A Time For Unity

By Christine Brisbin, editor

As a weekly paper, we don’t try to cover breaking stories. You get your news much sooner from TV, radio or the dailies. Also, our production deadlines make anything we could print old news. That is why, last week, we didn’t refer to the World Trade Center and Pentagon tragedies; our paper was already to the printer when these events occurred.

We all know what happened. We watched it over and over on our television screens; disbelieving even as we saw it for the fifth or the twentieth or hundredth time. Wishing it weren’t so. Knowing it was.

Many of the Senior Sampler’s readers are of the generation of Pearl Harbor, D-Day, Hiroshima; you’ve known shock and horror and tragedy. But in may ways this was different. These were not military targets; the world is not at war, not a conventional war, anyway; the enemy is not a nation or an alliance but groups of killers who use their “religion” as an excuse to become degraded to the basest of human actions.

But as has happened in the past, our enemies have again misjudged the United States. They confuse our freedoms and our tolerance of other people and their beliefs as weakness. Instead, it is our strength. Our freedom and our tolerance allow us to come together as a people, regardless of our differences, whether they be religious beliefs, race, or political party. When attacked we are one nation. We mourn as one for the lost, whether they be a white fireman, a black policeman, or an Asian banker. The Muslim mother on an airplane is mourned with the Catholic secretary at the Pentagon. As a nation of immigrants, we keep our pride in our heritage while blending into the American landscape and becoming, in the end, Americans.

We do not hesitate to sacrifice, if it becomes necessary, for other Americans or other peoples of the world. The history of America is one of generosity. In times of tragedy, be it earthquake, flood, war, disease or poverty, the United States is there giving of its time, wealth and goods.
I don’t know what the future holds; but, I know that those responsible for this abomination will never have another good night’s sleep. They will never be safe. They have made prisoners of themselves, bound by the bands of evil, terror, intolerance, and fear.

Whatever it was they hoped to accomplish by these acts, they have failed. We will mourn our losses, say our prayers, fly our flags and pick up the pieces and go on. In time and in our own way justice will be done. But more importantly, this country will continue. We may temporarily pause to mourn but we will grow only stronger, only more united as a people, more loving of each other. Because that is what Americans do, that is what America is all about. God Bless America!