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----- Original Message -----
From: marybeth
To: debbie
Subject: Fw: WELL SAID.
Subject: KILL AN AMERICAN?
Finally someone says it right !!!
You probably missed
it in the rush of news last week, but there was actually a report that someone
in Pakistan had published in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone who
killed an American, any American.
So an Australian dentist wrote the
following to let everyone know what an American is, so they would know when they
found one:
An American is English, or French, or Italian, Irish, German,
Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be Canadian,
Mexican, African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Australian, Iranian, Asian,
or Arab, or Pakistani, or Afghan. An American may also be a Cherokee,
Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache, Seminole or one of the many other tribes known
as native Americans.
An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or
Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in
Afghanistan. The only difference is that in America they are free to
worship as each of them chooses. An American is also free to believe in no
religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or
to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.
An
American is from the most prosperous land in the history of the world. The
root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which
recognizes the God given right of each person the pursuit of happiness.
An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about
every other nation in the world in their time of need. When Afghanistan was
overrun by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies
to enable the people to win back their country. As of the morning of
September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in
Afghanistan.
Americans welcome the best, the best products, the best
books, the best music, the best food, the best athletes. But they are also
welcomed the least.
The national symbol of America, The Statue of
Liberty, welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming
shores, the homeless, tempest tossed. These in fact are the people who
built America. Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the morning of
September 11, 2002 earning a better life for their families. I've been
told that the World Trade Center victims were from at least 30 other countries,
cultures, and first languages, including those that aided and abetted the
terrorists.
So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler
did. So did General Tojo, and Stalin, and Mao Tse-Tung, and every
bloodthirsty tyrant in the history of the world. But, in doing so you
would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are not a particular
people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human
spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an
American.
Pass this around the World.
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