Twenty-six days.
Perhaps it's too soon... perhaps it's too late in some people's opinion.
But it is about time.
I am not someone who hungers for blood... I don't even watch many action movies because I cringe whenever someone gets shot. I like to think that I am a reasonable and unbiased person. But the events that took place on September 11th are too much even for me. Blood for blood, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. This one time I will demand my pound of flesh... for myself, for my country, and for my peace of mind.
I refuse, absolutely refuse to walk about in my hometown with my eyes to
the sky, searching for an enemy missile cloaked in the guise of a domestic
passenger plane. I refuse to stop my frequent trips to New York City because
some zealous terrorists with illusions of religious righteousness have decided
that I stand for everything wrong in the world. I will not be frightened to
fly my own skies, or go Christmas shopping, or visit friends. I will not be
a prisoner of war in my own country because of some indignant, albeit charismatic,
man who has all the wrong ideas about Islam.
I have never been one to make these demands. I am not usually comfortable
with the thought of my freedom-fighting country dropping bombs on anyone.
But after losing over 5000 innocents to this man and the country that harbors
him... I am no longer willing to turn the other cheek.
There will be lives lost on both sides and I accept that, satisfied that the
innocents are not our targets. Even if innocent lives were the terrorists'
targets, we will not stoop to that level. We've dropped food and medicine
to the Afghani refugees and I'd like to think that we could also be releasing
the average Afghani from the oppression of the Taliban government.
We are not the evil ones in this fight. Whether you worship God the Father,
Jesus, Allah, Buddha... whether you attend church, a temple, or a mosque...
I think all will agree that although this fight is not ideal, it is necessary.
The only method of making ourselves and our outrage known to the terrorists
is in their language... and they have told us that their only language is
that of violence.
We have struck back. We will fight. We will prevail.
And tomorrow I will go to work feeling that even though our defenses were breached and we lost thousands of lives on September 11th, we are now at last showing those responsible that we Americans will not collapse like those towers. All they have done is made us stronger.