourn, and as Americans
we will rise in defense of all that we cherish.
Still, I keep wondering what it was you hoped to teach us. It occurs to me
that maybe you just wanted us to know the depths
of your hatred.
If that's the case, consider the message received. And take this message in
exchange: You don't know my people. You don't
know what we're about. You don't know what you just started.
But you're about to learn.
Regards,
Sean Martin, MCSE
Network Administrator
Ribelin Lowell & Company
Insurance Brokers, Inc.
3111 C Street, Suite 300
Anchorage, Alaska 99503
Ph: (907) 561-1250
Fax: (907) 561-4315
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