Column from the Miami Herald

US kirjoitti:

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. 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're about to learn.

kirjoitti:

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