ILLUSTRATION BY Mike Luckevich The Atlanta Constitution

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• ILLUSTRATION BY Mike Luckevich The
  Atlanta Constitution

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(No Transcript)
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• Text From
• We'll go forward from this moment

BY LEONARD PITTS JR. The Miami Herald
Wednesday, September 12, 2001
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Its my job to have something to say.
They pay me to provide wordsthat help make sense
of that whichtroubles the American soul.
PRESENTATION BY ED MILLER
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• But in this moment of airless shock

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• when hot tears sting disbelieving eyes,

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• the only thing I can find to say,

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• the only words that seem to fit,

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• must be addressed to the unknown author of this
  suffering.

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• You monster.

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• You beast.

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• You unspeakable bastard.

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• What lesson did you hope to teach us by your
  cowards attack on our World Trade Center,

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• our Pentagon,

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• us?

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PRESENTATION BY ED MILLER

• What was it you hoped we would learn?

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• Whatever it was, please know that you failed.

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• Did you want us to respect your cause?

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• You just damned your cause.

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• Did you want to make us fear?

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• You just steeled our resolve.

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• Did you want to tear us apart?

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• You just brought us together.

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• Let me tell you about my people.

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• We are a vast and quarrelsome family,

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• a family rent by racial, social, political and
  class division,

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• but a family nonetheless.

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We are fundamentally decent . . .

• peace-loving and compassionate.

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• We struggle to know the right thing and to do it.

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And we are, the overwhelming majority of us,
people of faith . . .

• believers in a just and loving God.

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Some people -- you, perhaps -- think that any or
all of this makes us weak.
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Youre mistaken. We are not weak.
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Indeed, we are strong in ways that cannot be
measured by arsenals.
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Yes, were in pain now. . .

• We are in mourning and we are in shock.

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Were still grappling with the unreality of the
awful thing you did.
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Both in terms of the awful scope of their
ambition . . .

• and the probable final death toll,

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your attacks are likely to go down as the worst
acts of terrorism . . .

• in the history of the United States, and,
  probably, the world.

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Youve bloodied us like we have never been
bloodied before.
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But there is a gulf of difference between making
us bloody and making us fall.
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• This is the lesson Japan was taught to its bitter
  sorrow the last time anyone hit us this hard,

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the last time anyone brought us such abrupt and
monumental pain.
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When roused, we are righteous in our outrage,
terrible in our force.
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When provoked by this level of barbarism . . .

• We will bear any suffering,

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pay any cost . . .

• go to any length,

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in the pursuit of justice.
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I tell you this without fear of contradiction. . .

• I know my people, as you, I think, do not.

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What I know reassures me. . .

• It also causes me to tremble with dread of the
  future.

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Well go forward from this moment . . .
sobered, chastened, sad.
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But determined, too.
Unimaginably determined.
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As Americans we will weep . . .

• as Americans we will mourn,

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and as Americans, we will rise in defense of all
that we cherish.
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So I ask again What was it you hoped to teach us?
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It occurs to me that maybe you just wanted us to
know the depths of your hatred.
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• If thats the case, consider the message received.

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• And take this message in exchange

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You dont know my people.
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You dont know what were capable of.
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You dont know what you just started.
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But youre about to learn.
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