Re: Another letter - My father sent this to me

[Guest guest]

An open letter to a terrorist:

Well, you hit the World Trade Center, but you missed America.

You hit the Pentagon, but you missed America. You used helpless

American bodies, to take out other American bodies, but like a poor

marksman, you STILL missed America.

Why? Because of something you guys will never understand.

America isn't about a building or two, not about financial centers,

not about military centers, America isn't about a place, America

isn't even about a bunch of bodies. America is about an IDEA. An

idea, that you can go someplace where you can earn as much as you can

figure out how to, live for the most part, like you envisioned

living, and pursue Happiness. (No guarantees that you'll reach it,

but you can sure try!)

Go ahead and whine your terrorist whine, and chant your terrorist

litany: " If you can not see my point, then feel my pain. " This

concept is alien to Americans. We live in a country where we don't

have to see your point. But you're free to have one. We don't have

to listen to your speech. But you're free to say one. Don't know

where you got the strange idea that everyone has to agree with you.

We don't agree with each other in this country, almost as a matter of

pride. We're a collection of guys that don't agree, called States.

We united our individual states to protect ourselves from tyranny in

the world. Another idea, we made up on the spot. You CAN make it up

as you go, when it's your country, if you're free enough.

Yeah, we're fat, sloppy, easy-going goofs most of the time.

That's an unfortunate image to project to the world, but it comes of

feeling free and easy about the world you live in. It's unfortunate

too, because people start to forget that when you attack Americans,

they tend to fight like a cornered badger. The first we knew of the

War of 1812, was when England burned Washington D.C. to the ground.

Didn't turn out like England thought it was going to, and it's not

going to turn out like you think, either. Sorry, but you're not the

first bully on our shores, just the most recent.

No Marquis of Queensbury rules for Americans, either. We were

the FIRST and so far, only country in the world to use nuclear

weapons in anger. Horrific idea, nowadays? News for you, bucko, it

was back then, too, but we used it anyway. Only had two of them in

the whole world and we used `em both. Grandpa worked on the

Manhattan Project. Told me once, that right up until they threw the

switch, the physicists were still arguing over whether the Uranium

alone would fission, or whether it would start a fissioning chain

reaction that would eat everything. But they threw the switch

anyway, because we had a War to win. Does that tell you something

about American Resolve?

So who just declared War on us? It would be nice to point to some

real estate, like the good old days. Unfortunately, we're probably

at war with random camps, in far-flung places. Who think they're

safe. Just like the Barbary Pirates did, IIRC. Better start

sleeping with one eye open.

There's a spirit that tends to take over people who come to this

country, looking for opportunity, looking for liberty, looking for

freedom. Even if they misuse it. The Marielistas that Castro

emptied out of his prisons, were overjoyed to find out how much

freedom there was. First thing they did when they hit our shores,

was run out and buy guns. The ones that didn't end up dead, ended up

in prisons. It was a big PITA then (especially in south Florida),

but you're only the newest PITA, not the first.

You guys seem to be incapable of understanding that we don't live

in America, America lives in US! American Spirit is what it's

called. And killing a few thousand of us, or a few million of us,

won't change it. Most of the time, it's a pretty happy-go-lucky kind

of Spirit. Until we're crossed in a cowardly manner, then it becomes

an entirely different kind of Spirit.

Wait until you see what we do with that Spirit, this time. Sleep

tight, if you can. We're coming.