Message-ID: <7649773.1075841425033.JavaMail.evans@thyme> Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 11:37:15 -0700 (PDT) From: phillip.platter@enron.com To: platter.oregon@verizon.net Subject: FW: I couldn't have said it better Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-From: Platter, Phillip X-To: 'platter.oregon@verizon.net' X-cc: X-bcc: X-Folder: \ExMerge - Platter, Phillip\Sent Items X-Origin: PLATTER-P X-FileName: phillip platter 6-26-02.PST -----Original Message----- From: Scott Freeman [mailto:scottyfreeman@hotmail.com] Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2001 2:08 PM To: BoCraw@mail.utexas.edu; Brian.Freeman@delta.com; brianweisenberger@yahoo.com; bridgetc79@hotmail.com; dbutler@mail.utexas.edu; John.Caltagirone@guarantygroup.com; ccasey@mail.utexas.edu; christyallen79@hotmail.com; colefeinberg@yahoo.com; gfreeman@cscinfo.com; dana_feldman@hotmail.com; d.cave@mail.utexas.edu; kdunn12@hotmail.com; ryanf@us.ibm.com; sfitzpatrick77@hotmail.com; lefnparis@hotmail.com; greer.ut@mail.utexas.edu; jeffhurst@hotmail.com; jfmason@mail.utexas.edu; jason_leiker@hotmail.com; jayhills44@yahoo.com; jhalvatzis@houston.rr.com; JFreeman@ECM.RJF.com; Kan9jb@aol.com; mmatza@hotmail.com; mels_davis@yahoo.com; mikeconner12@hotmail.com; anm_mna@hotmail.com; Platter, Phillip; bpolarek@mail.utexas.edu; mpond23@hotmail.com; rlang@mail.utexas.edu; s.schar@mail.utexas.edu; slsandss@yahoo.com; wbauer@mail.utexas.edu; McCarroll, Zachary; Zallen9@aol.com Subject: I couldn't have said it better > > I thought this was appropriate. > > >We'll go forward from this moment by Leonard Pitts Jr. of the Miami Herald > >"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." > > > > > > _____ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com