An article worth reading...

[Guest guest]

& #65279; Subject: This was taken from the Miami

Herald 9/12

We'll go forward from this moment. It's my job to

have something to say. They pay me 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, please know that you failed.

Did you want us to respect your cause? You just

damned your cause.

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, social,

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're mistaken. We are

not weak. Indeed, we are strong in ways that

cannot be measured by arsenals.

IN PAIN

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 development from a Tom Clancy novel. Both in

terms of the awful scope of their

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,

probably, 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, I think, do not. What I know

reassures me. It also causes me to tremble

with dread of the future.

In the 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.

THE STEEL IN US

You see, the steel in us is not always readily

apparent. That aspect of our character is seldom

understood by people 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.

So I ask again: What was it 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 capable of. You

don't know

what you just started.

But you are about to learn...

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Kelli D Kelmi_4@... Pictures: http://photos./Kelmi_4

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