Each of us sends our heart felt sympathy to the families, friends and co-workers of those who lost their lives in New York City, Washington DC and Pennsylvania. This tragedy has knocked Americans to their knees! We feel this senseless loss of our fellow citizens in a way that is indescribable in the written or spoken word. Our emotions have run the course of shock, fear and anger in mourning the loss of human life, and possibly our way of life. There are cries of anger and retaliation, and promises of vendication for the lives lost at The World Center, The Pentagon and the passengers and crews aboard our airliners. We are at war! We are at war with an enemy that is undefined. Not a country as in past wars. But instead, we are at war with a faction in the Middle East who look like our neighbors in many communities around our nation.

Those cries of anger and retaliation have spread to our naturalized citizens from the Middle East with senseless injury and shameful conduct of hatred and bigotry. Those acts have been brought about by the fact that some of our citizens were born in a part of the world that we deem as potential enemies. Have we not learned anything? Must we continue to mistreat those who come to our shores looking for the same freedoms that we hold so dear? Must we continue to forget that this land is a legacy of our ancestors who themselves were immigrants from other parts of the world? I am mindful of the treatment of the Irish during the Potato Famine, the Internment Camps of our Japanese-Americans during World War II. Our own Civil War must be remembered, and the hundred years that followed. The devastation of Viet Nam touched our history forever! Are our memories so easily erased? Are we so well educated that we cannot learn? Have we forgotten the inscription that is so proudly etched on our beloved Statue of Liberty standing proudly in New York harbor?

Those words mean a great deal to me. So do the words that were so carefully drafted into our Constitution, Bill of Rights and National Anthem. Words that stir our emotions and cause us to celebrate each Fourth of July with gratitude that we are fortunate enough to be a member of this great nation. We must rid the world of terrorism, not because it came to our country, but because we did not act before it reached our shores! We were complacent because it had not touched us with the same impact that others suffered in a different hemisphere. Our leaders and politicians did not respond as they should have on our behalf. The consequences of those grave errors were seen by this country, and the world, on the morning of September 11, 2001. As a result, we are left with little recourse. Once again, we must risk more lives atop those that have already been sacrificed. This time, may we be wise enough to form a World Wide Alliance that will locate these madmen in every corner of the globe and bring them to justice as World Criminals. May we spare the citizens of the world the pain and suffering that is surely to occur otherwise. Let us finally eradicate terrorists factions, with determination to protect innocent citizens in the process. Let us remember that weapons of destruction are held by many who are capable of using them. Many who have no conscience, and no regard for the beings upon this planet.

There are many events that we experience in our lifetime. They come and go...and we endure them the best way we know how. We even tell ourselves that we have overcome them when they are traumatic. With the events of this week, I find that I have overcome very little. I simply have managed to "sort and store" the things that have influenced my life. I have attempted to make sense of things that don't make sense to me. I have failed miserably. I am not ashamed to admit that fact...and I mourn. I was told once, that I am too idealistic. Perhaps. But I would rather love my fellow humans than hate them. I would rather embrace their diversity than scorn it. And I wish for World Peace.