Wow.... just got this e mail from a friend across the big pond and thought I would share it. It has a few valid points. Take from it what you will.
Subject: Fw: A testimonial from an Australian....
>You probably missed it in the rush of news last
>week, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had
>published in a newspaper an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an
>American, any
>American.
>
>So an Australian dentist wrote the following to
>let everyone know what an American is, so they
>would know when they found one:
>
>An American is English, or French, or Italian,
>Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek.
>An American may also be Canadian, Mexican,
>African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean,
>Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or
>Pakistani, or Afghan. An American may also be a
>Cherokee, Osage, Blackfoot, Navaho, Apache,
>Seminole or one of the many other tribes known as
>native Americans.
>
>An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish,
>or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more
>Muslims in America than in Afghanistan. The only
>difference is that in America they are free to
>worship as each of them chooses.
>
>An American is also free to believe in no
>religion. For that he will answer
>only to God, not to the government, or to armed
>thugs claiming to speak for the government and
>for God.
>
>An American is from the most prosperous land in
>the history of the world.
>
>The root of that prosperity can be found in the
>Declaration of Independence, which recognizes the
>God given right of each person the pursuit of
>happiness.
>
>An American is generous. Americans have helped
>out just about every other nation in the world in
>their time of need. When Afghanistan was overrun
>by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came
>with arms and supplies to enable the people to
>win back their country. As of the morning of
>September 11, Americans had given more than any
>other nation to the poor in Afghanistan.
>
>Americans welcome the best, the best products,
>the best books, the best music, the best food,
>the best athletes. But they also welcome the
>least.
>
>The national symbol of America, The Statue of
>Liberty, welcomes your tired and your poor, the
>wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the
>homeless, tempest tossed. These in fact are the
>people who built America.
>
>Some of them were working in the Twin Towers the
>morning of September 11, 2001 earning a better
>life for their families.
>
>I've been told that the World Trade Center
>victims were from at least 30 other countries,
>cultures, and first languages, including those
>that aided and abetted the terrorists.
>
>So you can try to kill an American if you must.
>Hitler did. So did General Tojo, and Stalin, and
>Mao Tse-Tung, and every bloodthirsty tyrant in
>the history of the world. But, in doing so you
>would just be killing yourself.
>
>Because Americans are not a particular people
>from a particular place.
>They are the embodiment of the human spirit of
>freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit,
>everywhere, is an American.
>
>Pass this around the World.
