There’s no telling what the terrorists who committed the cowardly and craven assault on the World Trade Center and Pentagon thought the result of their actions would be.
Maybe they were deluded by the evil leaders that manipulated them into thinking some sick and twisted God would match their horrendous act with some unholy act of his own.
Maybe they thought they would so pierce the hearts and minds of this nation, that we would throw up our hands and surrender.
If that second thought was what they had in mind, they were half right.
We threw up our arms, but it was to offer assistance of any kind, and in any way we could, to the victims of this tragedy and in an effort to diminish the suffering it has brought.
They were able to find 18 men to give their lives to destroy. There are more than 100 times that number willing to give their life to save someone in the New York City Fire Department alone.
Every bit as much as our bombs and bullets must haunt the cowards behind the assault — they are already on the run — our open hearts must daunt them.
We reacted to their evil with a call to battle they should have expected. We reacted to their evil with open hearts they could not have expected.
Both our ability to fight and our ability to love will serve us well.
Our ability to fight is awesome. Our ability to love is awe-inspiring.