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We'll go forward from this moment

Discussion in 'BBS Hangout' started by Clutch, Sep 12, 2001.

  1. Clutch

    Clutch Administrator
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    If it has been posted already I apologize, but at this time when fear and terror seem to be common in just about every additional news piece that comes down the pipe, I thought this article was tremendously uplifting and worth reading.

    <a href="http://www.miami.com/herald/content/features/columnists/pitts/digdocs/000565.htm">Miami Herald: We'll go forward from this moment</a>


    By: Leonard Pitts Jr.
    <b><font face="arial" size="4">We'll go forward from this moment</font></b>

    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 b*stard.

    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.

    <b>IN PAIN </b>

    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.

    <b>THE STEEL IN US</b>

    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.
     
  2. RocksMillenium

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    Thanks for the article Clutch, it is great. They have just awaken a sleeping giant. They don't have a clue what they are in for, and they don't have a clue what the United States is capable of. Usama Bin Laden's days on this planet are numbered, and so his freaks. And every other terrorist group that glances in the United States direction just signed their death certificate. The United States is going to do more then send a message. They're not going to pull any cowardly acts, they're just going to go straight up to your face and wipe you from existence.
     
    #2 RocksMillenium, Sep 12, 2001
    Last edited: Sep 12, 2001
  3. Sonny

    Sonny Member

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    Thanks for the article Clutch.

    I dont know if you guys saw this article from MSNBC.com, just another reason for the Taliban to get scared.



    THE SCALE of the attacks and the loss of life — mostly in New York City’s World Trade Center, but also near Pittsburgh and Washington — ensured that “no option has been taken off the table,” a senior U.S. official told MSNBC.com. Asked if that included nuclear weapons, one senior official said: “I said no option is out of the question. That’s precisely what I mean.”

    http://www.msnbc.com/news/627086.asp

    NUKE 'EM !!! :mad:
     
  4. outlaw

    outlaw Member

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    There's gonna be trouble in a far off nation
    Time to get in attack formation
    Bin Laden's more deadly than Sadaam
    That's why we gotta drop da bomb.

    Yvan Eht Nioj.
     
  5. Jeff

    Jeff Clutch Crew

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    I think what is so interesting is that it hasn't just awakened the US. It has also put every nation on the planet who fears terrorism on high alert. If the country that is supposed to symoblize freedom and power is vulnerable, everyone is vulnerable.

    I heard on the radio the suggestion that certain intellegence groups around the world who had spent the vast majority of their time over the past 50 years spying on one another may actually join forces in an all-out investigation.

    Also, factor in the reality that other countries around the world are outraged by the fact that this was a deliberate attack on civilian life. This wasn't a bombing of a military installation or even a car bomb in a street. There were no warnings. This was a vicious, brutal attack on innocent people and that scares everyone, Americans or otherwise.

    Finally, remember the fact that the WTC had businesses and embassies in it from all across the globe - Asia, Russia, you name it.

    While we felt the brunt of this tragedy, it is as much a world event as it is an American one.
     
  6. RocksMillenium

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    Exactly Jeff. In another post I had posted that they flashed across the screen that there were 400 business from 25 different countries. Other country's economy literally plummeted. I know they're saying nuclear weapons, but I think they're just trying to scare them. No way they use nuclear weapons. But word is coming out of the Middle East that the U.S. doesn't have the stomach or heart to fight back. Oh we have the stomach, and if you don't think we have the heart that's ok, the U.S. will just rip yours out and keep it.
     
  7. DaDakota

    DaDakota Arrest all Pedophiles
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    Another Article, with a new perspective that I wish the rest of the world would look at...

    ________________________________

    Subject: America The Beautiful

    In the wake of the election fiasco and the national tragedy of today, this
    is worth reading. We still live
    in the greatest country in the world and sometimes we forget what we have
    worked so hard for. This, from a Canadian newspaper, is worth sharing.

    America: The Good Neighbor.
    Widespread but only partial news coverage was given recently to A
    remarkable editorial broadcast from Toronto by Gordon Sinclair, a
    Canadian television commentator. What follows is the full text of his
    trenchant
    remarks as printed in the Congressional Record:
    "This Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the Americans as the
    most generous and possibly the least appreciated people on all the earth.
    Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and Italy were lifted out
    of the debris of war by the Americans who poured in
    billions of dollars and forgave other billions in debts. None of these
    countries is today paying even the interest on its remaining debts to the
    United States.
    When France was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it was the Americans who
    propped it up, and their reward was to be insulted and swindled on the
    streets of Paris. I was there. I saw it.
    When earthquakes hit distant cities, it is the United States that hurries
    in to help. This spring, 59 American communities were
    flattened by tornadoes. Nobody helped.
    The Marshall Plan and the Truman Policy pumped billions of dollars into
    discouraged countries. Now newspapers in those countries are writing
    about the decadent, warmongering Americans.
    I'd like to see just one of those countries that is gloating over the
    erosion of the United States dollar build its own airplane.
    Does any other country in the world have a plane to equal the Boeing
    Jumbo Jet, the Lockheed Tri-Star, or the Douglas DC10?
    If so, why don't they fly them? Why do all the International lines except
    Russia fly American Planes?
    Why does no other land on earth even consider putting a man or woman on
    the moon?
    You talk about Japanese technocracy, and you get radios.
    You talk about German technocracy, and you get automobiles.
    You talk about American technocracy, and you find men on the moon - not
    once, but several times - and safely home again.
    You talk about scandals, and the Americans put theirs right in the store
    window for everybody to look at.
    Even their draft-dodgers are not pursued and hounded. They are here on
    our streets, and most of them, unless they are breaking Canadian laws, are
    getting American dollars from ma and pa at home to spend here.
    When the railways of France, Germany and India were breaking
    Down through age, it was the Americans who rebuilt them. When the
    Pennsylvania Railroad and the New York Central went broke, nobody loaned
    them an old caboose. Both are still broke.
    I can name you 5000 times when the Americans raced to the help of other
    people in trouble. Can you name me even one time when someone else raced
    to the Americans in trouble? I don't think there was outside help even
    during the San Francisco earthquake.
    Our neighbors have faced it alone, and I'm one Canadian who is damned
    tired of hearing them get kicked around. They will come out of this thing
    with their flag high. And when they do, they are entitled to thumb their
    nose
    at the lands that are gloating over their present troubles. I hope Canada
    is

    not one of those."

    Stand proud, America!

    __________________________


    At least someone has recognized our efforts.

    DaDakota
     
  8. moestavern19

    moestavern19 Member

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    Great Article , If that doesn't stir you nothing will . Blacks and Whites come together , Republicans and Democrats , Protestants and Catholics . Whoever did this has just UNITED the USA again , and if we all stand together regardless of age , race , or creed NOTHING will stop us . America will have her justice .
     
  9. mrpaige

    mrpaige Member

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    Of course, Sinclair recognized our efforts in 1973, so it's hardly a "new" perspective. Gordon Sinclair has been dead since 1984.
     
  10. DaDakota

    DaDakota Arrest all Pedophiles
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    Paige,

    Maybe not totally new, but still timely.

    DaDakota
     
  11. RocksMillenium

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    YEAH! Great article DaDa. At least someone is giving the U.S. credit instead of dishing out blame. If the U.S. disappeared tomorrow the majority of the countries would disappear or crumble. In fact, if it wasn't for the U.S., the majority of this world would be Germany. Hey Osama bin Laden, come out and be a man so that the U.S. can blow you off the planet. It's only a matter of time.
     
  12. ROCKSS

    ROCKSS Member

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    Thanks Clutch, that was a very nice article
     
  13. Rockets2K

    Rockets2K Clutch Crew

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    That article says it all!
    What they have failed to realize about us is that the last time someone f*cked with us this hard,..well I'll just say two words......Nagasaki Hiroshima


    nuff said
     
  14. R0ckets03

    R0ckets03 Member

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    And I dont think the coalition should just be satisfied with getting rid of Ladens group. There are many more terrorists groups that need to be rid of. The ones fighting in Kashmir, African and various other places, I think its time to get rid of all these mother ****ers!
     
  15. ZRB

    ZRB Member

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    Could it be that this horrific tragedy could be the catalyst that leads to "world peace"? Look at the way all the countries are coming together. Nations that were enemies a few years ago, and casual allies a few days ago, are now close friends, fighting in the same battle. Even some of the troubled Middle Eastern Countries have pledged their support to America. Almost all of the major nations are rallying around America in this time of crisis. I can only hope that somehow, someway, this tragedy will serve a purpose. That it will be what makes this world a more peaceful and prosperous planet.
     
  16. R0ckets03

    R0ckets03 Member

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    China supporting US is extremely crucial in this coalition. Most people probably do not realize how important that is.

    Anyways my dream would be to see India and Pakistan become friends. If those two countries become friends it could do wonders for world peace.
     

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