I found this on the Internet at
http://www.bigdandbubba.com, a website for a morning radio show. Click on Poems and Stuff on the page if you want to see this and more 9/11 stuff.
An open letter to 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 cannot 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 cornered badgers. 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. 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.
). Honestly, it felt more like I was watching a movie than anything - it felt like it couldnt be real, like it was happening in another world...
