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Weirddave
As a nation, we in the U.S. often look with puzzlement
at the Middle East. From our POV, we see two groups of people, in the Arabs
and the Jews, who have more in common than they have differences. From an
historic perspective, Islam is an evolution of Judaism, VIA Christianity.
We, from our melting pot perspective, have a great deal of difficulty understand
exactly why these people are at each others throats. Our polyglot culture
is almost unique in the world, and more special than we realize. I don't
think that we fully grasp how much difficulty these people have understanding
us. They see a nation not of one people, "Americans", but of many different
peoples. In their experience, one or two sharp blows will cause us to shatter
along racial and ethnic lines. It isn't going to happen. How do I know this?
I know it because I live here and am an American to the core of my soul.
Many times today it was proven by the actions of common, everyday, run of
the mill Americans. I know this because:
The pilot of United Airlines Flight 93 realized what the
hijackers were aiming to do and flew his plane straight into the fertile
soil of southern Pennsylvania rather than allowing them to do it.
Hundreds of firemen and rescue workers eagerly ran back
into the second World Trade Tower after the first one had collapsed. Their
goal? To save a life, one life, any life. No thought was given to what race,
creed or color the victims were. Most of these folks paid for this desire
with their lives when the second tower collapsed.
The Red Cross issued a call for blood. The resulting tide
of Americans responding swamped every donation facility. I myself waited
7 hours to donate. I have type O blood, and I didn't feel like I had any
choice. While there, I spent some times manning the phones to spare the exhausted
Red Cross staff. Any number of people came up to me wanting to take calls
as well, but there was only one phone. This one small, 5 table donation center
took 200 pints of blood, and I was receiving calls from people who had previously
come in and gotten numbers in the 3 and 4 hundreds wanting to know if it
was their turn to give yet.
The McDonalds restaurant across the street sent bags of
fries and burgers for the donors. A guy from Dominos showed up and simply
asked "How many pizzas do you folks need?"
Doctors in NYC reported treating any number of firemen
for wounds and broken limbs. Almost to a man they hassled the docs to hurry
up so they could get back to the rescue efforts.
The list goes on. And on. And on. And THAT, my friends
and fellow Americans, is why we will never be beaten. It's not because of
our political leadership, It's not because of our wealth, it's not because
of our guns, planes, ships and nuclear bombs, although these are considerable.
It's because of each and every one of us. WE ARE AMERICA. WE
are a shining beacon of hope, freedom, justice and love that the blazes across
the world. We must bury our dead and mourn our losses today. We will never
drop the torch passed into our hands from our forefathers. In the paraphrased
words of Admiral Yammamoto from 1941 " You have awakened a sleeping giant
and filled him with a terrible resolve".
God bless America in this, our darkest hour.
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