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The
Spice Cabinet... Fine Cuisine with Art Infusion "To cook is to create. And to create well...is an act of integrity, and faith."
United We Stand
"Work like you don't need the money. Love like you've never been hurt. |
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Thursday, September 13, 2001 Your patronage of our affiliate partners supports this web site. We thank you!
We first learned of this article via e-mail from a dear friend. We pass it on to you in the hope that it will inspire you, that it will remind you of some very important things about these United States of America, that it will strengthen your resolve to go on about the business of getting this country back on its feet. We all have a vital role to play in that regard, no matter how insignificant it may seem at this instant.
We'll
go forward from this moment “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. IN
PAIN 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. THE
STEEL IN US 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.”
United
we stand, and we shall not fall. The purpose of human life is to give and receive love. Michele "It
seems to me that our three basic needs, for food and security and love,
are so mixed and mingled and entwined that we cannot straightly think of
one without the others. So it happens that when I write of hunger, I am
really writing about love and the hunger for it, and warmth and the love
of it and the hunger for it… and then the warmth and richness and fine
reality of hunger satisfied… and it is all one."
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