God Save The Queen
 

I have cried many tears, holed up in this room in the Millenium in PANC, waiting for my company to start back up and watching the coverage.

But my heart almost burst as I watched CNN footage of the Star Spangled Banner being played at the changing of the guard in London.

The armies of terror have their evil symbols and slogans, but we have ours, and the ghosts of Churchill and Roosevelt must be smiling down on the Queen's guards tonight....

and the crowds watching, some of them singing but most who did not know the words humming.

My daughter lives in US and, like many there, has a flag hanging from the front of the house - the Union Flag (British "Union Jack"). I'm sure that it is also at half mast at the moment.

Also, remember that whoever is responsible for this outrage has killed more Brit civilians in one day than the combined terrorists in Ireland have in the 30 years of the current "troubles".

It's not a "USA problem", it's a "civilisation problem"

I would like to add that the actions of our Royal Family and Government these last few terrible days have made me a little bit more proud to be British.

I don’t usually have much truck with either Royals or Politicians but they seem to have encapsulated what we all feel (well what I feel anyway).

My Deepest sympathy to each and every one of the thousand grieving Mothers, Fathers, Sons, Daughters, lovers and friends that have been affected by this travesty. Each story is a tragedy and there are potentially over 5000 stories.

Thank you to all in the UK. There is a definition for the term "class act" somewhere, but I can not think of a better example.

As I recall in 1813 British Marines burned the White House and Capital and Treasury of the United States. If in this space of time things can turn so completely around between people of good will who can behave like adults then maybe there is hope for the world.


GOD SAVE THE QUEEN


edited after reading today's Times of London

[ 15 September 2001: Message edited by: RATBOY ]

I was sent this today:

Miami Herald
Published Wednesday, September 12, 2001

We'll go forward from this moment.

It's my job to have something to say.

They pay me to provide words that help make sense of that which troubles
the American soul. But in this moment of airless shock
when hot tears sting disbelieving eyes, the only thing I can find to say,
the only words that seem to fit, must be addressed to the
unknown author of this suffering.

You monster. You beast. You unspeakable bastard.

What lesson did you hope to teach us by your coward's attack on our World
Trade Center, our Pentagon, us? What was it you
hoped we would learn? Whatever it was, please know that you failed.

Did you want us to respect your cause? You just damned your cause.

Did you want to make us fear? You just steeled our resolve.

Did you want to tear us apart? You just brought us together.

Let me tell you about my people. We are a vast and quarrelsome family, a
family rent by racial, social, political and class division,
but a family nonetheless. We're frivolous, yes, capable of expending
tremendous emotional energy on pop cultural minutiae -- a
singer's revealing dress, a ball team's misfortune, a cartoon mouse. We're
wealthy, too, spoiled by the ready availability of trinkets
and material goods, and maybe because of that, we walk through life with a
certain sense of blithe entitlement. We are
fundamentally decent, though -- peace-loving and compassionate. We struggle
to know the right thing and to do it. And we are, the
overwhelming majority of us, people of faith, believers in a just and
loving God.

Some people -- you, perhaps -- think that any or all of this makes us weak.
You're mistaken. We are not weak. Indeed, we are
strong in ways that cannot be measured by arsenals.

IN PAIN

Yes, we're in pain now. We are in mourning and we are in shock. We're still
grappling with the unreality of the awful thing you did,
still working to make ourselves understand that this isn't a special effect
from some Hollywood blockbuster, isn't the plot
development from a Tom Clancy novel. Both in terms of the awful scope of
their ambition and the probable final death toll, your
attacks are likely to go down as the worst acts of terrorism in the history
of the United States and, probably, the history of the
world. You've bloodied us as we have never been bloodied before.

But there's a gulf of difference between making us bloody and making us
fall. This is the lesson Japan was taught to its bitter
sorrow the last time anyone hit us this hard, the last time anyone brought
us such abrupt and monumental pain. When roused, we
are righteous in our outrage, terrible in our force. When provoked by this
level of barbarism, we will bear any suffering, pay any
cost, go to any length, in the pursuit of justice.

I tell you this without fear of contradiction. I know my people, as you, I
think, do not. What I know reassures me. It also causes me
to tremble with dread of the future.

In the days to come, there will be recrimination and accusation, fingers
pointing to determine whose failure allowed this to happen
and what can be done to prevent it from happening again. There will be
heightened security, misguided talk of revoking basic
freedoms. We'll go forward from this moment sobered, chastened, sad. But
determined, too. Unimaginably determined.

THE STEEL IN US

You see, the steel in us is not always readily apparent. That aspect of our
character is seldom understood by people who don't
know us well. On this day, the family's bickering is put on hold.

As Americans we will weep, as Americans we will mourn, and as Americans, we
will rise in defense of all that we cherish.

So I ask again: What was it you hoped to teach us? It occurs to me that
maybe you just wanted us to know the depths of your
hatred. If that's the case, consider the message received. And take this
message in exchange: You don't know my people. You
don't know what we're capable of. You don't know what you just started.

But you're about to learn.

Pro Regina, Pro Patria

All I can think of at the moment is Robert Burns, to help us understand why...

O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us

R