George
S. Patton's speech to the Third Army /
Leonard
Pitts' column
/ CIA
Factbook file on Afghanistan / Know
your Foe! / (The Ground Zero Cross)
/ (A Poem for A Marine at Christmas
/ Video Phone
Technology
We'll go forward from this moment
by Leonard Pitts, Jr. for the Miami
Herald (external link), published 9/12/2001
 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.
From: The Miami Herald
George S. Patton's
speech to the Third Army
/ Leonard Pitts' column / CIA Factbook
file on Afghanistan / Know your
Foe! / (The Ground Zero Cross) /
(A Poem for A Marine at Christmas / Video Phone
Technology
|