Date:         Thu, 13 Sep 2001 20:11:22 EDT
Reply-To:     TStone8359@AOL.COM
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Tom Stone <TStone8359@AOL.COM>
Subject:      You missed America... No Vanagon Content
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;

This message is my contribution to the current discussion about whether the 
content of this list should be limited to Vanagon messages only.   I happen 
to like my Vanagon, but this message gets at something much deeper and much 
more pertinent to what is going on in America today than anything related to 
my Vanagon.   I hope that most of you share the sentiment expressed here. 
Tom 
'71 Westy, '85 Westy, '91 Carat 
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Well stated. 
This was being sent around yesterday between Jeep and outdoor enthusiast 
around the country.



Hit the buildings, Missed America . . . .

Posted By: Charles Brennan, Windrose 18, So. Florida <ctbren@aol.com>

Date: 9/11/2001 9:07p.m.

An open letter to a terrorist:

Well, you hit the World Trade Center, but you missed America. You hit the
Pentagon, but you missed America. You used helpless American bodies, to
take out other American bodies, but like a poor marksman, you STILL missed
America.

Why? Because of something you guys will never understand. America isn't
about a building or two, not about financial centers, not about military
centers, America isn't about a place, America isn't even about a bunch of
bodies. America is about an IDEA. An idea, that you can go someplace
where you can earn as much as you can figure out how to, live for the most
part, like you envisioned living, and pursue Happiness. (No guarantees
that you'll reach it, but you can sure try!)

Go ahead and whine your terrorist whine, and chant your terrorist litany:
"If you cannot see my point, then feel my pain." This concept is alien to
Americans. We live in a country where we don't have to see your point.
But you're free to have one. We don't have to listen to your speech. But
you're free to say one. Don't know where you got the strange idea that
everyone has to agree with you. We don't agree with each other in this
country, almost as a matter of pride. We're a collection of guys that
don't agree, called States. We united our individual states to protect
ourselves from tyranny in the world. Another idea, we made up on the spot.
You CAN make it up as you go, when it's your country. If you're free enough.

Yeah, we're fat, sloppy, easy-going goofs most of the time. That's an
unfortunate image to project to the world, but it comes of feeling free and
easy about the world you live in. It's unfortunate too, because people
start to forget that when you attack Americans, they tend to fight like a
cornered badger. The first we knew of the War of 1812, was when England
burned Washington D.C. to the ground. Didn't turn out like England thought
it was going to, and it's not going to turn out like you think, either.
Sorry, but you're not the first bully on our shores, just the most recent.

No Marquis of Queensbury rules for Americans, either. We were the FIRST and
so far, only country in the world to use nuclear weapons in anger. Horrific
idea, nowadays? News for you bucko, it was back then too, but we used it
anyway. Only had two of them in the whole world and we used 'em both.
Grandpa Jones worked on the Manhattan Project. Told me once, that right up
until they threw the switch, the physicists were still arguing over whether
the Uranium alone would fission, or whether it would start a fissioning
chain reaction that would eat everything. But they threw the switch anyway,
because we had a War to win. Does that tell you something about American
Resolve?

So who just declared War on us? It would be nice to point to some real
estate, like the good old days. Unfortunately, we're probably at war with
random camps, in far-flung places. Who think they're safe. Just like the
Barbary Pirates did, IIRC. Better start sleeping with one eye open.

There's a spirit that tends to take over people who come to this country,
looking for opportunity, looking for liberty, looking for freedom. Even if
they misuse it. The Marielistas that Castro emptied
out of his prisons, were overjoyed to find out how much freedom there was.
First thing they did when they hit our shores, was run out and buy guns.
The ones that didn't end up dead, ended up in prisons. It was a big PITA
then (especially in south Florida), but you're only the newest PITA, not
the first.

You guys seem to be incapable of understanding that we don't live in
America, America lives in US! American Spirit is what it's called. And
killing a few thousand of us, or a few million of us, won't change it. Most
of the time, it's a pretty happy-go-lucky kind of Spirit. Until we're
crossed in a cowardly manner, then it becomes an entirely different kind of
Spirit.

Wait until you see what we do with that Spirit, this time.

Sleep tight, if you can. We're coming.

Charles Brennan



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