[PSUBS-MAILIST] The Steel in the US

["Greg Cotton" <gregc02@attglobal.net>]

                 The Steel in US by Leonard Pitts Jr. of the Miami Herald

                      Received this from a skimmer friend at NAS Pax River... worth the read, in my
                      humble opinion...

                      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.