I apologize, as those before, for my off-topic message, but I cannot sit
silent. My name is Josh Fitzhugh. I have been a Europa fan for three
years, listening on this list for two. I live in Arlington, one mile from
the Pentagon. Tuesday was spent in shocked disbelief, providing shelter in
my home and assistance to literally bloodied civilian and military refugees
---From the Pentagon, playing with many others a small role in the lives of
some most affected by this horror. Friends of friends were on the plane
that slammed into the Pentagon, and in the Trade Center when it dropped, and
I have seen their shattered faces. Since then, I have been wracked with
utter sorrow at what a few evil men have done to our loved ones, our cities,
our country, and the world as we knew it. I have spent an hour this morning
standing huddled in the rain with no umbrella because someone called in a
bomb threat to my building. I have not been untouched by this tragedy.
Our reaction to this dispicable act must be strong. We must rout out those
responsible for this unspeakable holocaust, and take steps to ensure that it
does not happen again. But we cannot surrender who we are in the process.
We cannot sacrifice those values we hold most dear on the alter of revenge,
for then evil truly will have won. Racism, bigotry, dehumanization: that is
what motivates those men who committed these acts. It will not motivate us.
I urge every participant on this list to express their grief, their outrage,
but to direct it where it belongs. Condemn those who celebrate in our
agony, and pity their lack of understanding of who we really are. But also
try to understand them: Arabs have suffered, as Jews have suffered, through
their long fratricide. Do not create more victims from those who suffer as
we do, and do not allow that evil which spawned this dark week to grow in
our own hearts.
Josh Fitzhugh
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