Xanga Friends, the following is an editorial written by Leonard Pitts of the Miami Herald.  I'm posting it here in case you have not already received it.  It sums up what many people feel right now. . .

Editorial on National Tragedy
By Leonard Pitts of the Miami Herald

It's my job to have something to say.  They pay me to provide words that help make sense of that which troubles the American soul.  But in this moment of airless shock when hot tears sting disbelieving eyes, the only thing I can find to say, the only words that seem to fit, must be addressed to the unknown author of this suffering.

You monster.  You beast.  You unspeakable bastard.

What lesson did you hope to teach us by your coward's attack on our World Trade Center, our Pentagon, us?  What was it you hoped we would learn?  Whatever it was, please know that you failed.

Did you want us to respect your cause?  You just damned your cause. 

Did you want to make us fear?  You just steeled our resolve.

Did you want to tear us apart?  You just brought us together.  

Let me tell you about my people.  We are a vast and quarrelsome family, a family rent by racial, social, political and class division, but a family nonetheless.  We're frivolous, yes, capable of expending tremendous emotional energy on pop cultural minutiae -- a singer's revealing dress, a ball team's misfortune, a cartoon mouse.  We're wealthy, too, spoiled by the ready availability of trinkets and material goods, and maybe because of that, we walk through life with a certain sense of blithe entitlement.  We are fundamentally decent, though -- peace-loving and compassionate.  We struggle to know the right thing and to do it.  And we are, the overwhelming majority of us, people of faith, believers in a just and loving God. 

Some people -- you, perhaps -- think that any or all of this makes us weak.  You're mistaken.  We are not weak.  Indeed, we are strong in ways that cannot be measured by arsenals.

IN PAIN

Yes, we're in pain now.  We are in mourning and we are in shock.  We're still grappling with the unreality of the awful thing you did, still working to make ourselves understand that this isn't a special effect from some Hollywood blockbuster, isn't the plot development from a Tom Clancy novel.  Both in terms of the awful scope of their ambition and the probable final death toll, your attacks are likely to go down as the worst acts of terrorism in the history of the United States and, probably, the history of the world.  You've bloddied us as we have never been bloodied before.  But there's a gulf of difference between making us bloody and making us fall.  This is the lesson Japan was taught to its bitter sorrow the last time anyone hit us this hard, the last time anyone brought us such abrupt and monumental pain.  When roused, we are righteous in our outrage, terrible in our force.  When provoked by this level of barbarism, we will bear any suffering, pay any cost, go to any length, in the pursuit of justice.

I tell you this without fear of contradiction.  I know my people, as you, I think, do not.  What I know reassures me.  It also causes me to tremble with dread of the future.

In the days to come, there will be recrimination and accusation, fingers pointing to determine whose failure allowed this to happen and what can be done to prevent it from happening again.  There will be heightened security, misguided talk of revoking basic freedoms.  We'll go forward from this moment sobered, chastened, sad.  But determined, too.  Unimaginably determined.

THE STEEL IN US

You see, the steel in us is not always readily apparent.  That aspect of our character is seldom understood by people who don't know us well.  On this day, the family's bickering is put on hold.

As Americans we will weep, as Americans we will mourn, and as Americans, we will rise in defense of all that we cherish.

So I ask again: What was it you hoped to teach us?  It occurs to me that maybe you just wanted us to know the depths of your hatred.  If that's the case, consider the message received.  And take this message in exchange.  You don't know my people.  You don't know what we're capable of.  You don't know what you just started.

But you're about to learn.

Where were you?

Today we witnessed one of those events that forever after you'll remember where you were and what you were doing when you heard about it.  I had gotten to the office early because I was going to have a doctor's appointment later in the day and wanted to make sure I got everything handled that needed to be handled.  I'd been there about an hour when the wife of one of the managers called because she couldn't reach her husband on his cell phone.  She asked if we had a TV in the office.  She said to turn it on . . . it didn't matter what channel.  She said that an airplane had just crashed into the World Trade Center.  Then she said as she watched the news report a second airplane crashed into the second tower.  I quickly got the TV out that we use to show training videos and turned it on.  We got a picture, but no sound so we were listening to the radio for our audio and watching the TV for the pictures. 

What we saw and heard was absolutely astounding!!  We were being attacked by terrorists.  My mind reels with the thought.   How can there be that much hate in the world?  How can one group of people cause that much suffering for another group of people?  People they've never even met, yet somehow they still hold them responsible for their problems.  

Lord, help us all to know the right things to do and the courage to do them.

Tortilla Soup

No, this is not a recipe for my Tortilla Soup.  My husband and I went to see a movie today with our neighbors called "Tortilla Soup".  We thought it was delightful. It's about a widower who has trouble letting his three grown daughters cut the apron strings. The man is a chef, who owns (but no longer cooks at on a daily basis) a very successful upscale Mexican restaurant. Instead he contents himself with cooking fabulous meals for himself and his daughters.  If you're not hungry before the movie, you certainly will be by the time it's over.  It has two short scenes in it that disqualify it for a "G" rating, but otherwise it was suitable for the whole family.  I recommend it whole heartedly!