email711.xml
Title
email711.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
email
Date Entered
2002-09-10
September 11 Email: Body
Dear ones,
Almost anything one can say about the terrorism last Tuesday is not
adequate. Seeing the plane crashing through one of the World Trade Towers,
seeing the buildings fall and the slow disappearing of the rubble
beneath--these are events and sights none of will forget. It's like a bad
science fiction movie.
As someone older than you, as someone of a previous generation, as someone
who loves you, as a father and friend, I feel the need to communicate my
thoughts about our lives right now. I know you didn't ask, and it's not
necessary to respond. I was a wee babe when Pearl Harbor was bombed, a
child when the atom bomb was dropped twice on Japan, but I lived through
the Cold War days of the Fifties when we feared nuclear war, and I lived
through the terrible days of the Sixties and Seventies when a series of
assassinations--John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther
King, Jr., John Lennon--and our well-intentioned misadventure in Vietnam
occurred with the loss of forty thousand American lives and who knows how
many from other countries, both sides.
Here's something I "professed" to my two freshman classes this past week,
many of whom were living away from home and family for the first time:
On a day like this, when our feelings have been so wrenched, when sadness,
fear, and anger take turns in our hearts, it is good to remember that
terrorism is not normal, that such evil is not normal, that such acts are
cowardly. It is not courageous to commit suicide. Especially when you
kill innocent strangers-and when you don't even stick around to live with
the consequences of your act. Courage is in those firemen who go into a
burning skyscraper to try to save the trapped people. Courage consists of
sticking something good out, of staying in it for the long haul, whether it
be getting up and going to work every day to contribute your part to the
world and to support your family, whether it be staying in a relationship
with someone you love and respect through good times and bad, whether it be
living with hope and ideals even when such matters are challenged. On days
like this, it is good to remember that our civilization, with all its
shortcomings and all its marvels, exists on the basis of an almost
unimaginable amount of human cooperation and good will. The clothes we
wear, the food we eat, the buildings we inhabit, the cars we drive, the
roads we drive on, the schools we go to-all these things daily depend upon
human courage and cooperation of an almost unimagainable scale.
Almost anything one can say about the terrorism last Tuesday is not
adequate. Seeing the plane crashing through one of the World Trade Towers,
seeing the buildings fall and the slow disappearing of the rubble
beneath--these are events and sights none of will forget. It's like a bad
science fiction movie.
As someone older than you, as someone of a previous generation, as someone
who loves you, as a father and friend, I feel the need to communicate my
thoughts about our lives right now. I know you didn't ask, and it's not
necessary to respond. I was a wee babe when Pearl Harbor was bombed, a
child when the atom bomb was dropped twice on Japan, but I lived through
the Cold War days of the Fifties when we feared nuclear war, and I lived
through the terrible days of the Sixties and Seventies when a series of
assassinations--John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, Malcolm X, Martin Luther
King, Jr., John Lennon--and our well-intentioned misadventure in Vietnam
occurred with the loss of forty thousand American lives and who knows how
many from other countries, both sides.
Here's something I "professed" to my two freshman classes this past week,
many of whom were living away from home and family for the first time:
On a day like this, when our feelings have been so wrenched, when sadness,
fear, and anger take turns in our hearts, it is good to remember that
terrorism is not normal, that such evil is not normal, that such acts are
cowardly. It is not courageous to commit suicide. Especially when you
kill innocent strangers-and when you don't even stick around to live with
the consequences of your act. Courage is in those firemen who go into a
burning skyscraper to try to save the trapped people. Courage consists of
sticking something good out, of staying in it for the long haul, whether it
be getting up and going to work every day to contribute your part to the
world and to support your family, whether it be staying in a relationship
with someone you love and respect through good times and bad, whether it be
living with hope and ideals even when such matters are challenged. On days
like this, it is good to remember that our civilization, with all its
shortcomings and all its marvels, exists on the basis of an almost
unimaginable amount of human cooperation and good will. The clothes we
wear, the food we eat, the buildings we inhabit, the cars we drive, the
roads we drive on, the schools we go to-all these things daily depend upon
human courage and cooperation of an almost unimagainable scale.
September 11 Email: Date
9-16-2001
September 11 Email: Subject
The time in which we live
Collection
Citation
“email711.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed November 26, 2024, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/37315.