|
Fellow Alumni:
Here are a few thoughts that I shared in a request from a fellow
alumnus:
Detroit, Michigan is not only a global automotive hub, it also reflects the
American social and economic aspirations for which numerous immigrants came
to this region of Midwestern North America.
We are situated North of Windsor, Ontario in Canada. We are a mosaic
of races: Caucasian, American Black and Latino. We have the largest Arabic
population outside of Saudia Arabia. We are still recovering from our own
self-inflicted terrorism, the Race Riots of 1968, that have forever afflicted
our neighborhoods and mentalities.
Today, September 11, 1986, fifteen years after the Egypt-Isreali
agreement, Manhattan, New York, Washington, D.C. and Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, were simultaneously subjected to unprecedented terrorist
attacks within the continental boundaries of the United States of America.
The American Red Cross offices in Downtown Detroit have sent all of their
employees of Arabic descent home, concerned that there may be retaliatory
behaviors from angered American neighbors of non-Arabic backgrounds.
Our border crossings with Canada are completely closed: we have
sealed our border closing the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit, the Friendship
Bridge in Port Huron and the Tunnel in Detroit.
The Federal building in Downtown is now being protected by para-military
personnel carrying automatic machine guns.
Detroit Metropolitan Airport is completely closed.
Our city mourns with its nation, and we all remain deeply in shock.
Most of you outside of the United States of America do not realize that
unlike other parts of the world in which terrorism has occurred, my country has
mobilized into a preparedness for war.
It has not been since the attack on Pearl Harbor have Americans been so
willing to enter war.
Unfortunately, our enemy is unconfirmed and unknown.
Those of you outside of my country, the United States of America, have
failed to understand one fundamental truth about us as Americans:
President Abraham Lincoln forever altered the direction of this country
from the mentality of a confederation - we essentially were a confederation of
individual states that functioned as if they were much like individual countries
- to the singularity of a Union. President Lincoln determined that NEVER
again would any threat to the Union - meaning the totality of the United States
of America - be permitted to exist. No foreign nation and no rogue state
or individual would threaten the sanctity of our Union. The U.S. Civil War
was not fought over the issue of slavery, indeed Lincoln did not himself believe
in the equality of the races; our Civil War was fought and won over our security
as a single, whole Union.
Since President Lincoln our national faith in a Union is nearly
sacred. We may disparage in the directions that we may occasionally
choose to take, but nonetheless we are a nation.
Is there ANY other nation in the world in which its Constitution and Bill
of Rights are kept sealed in argon gas and guarded by armed guards? The
words are reproduceable. The paper is replaceable. Nonetheless, we
guard the concepts which hold our Union together as nearly sacred text.
These are the words that we teach to all those whom wish to join our beliefs as
citizens of our nation.
President Lincoln forged us into a fused whole, from states into a
Union. Most of you forget the importance of the "sides" of our U.S. Civil
War. We call them the "Union" and the "Confederacy."
The Union won a very taxing war. Today, we continue the struggle that
comes with becoming a Union.
Today, September 11, 2001, the Union again was attacked.
We will defend our Union, our home to unbelieveable, super-human
extremes.
These acts of terrorism have not merely affected the individuals, whom
number the tens of thousands in death and injury, rather they have offended the
whole.
We have fought and won one war. We will win this one, too.
Unfortunately, this act has forever changed this Union from reactionary to
pre-emptive in our behaviors.
Our collective trust in the global community has been severely damaged by
this awakening through a day of undescribeable acts of terrorism.
As we heal our injured, bury our dead, and mourn, we will try to
heal. However, there is a sad, ominous warning for the global
community. These acts have awakened in America a darker,
self-preserving-instinctive reaction. Our Union will not be harmed, and we
will defend it!
It is my dream that as we heal, we return to our best virutes and
hopes. That a county that has fostered so many great philanthropists and
peace keepers re-opens its hearts and its borders, lays down its guns and opens
its doors, and uses its bridges as a means to peace.
Tony Spearman-Leach
|
