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 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. |