In these times of such devastation with loss of life
of thousands of our fellow-Americans, we share the
loss together, and we pray that God will comfort
the broken-hearted in this tragic loss, and restore to
health those who were injured. 
 
We are reminded of the great heritage 
we have as Americans.
Nothing says it any better than two of the great 
songs listed below.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

O beautiful for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties - Above the fruited plain!
America!  America!  God  shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood, 
From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for heroes proved In liberating strife,
Who more than self, their country loved, 
And mercy more than life!
America!  America! May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness And every gain divine!

O beautiful for patriot dream That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam, Undimmed by human tears!
America!  America!  God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!



My country, 'tis of thee, 
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing:  
Land where my fathers died, 
Land of the pilgrim's pride, 
From every mountain side...
Let freedom ring!

My native country, thee, 
Land of the noble free,
Thy name I love:  I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills:  
My heart with rapture thrills
Like that above.

Let music swell the breeze, 
And ring from all the trees,
Sweet freedom's song:  
Let mortal tongues awake;
Let all that breathe partake; 
 Let rocks their silence break,
The sound prolong.

Our fathers' God,  to Thee, 
Author of liberty,
To Thee we sing:  
Long may our land be bright
With freedom's holy  light, 
Protect us by Thy might,
Great God, our King!




An open letter to a terrorist:

Well, you hit the World Trade Center, but you missed
America. You hit the Pentagon, but you missed America. 
You used helpless American bodies, to take out other American bodies,
but like a poor marksman, you STILL missed America.

Why? Because of something you guys will never understand.
America isn't about a building or two, not about financial
centers, not about military centers, America isn't about a place,
America isn't even about a bunch of bodies.
 America is about an IDEA.
An idea, that you can go someplace where you can earn as much
as you can figure out how to, live for the most part, like you envisioned living,
and pursue  Happiness.
(No guarantees that you'll reach it, but you can sure try!)



Go ahead and whine your terrorist whine, and chant
your terrorist litany: "If you can not see my point, then feel my pain."

This concept is alien to Americans.
We live in a country where we don't have to see your point.
But you're free to have one.
We don't have to listen to your speech. But you're free to say one.
Don't know where you got the strange idea that everyone has to agree with you.
 We don't agree with each other in this country, almost as a matter of pride.
We're a collection of guys that don't agree, called States.
We united our individual states to protect ourselves from tyranny in the world.
Another idea, we made up on the spot.
You CAN make it up as you go, when it's your country.

If you're free enough.



(Some points omitted here)

Sorry, but you're not the first
bully on our shores, just the most recent.

Grandpa Jones worked on the Manhattan Project.
 Told me once, that right up until they threw the switch, the physicists
were still arguing over whether the Uranium alone would fission,
or whether it would start a fissioning chain reaction that would eat everything.
But they threw the switch anyway, because we had a War to win.
Does that tell you something about American Resolve?



So who just declared War on us?
It would be nice to point to some real estate, like the good old days.
 Unfortunately, we're probably at war with random camps, in far-flung places.
Who think they're safe. Just like the Barbary Pirates did.
They were wrong. So are you.
 Better start sleeping with one eye open.

There's a spirit that tends to take over people who
come to this country, looking for opportunity, looking for liberty,
looking for freedom.
Even if they misuse it, the Marielistas that Castro emptied out of his prisons,
were overjoyed to find out how much freedom there was.
First thing they did when they hit our shores, 
was to run out and buy guns.
The ones that didn't end up dead, ended up in prisons. 
It was a big problem then (especially in south Florida). We solved
that problem. 

As for you, you're only the newest problem, not the first.

You guys seem to be incapable of understanding that
we don't live in America... America lives in US!

American Spirit is what it's called,  and killing a few thousand of us,
or a few million of us, won't change it.
Most of the time, it's a pretty happy-go-lucky kind of Spirit,
until we're crossed in a cowardly manner, then it becomes an
entirely different kind of Spirit.

Wait until you see what we do with that Spirit, this time.

Sleep tight, if you can. We're coming.

-Author unknown