# A message to the author of the terror



## live_to_cook (Aug 23, 2000)

Of all that has been written, this column, by Leonard Pitts of the Miami Herald, ought to be read by Americans in our time of sorrow. In my opinion.
http://www.miami.com/herald/content/...ocs/000565.htm

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 ******* . 
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.

[For the rest of the column, use the link above]


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## m brown (May 29, 1999)

thank you for posting the article.


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## kylew (Aug 14, 2000)

Well said.


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## pastachef (Nov 19, 1999)

I found that article a couple of days ago and printed it to hang up for the girls at the sorority house. Isn't it great? I loved it.


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