Open letter to the terrorists

[Firedog]

Open letter to the terrorists.

.
Well, you hit the World Trade Center, but you missed America. You hit the Pentagon, but you missed America. You used helpless American
bodies, to take out other American bodies, but like a poor marksman, you STILL missed America.

Why? Because of something you guys will never understand. America isn't about a building or two, not about financial centers, not about
military centers, America isn't about a place, America isn't even about a bunch of bodies.

America is about an IDEA. An idea, that you can go someplace where you can earn as much as you can figure out how to, live for the most
part, like you envisioned living, and pursue Happiness. (No guarantees that you'll reach it, but you can sure try!) Go ahead and whine your
terrorist whine, and chant your terrorist litany: "If you can not see my point, then feel my
pain." This concept is alien to Americans. We live in a country where we don't have to see your point. But you're free to have one. We don't
have to listen to your speech. But you're free to say one. Don't know where you got the strange idea that everyone has to agree with you. We
don't agree with each other in this country, almost as a matter of pride. We're a collection of guys that don't agree, called States.

We united our individual states to protect ourselves from tyranny in the
world. Another idea, we made up on the spot. You CAN make it up as you go, when it's your country. If you're free enough.

Yeah, we're fat, sloppy, easy-going goofs most of the time. That's an unfortunate image to project to the world, but it comes of feeling free and
easy about the world you live in. It's unfortunate too, because people start to forget that when you attack Americans, they tend to fight like a
cornered badger. The first we knew of the War of 1812, was when England burned Washington D.C. to the ground. Didn't turn out like England
thought it was going to, and it's not going to turn out like you think, either. Sorry, but you're not the first bully on our shores, just the most
recent.

No Marquis of Queensbury rules for Americans, either. We were the FIRST and so far, only country in the world to use nuclear weapons in
anger. Horrific idea, nowadays? News for you bucko, it was back then too, but we used it anyway. Only had two of them in the whole world
and we used 'em both. Grandpa Jones worked on the Manhattan Project. Told me once, that right up until they threw the switch, the physicists
were still arguing over whether the Uranium alone would fission, or whether it would start a fissioning chain reaction that would eat everything.
But they threw the switch anyway, because we had a War to win. Does that tell you something about American Resolve?

So who just declared War on us?
It would be nice to point to some real estate, like the good old days. Unfortunately, we're probably at war with random camps, in far-flung
places. Who think they're safe. Just like the Barbary Pirates did, IIRC. Better start sleeping with one eye open.

There's a spirit that tends to take over people who come to this country, looking for opportunity, looking for liberty, looking for freedom. Even
if they misuse it. The Marielistas that Castro emptied out of his prisons, were overjoyed to find out how much freedom there was. First thing
they did when they hit our shores, was run out and buy guns. The ones that didn't end up dead, ended up in prisons. It was a big PITA then
(especially in south Florida), but you're only the newest PITA, not the first.

You guys seem to be incapable of understanding that we don't live in America, America lives in US! American Spirit is what it's called. And
killing a few thousand of us, or a few million of us, won't change it. Most of the time, it's a pretty happy-go-lucky kind of Spirit. Until we're
crossed in a cowardly manner, then it becomes an entirely different kind of Spirit.

Wait until you see what we do with that Spirit, this time.
Sleep tight, if you can. We're coming.

[ 09-13-2001: Message edited by: firedog ]

[Johnny Mac]

Fantastic!!

Here is who it is addressed to.




Ugly fella. Maybe he would look a little better with a shade of crimson around the neck area.

[Snagly]

I liked the letter. It captures much of what I was trying to say in a TV interview I gave yesterday. (I was walking to work past the Singapore American Club and a film crew was outside looking for Americans to interview for Channel News Asia.) I'd like to say that I was as eloquent as the letter but I wasn't. I was still numb after having been up most of the night watching CNN or on the phone. I basically said that the US was going to go after these people, make no mistake about it. But I didn't convey the core American beliefs that this letter captures.

Afterwards the only story I could think of to illustrate the point about the patience and tenacity Americans exhibit when wronged actually wasn't drawn from US history. It was the determination that led the Israeli's to track ****'s all over the world after WW II. Israel's secret service, the Mossad, wanted Adolph Eichmann very badly, as Eichmann had been directly responsible for "Jewish Affairs" in the Third Reich. In 1960 Eichmann had been living in Argentina for 10 years under an assumed name. He thought he was safe. He was wrong: the Mossad kidnapped Eichmann and took him back to Jerusalem where he was represented at his trial by counsel. The court found him guilty of genocide and they hanged him in public in 1962.

It took 17 years after the war officially ended before Eichmann got his due. (The Mossad is still out there looking for other senior war criminals, too. No statute of limitations while one of those killers breathes.) The American people feel the same revulsion and anger against these terrorist cowards. The response will be the same, too: hunt the killers down no matter how long it takes.

In the meantime, we are going to have to change the way we travel (and pay more for air travel). We'll have to undergo more physical security checks and accept a lessened degree of personal freedom. Our country is now at war, and war time requires sacrifices. Meanwhile, America will stop compromising in continuing to deal with countries that support terrorists. If gas goes up a buck a gallon, so be it.

[Jennie@ifish]

What ABSOLUTELY sickens me is what poor company I am in.
I used to be proud that Abraham Lincoln had Marfan Syndrome, and that I was in good company... I used to say "They had to shoot him to kill him...." trying to convince people I was OK.
Seems Bin Laden has Marfan Syndrome.
Do a search on Google.com on Marfan Syndrome and Bin Laden.
Here is a disgusting one.
He is welcome in the Marfan Community? I think not.
I only hope one day he forgets to take his beta blocker.
Looking at him, he just
screams Marfan. Long fingers, skinny, tall....
Yish.
Jen

[Finn-icky]

Firedog; I want to thank you for sharing this letter. My day will be much better as a result.

[Artwo]

Firedog,
Thanks for the letter, it speaks volumes about the true sense of what being an American is really about. One thang I would like to add is that I been hearing lately that people in this country have been abusing others based on their own judjement of nationality. This is NOT what being and American is all about. Many people of differnt nationality have fled thier country to leave the teriney they faced behind them, to come to a country were people are truely free. We as Americans should welcome them and show them that they can live in freedom not pre-judge them based on their nationality. There is absolutely no room in the American way of life for racism of any form. We all need to band together and stand as one to send a clear picture to the rest of the world that we the American people can not be divided under even the harshest circumstances.

Stand tall and be free,
JK

[hoochie]

Firedog, YOU DA MAN! You putinto words what most of us can only think but not express. Thank you.

Read the post from Sledder below to see what our freinds in Canada are thinking about us at the moment. It is heartening to see that letter!

[ 09-13-2001: Message edited by: hoochie ]

[Johnny Mac]

I'm sure the sentiments still ring true about that canadian letter, but it was written in 1973.

[Kenia]

Firedog

Well said dude! Heres a quote from senator Mcain of arizona:" God may have mercy on you, but we will not."

Kenia

[parker]

God Bless America!

[AuntyM]

Just received this via email but don't know where it came from/credit to?

Firedog, your awesome!

[drbfish]

Published Wednesday, September 12, 2001 by Leonard Pitts Jr. 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 *******.

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.

[Johnny Mac]

**** straight.

Symbolic of our spirit...

[FM2]

[Firedog]

Guys thanks. I cant take credit for this it was forwarded to me. Johnny that is a great picture, we recieved that here today at the station. I came in this morning and mounted two flags on the engine and put black bands on the numbers of the rig to honor my brothers and sisters from New york.

[Johnny Mac]

yeah firedog. look familiar to anything you have seen before by chance?......



Me too [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[Firedog]

Johnny, that is the first thing I thought of when I saw them raise that flag yesterday. Can't tell
you how proud I am today to be driving the Engine with the two flags blowing in the wind on
each side. I sit higher in my seat as we roll down the road proud to be an American and even
more proud to be a Firefighter. We will persevere.

[hoochie]

Webster's definitions:

terror: overwhelmingly intense fear

terrorize: to fill with great fear

terrify: to control and dominate by intimidation or violence

terrorism: the political use of terrorism or violence

Winston Churchill said: The only thing we have to fear is fear itself!

Will we, as a Nation, allow terrorists to control or intimidate us with fear?
I think not.

My family and I will be flying to Newark, New Jersey in two weeks. I will not be intimidated, nor will I be controlled by this terroristic approach. I have complete faith that our leaders will do the right thing and make the perpetrators of these acts of Terrorism pay a very high price for their actions.

[Joe Schwab]

Keep this thread on top. it's too good to let it get buried. [img]images/icons/mad.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/mad.gif[/img]

[Johnny Mac]

Hell yeah firedog (and hook too).