Posted on 09/12/2001 5:56:55 AM PDT by where's_the_Outrage?
Some have already begun to speak of rage and revenge, but it is yet too soon for that. For now, we must take a moment or two to grieve. There is time in the days ahead for retaliation, retribution, justice, carefully planned and executed. But this day is for mourning.
For all the mothers and fathers who took the daily trip into New York's financial district for another workday of conferences and faxes and e-mails but who will never come home again to supervise homework or bake a birthday cake.
For all the stockbrokers and financial analysts who thought the worst thing that could happen was the dot-com bust, until they found themselves trapped in a raging inferno with no way out but to jump to a certain death.
For all the young secretaries and administrative assistants and mail clerks who eagerly planned their evening around the latest hot spot made popular by "Sex and the City," but whose blackened remains will now be dug out of the rubble.
For all the busy executives and young professionals who boarded a routine flight from Boston to Los Angeles to arrive in time for a sales meeting or a pep talk about hanging tough in a rocky economy, but who found they had stepped into a nightmare Tom Clancy could not have dreamed up.
For all the tourists who waited until summer was nearly over to make a trip into New York City to try to finagle a 15-second appearance with Al Roker on "The Today Show," but whose relatives will now get a dreaded telephone call from New York disaster authorities.
For all the police officers, paramedics and firefighters who ran instinctively to the scene to aid the wounded and guide the shellshocked, but who were themselves trapped beneath the rubble of buildings collapsing all around.
For all the dedicated public servants --- some in military uniform, some in pinstripes --- who showed up for work each day at the Pentagon to keep the nation safe from distant foes, but who never had a chance to fire a shot when they were set upon by a cowardly enemy who did not distinguish civilians from soldiers.
If the natural reaction to distant calamity is to count the reasons why that could never happen to you --- the United States is not Israel or the Congo or Kosovo --- the terrorist attack on New York and Washington granted us no such luxury. Too many of us had family and friends in those buildings or on those planes. And too many of the rest of us have been in the World Trade Center, in the Pentagon, on those air routes. Too many of us could easily be among the dead.
There can be no turning away this time, no pretending that we are not also vulnerable. Perhaps that's just as well.
We can turn our new sense of insecurity to good purpose. Now that we know that evil can find us anywhere --- that there is no sense hiding in gated communities or private-security enclaves --- we can renew the civic culture. We can recover a sense of public purpose too often lost to pettiness, selfishness and narrow-mindedness. We can restore a sense of civic virtue dedicated to a common good.
But there is time for all of that tomorrow. Today, we grieve for everything we have lost, including our innocence.
Cynthia Tucker is editorial page editor for The Atlanta Constitution. Her column appears Wednesday and Sunday in the Constitution.
cynthia@ajc.com
I agree with Newt last night (I had tried to tell my wife the same thing 2 hours before).
The congress needs to declare WAR, and the military should be mobilized to strike.
Uh, Cynthia? Have you ever seen 'Dr. Strangelove'? Have you ever seen the clip of Slim Pickens riding the warhead? Have I ever told you that's what I'd like you to do at this very moment?
Cynthia, people live in gated communities because they are (justifiably) afraid of becoming victims of crime (I don't, but I understand why people do).
You only go around once in having a family and raising kids, and your first duty is to do everything you can within reason to make them SAFE. If you can afford to be in a gated community in today's crime-infested America, you do it.
There is no justice in war. There is only victory and defeat. We & our leaders need to stop talking about justice, and instead start talking about a plan for total victory.
I prefer poetic justice. When the next attack occurs (unfortunately I expect more) I hope she's there so she can see how much her "time to morn" protected.
The difference between a mechancal engineer (ME) and civil engineer (CE) is that ME's build weapons, CE's build targets. Now is not the time to live in a gated community, it's just a nice target entrapping the residents.
I'm not sure the US understands total victory. It means making bloody smears of the enemy, and it means the costs of sons and daughters in the military.
Are we ready for the draft? Are we ready to see the carnage the Military can cause? Most TV has been pretty tame on not showing the bodies, body parts, and burns from the attack. But I bet the Clinton News Network will show in graphic detail what we do to the enemy. Can the US Stomache that?
You want to ride Cynthia Tucker?
Ewwwwwww!
While bombers should be part on it, ground troops are required. A bomber never took an inch of ground, and taking ground is what wins wars.
So when the bombers go, soldiers and marines need to be right behind them. Kosovo showed the futility of depending just on Air Power.
BUMP
I was not angry since I came to France
Until this instant.
Take a trumpet, herald;
Ride thou unto the horsemen on yonder hill;
If they will fight with us, bid them come down
Or void the field;
They do offend our sight.
If they'll do neither, we will come to them
And make them skirr away as swift as stones
Enforced from the old Assyrian slings;
Besides, we'll cut the throats of those we have,
And not a man of them shall we take
That shall taste our mercy.
Go and tell them so.
I just did.
This is not a criminal problem for the Justice department to handle. This is an act of WAR. Outside of American borders we need to use the MILITARY not the FBI.
Dave
Sparks, Nevada
Here is the address
cynthia@ajc.com
Until America's government sees this for the religious/ cultural war that it is, the flabby actions of "hunting down" the hero terrorist will do NOTHING. However, the United States of America has ceased to be a sovereign nation. It has become an ineffectual "consensus builder" of various special, liberal interests that will never rise to the level of a nation again.
Therefore, the actions you see in the ensuing weeks will do nothing to stop, slow down or impede the Jihad; we will merely take away a few more liberties & privileges of the sheeple at home.
Good Night America, your torch burned brightly if but briefly.
I email her frequently, and have received 1 reply so far, when I was wrong.
I've been posting her BS (and infrequent reality checks) for months. And usually send her the Freeper site for review. Never received a reply on it yet.
I understand she gets a lot of racist email, let's ensure there's no threats, death wishes, or racist remarks.
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