Special to The Post and Courier
What a tragic miscalculation! The terrorists who struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon wanted to divide us. They thought that we would turn on each other, blame this or that group, blame the president, divide along racial lines or ethnic or religious lines, They thought that they could demoralize us, break our spirit, make us afraid to leave our homes or live our lives. They don’t know us.
Yes, we bicker even fight among ourselves like cats and dogs. Yes, we have strong currents of racial pride and racial injustice. Yes, we have religious groups that are intolerant of other religious groups. Yes, there are those that want to close the borders of our country to anyone else. Yes, we can be petty, mean, and selfish. Yes, we can be loud, insensitive and cruel, but that’s just a fraction of the truth.
We are fun-loving, generous, warm, friendly, accepting, tolerant, forgiving, hard-working, welcoming, fair, enthusiastic, family oriented, God-loving, peace loving and resilient.
The terrorists should have read our history. Thirteen bickering colonies defeated the mighty English Empire. A country drenched in its own blood united after a civil war to become the greatest nation the world has ever known. A nation brought to its knees by a brutal surprise attack on Pearl Harbor rose up to defeat its attackers and then in a gesture unheard of in human history rebuilt its enemies.
Our nation with determination conquered the blockade of Berlin. We declared a war on poverty. We outlasted the Berlin Wall. We came together after a razor thin election result for the presidency.
The basic premise of public speaking, advertising and even sales is to know your audience. Knowing your audience is essential if you are to craft the right message. No sales pitch, no speech, no sermon, no grant request, no proposal can be successful unless this basic requirement is met. The terrorists failed this test miserably. If they had done even a little bit of research, they would have known that they were far a field of reality in their thinking.
From the outside we often do look as if our great union is teetering on the brink of self-destruction. To the untrained eye we do seem to be divided among ever increasing special interests. We are indeed a diverse culture, but look again.
We are one. We are one nation united by a love of and devotion to freedom. Human rights is more than a slogan to us. We may not always practice it but we do believe in our hearts that all people are created equal. We are united in our unspeakable grief and we are united in our determination to right this wrong and to live in freedom. The terrorists can destroy our buildings, but they cannot destroy our spirit. If they had done their homework, they would have known this. They have done what neither political party could do. They have united us.
