[Fwd: Who we are]

THANK YOU, I have this posted on my site but no one could tell me what
newpaper it was from.

Carl p.

Robert N. Eaton wrote:

>This was sent to me by friends in the UK. It should have had national
>exposure, I think.
>
>Richard Bram/Monika Machon wrote:
>
>>This ccame to me from a friend yesterday. It sums up my emotional
>>feelings as an American living abroad, especially in a world which
>>badly underestimates the United States and often finds a mild,
>>condescending anti-Americanism to be chic. If it is jingoistic, so be
>>it. In many ways I am surprised to find that I feel this so strongly.
>>I do.
>>
>>Richard, in sorrow and anger in London.
>>
>>>From columnist Leonard Pitts Jr.
>>THE MIAMI HERALD
>>Published Wednesday, September 12, 2001
>>
>>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.
>>
>>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.
>>
>