[MR] Fw: short, sweet & to the point

[Jonathan Blackbow]

A rather apropos editorial-

Regards,

Jonathan Blackbow

>                   Published Wednesday, September 12, 2001
>
> 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're about to learn.
>
> Written By: Leonard Pitts Of the Miami Herald
>
>
>