An article from the Miami Herald

[Rachel Bray]

I just had to share this.  I'm keeping a journal of 
articles from papers.  This so far has been my favorite.


(an editorial from the Miami Herald)

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.


Rachel Bray
The Ohio State University
Fees, Deposits and Disbursements

"Could have been edited by a crack-addicted ferret with
ADD who just downed a half dozen Pixie Stix."
                       - review of Moulin Rouge