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Subject: Outstanding editorial "The Seattle Times: The barbarians

THE BARBARIANS WILL LEARN WHAT AMERICA'S ALL ABOUT

>By Leonard Pitts Jr.
>Syndicated columnist
>
>They pay me to tease shades of meaning from social and cultural issues, 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, cultural, 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
â€" 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.
>
>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 its 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, indeed, 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 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, there is steel beneath this velvet. 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.
>
>Still, I keep wondering what it was 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 about. You
>don't know what you just started.
>
>But you're about to learn.
>
>Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts Jr.'s column usually appears Thursday
>on
>editorial pages of The Times. His e-mail address is:
>leonardpitts@mindspring.com
>
>
>
>Copyright Â© 2001 The Seattle Times Company

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"The object of war is not to die for your country but to make the other bastard die for his."
-General George Patton (1885-1945)
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