WE'LL GO
FORWARD FROM THIS MOMENT
by
Leonard Pitts Jr. of the
Miami Herald
"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 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.
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.
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.
Thank you all for
visiting my pages.... "our pages"
These pages are
for all of us, everyone in the
world has been
affected by what has happened.
I know my friends
in other countries have been!
Please go on
to:
America
Under Attack
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