The Oppenheimer Report - 9/12/11

Yesterday was the 10^th anniversary of the terrorist attacks in NYC and Washington D.C. I remember watching the morning news shortly after the first jet hit the twin towers and thinking it was just a tragic accident. Then, it became clear that we were under attack when the second tower was hit. Sitting in our apartment on the 45^th floor, I felt the same irrational fear and anxiousness many others probably felt. How big WAS this attack going to be? Shortly after that horrible event, a friend forwarded to me an article which seemed to capture all of the anger and outrage that a lot of North Americans probably felt. I printed it verbatim because I could not have expressed my rage more eloquently. To follow is that article, credited to Leonard Pitts Jr. and out of the Miami Herald. I hope you will take a few moments now to read it:

"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 are frivolous, yes,
capable of expending tremendous emotional energy on pop
culture 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  perhaps think that all of this makes us
weak.

.../2


You are 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 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 is 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 hard, the last time
anyone brought us such abrupt and monumental pain. When
aroused, 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 readily apparent. That aspect
of our character is seldom understood by the 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." 

- Leonard Pitts Jr.

Ten years later, we just took out bin Laden, and there are probably a hundred more like him with his despicable intentions. I doubt this silent war will ever truly be over. At present, the “Arab Spring” is sweeping across the Middle East, but how will this affect the people of North America? As I leave you on this fateful anniversary, I wonder if this silent war in which we now find ourselves embroiled is simply a battle of good vs. evil or of two equally flawed ideologies. To quote Nietzche: “Convictions are more dangerous foes of truth than lies.” Amen to that.

Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c2011 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED