Editorial Column by Mike Schiller, author of "Created Equal"
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Text & photo (c) 2001 Mike Schiller

Thoughts on the Aftermath of Last Tuesday's Tragedy at the World Trade Center
By Mike Schiller
September 18, 2001

There is no way to put into words what the magnitude of the loss felt by all those whose family and friends are missing right now. Buildings can be rebuilt, but lives are irreplaceable. Every one of these people brought love into the lives of those who were lucky enough to have known them. We must hold them and their families and friends in our prayers and in our hearts and keep hope that they are alive and safe. For those who we know to have been lost forever, we must remember the happiness they brought to our lives, cherish the moments we spent with them, and allow their spirits and souls to live on inside us. The love that our friends and family have blessed us with is eternal, it lives forever in our hearts, it is a gift they have left behind for us, to hold and cherish forever. We must cling to that love, embrace it, and allow that love to keep us alive and empower us to continue our lives, dedicating every moment of every day to the joy that our friends and family have filled our hearts with forever.

As a nation, we must rally behind our Congress and the Bush administration and support their efforts to protect our nation and address this crime. The people who did this killed Americans. They did not target any political party, Democrat or Republican. They did not target any race, religious group, gender or sexual orientation. Our greatest strength as a nation is our diversity. The diversity of people, and diversity of viewpoints that we are allowed to freely express are the very reason why America is enabled to overcome its adversaries. And we will overcome our adversaries. As a people, we must remain united and we must transcend partisanship to demonstrate to our enemies that we posses a strength that our enemies do not. The strength of unity despite differences in ideology. The strength of our freedom to have different ideologies and political viewpoints. It is the combination of the various views of different political ideologies that bonds together to produce the ideas that have made our country powerful. It is the freedom to express our varying viewpoints, the freedom of debate, that helps our country to rise above the level of its enemies, and overcome any threat. Our nation's enemies attacked us because they are afraid of us. They are afraid that our freedom to share our ideas and thoughts is a threat to their own system of ideological and religious oppression. They are afraid that our freedom to be ourselves is a threat to their system of persecution. They are afraid because they know that our nation's commitment to civil rights makes us the leaders of the free world. We will not and must not ever allow these cowards to force us to relinquish the freedom they would like to take away from us. We will not and must not ever allow these cowards to divide us. This was an attack on our friends and our families, and it was also an attack on our freedom. Our freedom to be who we are, our freedom to embrace diversity, our freedom to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We will never give that up. Our enemies will never win their war against freedom. Freedom will prevail. We will prevail. Our love for one another, as people, will rise above all else. God Bless America.

Mike Schiller is the author of "Created Equal?" a poem about the denial of marriage rights to gays and lesbians. He has completed his first book, "Sentences I Freed From The Ropes They Tried To Weave Around Me." due out this spring. He also runs a successful poetry web site, www.mikeschiller.com , which currently averages over 3,000 visitors per month.

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