When the terrorists win!

I was browsing through some writing I had done years ago and came across this which I wrote about a week after 9/11. If you remember, there was a general panic. I knew a woman who didn't even want to come to a county wide church conference because she was afraid to go out in public -- and we live in California!

The problem is that they are called "terrorists" for a reason. They do not realistically expect to invade America and turn it into an Islamic state by force of arms. They don't even realistically expect to do that in Isreal. Their victory comes in the fear of their enemies. When their enemies are afraid of them, they have succeeded as surely as if we signed articles of surrender with Al-Queida.

I was trying to put that into words and wrote the following email to a discussion group:

I will take a trip to San Francisco this weekend and cross the Bay Bridgefrustrated by traffic delays but not in fear of attack because if I don'tTHEY WIN!

I will plan a trip for summer without thinking about airport security,because if I don't THEY WIN!

I will begin my retirment investment portfolio and I will include some bluechip stocks in the portfolio without fear of loss because if I don't THEYWIN!

I look at my Arab neighbors without suspicion, hatred or fear. Because ifI don't THEY WIN!

I will greive for the loss of so many innocents, but I will not live as a slave to fear or hatred, because if I don't THEY WIN!

I will walk tall and straight without fear.I will breathe the air of my homeland as a Free American, and I will not give up freedom for safety, because if I don't THEY WIN!

Since September 11 many of us have let the terrorists win by succumbing to fear and hatred, by being willing to bargain away our freedoms for the illusion of perfect safety.

Terrorists have no goal of taking over Governments or running countries. Their goal is to punish those whom they hate with fear.

When a country gives into that fear and the people live their lives based on avoiding attack or responding to such attacks, whenpolice are replaced by soldiers, when freedom is considered a luxury, when the people live their lives looking over their shoulders in fear, when hatred and suspicion reign, when I fear man more than I trust God,then THEY WIN!!!

Whether they win or not is my choice.

And I for one, will not let them win.