Thoughts & Words From The Horror

AN OPEN LETTER TO TERRORISTS

by jwillis@bellatlantic.net

(Jim Willis & Nicole Valentin-Willis/Tiergarten Sanctuary Trust)

I don't know your name, or names - we may never know who you are - so I can't address you personally. Today, you killed several thousands of our friends...perhaps not people who we knew personally, but people like us.People who worked hard to make a living, who loved someone, who were loved by someone, who worried about making a better life for their children and grandchildren, who believed in God and the American Dream, who criticized this country for its insufficiencies and cared enough to try and change things and ensure a better future, not just for us, but for the world. People who leave behind scores of loved ones, friends, pets, neighbors, coworkers, and members of their faiths. Perhaps even people who derived from your own country and who sought refuge here. Your act was a slaughter of the innocents. You are like an insidious cancer that strikes without warning, ravages bodies, tears families apart, and in the end can never destroy the soul. You are the ultimate coward. You may topple our buildings, collapse our communication systems, disrupt our government, crash our markets, and leave behind the carnage of bodies, but you will never destroy the soul of America. We made this country from the bits and pieces of the rest of the world; we took the best, the worst of every culture and nationality, race and creed, and made an alloy that may be dented, but not even a trial by fire can melt. I don't know what god you believe in, or what hateful rhetoric you espouse, or what your misguided political beliefs might be that allows you to do what you did today without a fear of eternal damnation. I only know that you may win a battle or two, but you will never win this war. We have the entire history of the world on our side, and no dictator, despot, or madman has survived as long as America has thrived and prospered. If you accomplished anything at all today, it was to give America a wake-up call, and we will now rise up stronger than before. You are defeated before you've ven begun, there in your private hell and later in your eternal one. Someday your people may even need our help, and because we are America, we would respond.

May God bless the friends we lost, their families, friends, neighbors and coworkers. We will help them rebuild from the ashes. May God continue to bless America, help her to protect us all, and may she continue to shine as a beacon of democracy and hope to the rest of the world.

Copyright Jim Willis 2001

In deepest sympathy to those who have lost a loved one.

Permission to share.

Dear Osama Bin Laden:

Congratulations. You've done what our best diplomacy efforts have not been able to do. You've united the world. You've allowed the world to put aside its differences and instead made every terrorist group, and anyone helping these groups, enemy number one.

You struck us, you have wounded our country, but all that did was strengthen our resolve for freedom. It united a country and a world to stand up to anyone who would challenge that freedom. Instead of bringing out our worst, it brought out our best. Thousands giving blood, helping with the recovery, and standing up to you.

You launched an act of war. A war not against a country, but against any group that uses terrorism as a mechanism for policy, who attacks thousands of civilians, and who threatens democracy, freedom, and the opportunity for people to govern themselves. Be assured we will respond. We will be patient, prudent, and relentless in our pursuit. We will not strike out at citizens as you have done. We will target the persons who commit these acts of terrors.

You may think you won yesterday, but you are so sadly mistaken. You can strike a people, but the idea of democracy is bigger than New York City and the Pentagon. It is bigger than a country or a President. Democracy is tougher than terrorism. If you want to see the best of democracy than watch the people of New York. Watch the people of Washington DC. Watch America. Watch the world come together as it never has before. All for one reason...to defeat you and every other terrorist who threatens that freedom.

The only one who should afraid, Mr. Bin Laden, is you.

The horrific violence that was inflicted upon our great nation yesterday has taught me some not so good things...I have learned of the pure evil that lives in the hearts of so many (whom I seriously doubt have hearts), of how fragile life really is, of how we as a nation as a people have lost sight of what is most important in life and how we were reminded in such a cruel way yesterday. But I have also learned far more positive things..the resiliency of Americans, the love and dedication that still lies within the hearts of so many..of those who put aside family obligations and fear in order to put in countless hours and endanger their own lives to save those of others..to offer support for others...of those who put aside their normal daily routines to go and wait hours in line to give blood, to man emergency phone lines, to purchase and send supplies to those who needed them. I have learned to cherish that which is precious to me and to let go of petty differences, to let go of past things that I have no power to change and to spend each precious moment living my life to the fullest..to stop letting past traumatic experiences and the bitterness etc that results from such prevent me from enjoying each precious day that I'm granted on this earth...and that I could be gone tomorrow. In the past and even recently, I have behaved like a spoiled brat because I couldn't get my way and set out to hurt those who had 'wronged' me. As I sat and watched on television the utter chaos and destruction..the loss of life that such petty and selfish behavior can lead to..the hatred that can grow in a heart and soul if allowed and the horrific results it can have, I was forced to reexamine my priorities...to stop and ask myself if I wanted to go through life inflicting pain and misery on those who would not behave in the way that I wished..that would not allow me to sit and wallow in self pity and drag others down with me...if I wanted to continue to harbor the anger, hurt and yes, even hatred that live in my heart and soul because of past abuses and injustices inflicted upon me, and let it prevent me from opening my heart to fellow human beings and treating them with love..and letting them love me...and the answer is a huge resounding NO. The most important lesson I learned through all of this is that if a nation can pull together and bounce back from something to horrible..if people can reach into their hearts and find love and courage to help total strangers in this time of terrific need, then I (and every one of us) can bounce back from whatever has happened to us in the past, put it aside, let it go and let God guide us and give us strength to live in the now..to REALLY live..to make every effort possible to refrain from using others for my own gain or to fulfill my needs..to pay more attention to the needs of others...to spend every precious moment that He allows us here on earth to do all that we can to make this world a better place to live in...even if it is something as simple as paying a visit to a neighbor who is unable to leave their house due to illness or disability..or even to simply say "I love you". Today, I set aside time away from the computer and television or any other self absorbed activity to spend time showing loved ones how much I really do care..how much I love them..through words and through actions. How about the rest of you? In closing I just want to say that even though I've met few of you in person and havent' even spoken on the phone to any but a small handfull of you, I love you..as fellow human beings who have one thing or another in common..and in spite of differences in us all.

God bless and keep you all from harm

Vicky

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Prayer For Peace

Our Father, up in heaven,

Hear this fervent prayer--

May the people of All Nations,

Be United in Thy Care,

For earth's peace and man's salvation

Can come only by Thy grace

And not through bombs and missiles

And our quest for outer space.

For until all men recognize

That "The Battle Is The Lord's"

And peace on earth cannot be won

With strategy and swords,

We will go on vainly fighting,

As we have in ages past,

Finding only empty victories

And a peace that cannot last.

But we've grown so rich and mighty

And so arrogantly strong,

We no longer ask in humbleness -

"God, show us where we're wrong".

We have come to trust completely

In the power of man-made things,

Unmindful of God's mighty power

And that He is "King Of Kings".

We have turned our eyes away from Him

To go our selfish way,

And money, power and pleasure

Are the gods we serve today.

And the good green earth God gave us

To peacefully enjoy,

Through greed and fear and hatred

We are seeking to destroy.

Oh, Father, up in heaven,

Stir and wake our sleeping souls,

Renew our faith and lift us up

And give us higher goals,

And grant us heavenly guidance

As war threatens us again.

For, more than Guided Missiles,

All the world needs Guided Men.

-Helen Steiner Rice-

To those who think they hurt us today....you didn't.

To those who think you can make us yield...you can't.

To those who think we will run scared....we won't.

To those who think we won't find you....we will.

Lord, Help Our Country!

Evil is rampant, the devil has had his day.

All of God's children get on your knees and pray.

Pray for our leaders as decisions they make,

pray for wise planning for much is a stake.

Pray for the victims, those innocent lives.

Give solace to the families, hear their cries.

We must stand together, arm in arm,

and pray for protection from evil's harm.

We must not give up, we must not give in.

Only through unity, with God's help, can we win.

We must come together in strength and in prayer.

We must show each other that we really care.

This country is special, this country is strong.

We can work together to right this wrong.

This is the land of the free and the brave,

a beautiful concept we must work hard to save.

Oh, Heavenly Father, in your wisdom and grace.

Help each one of us to take our place

and standing together, with help from above,

we'll win over evil with brotherly love!

Alexandra Webb

Sept. 11, 2001

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 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 pain in the ass then (especially in

south Florida), but you're only the newest pain in the ass, 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.

One

I am VERY happy to say that almost a year later, I have found out who authored this moving poem. The author's proud Mother wrote to me and gave me the information. Thank you Carolyn, and warm hugs to your wonderful daughter, Cheryl.

This poem was written by Dr. Cheryl Sawyer immediately following the 9/11 disaster. She lives in Dickinson, TX and can be reached at cbsawyer@msn.com.

The poem is published in "Chicken Soup for the Soul of America."

As the soot and dirt and ash rained down,

We became one color.

As we carried each other down the stairs of the

burning building,

We became one class.

As we lit candles of waiting and hope,

We became one generation.

As the firefighters and police officers fought their

way into the inferno,

We became one gender.

As we fell to our knees in prayer for strength,

We became one faith.

As we whispered or shouted words of encouragement,

We spoke one language.

As we gave our blood in lines a mile long,

We became one body.

As we mourned together the great loss,

We became one family.

As we cried tears of grief and loss,

We became one soul.

As we retell with pride of the sacrifice of heros,

We become one people.

We are

One color

One class

One generation

One gender

One faith

One language

One body

One family

One soul

One people

We are The Power of One.

We are United.

We are America.

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