People of the world,

Please as you read this whenever and wherever that may be, take a moment of silence this minute to remember and pray for the victims of the attack upon America.

Thank you.

We must be careful now of how we will respond to this vicious assault upon the Free World as a whole and when we do retaliate we must be absolutely sure about any evidence that points a finger towards any group and/or nation. We must provide our evidence when it is gathered truthfully and completely for the entire world to see. To do otherwise would be playing into the hands of the people who have committed this act of aggression. America has a great responsibility that comes with being the most powerful nation on earth and it must now provide an example for other nations to follow. The people responsible for this cowardly act of murder-en masse and destructiveness are certainly wondering at this time...

What are you going to do now America?

As a proud American I know the answer will be...

You will find the reply to that question when you do not see it approaching, and you have now sealed your fate in blood. Freedom remains undaunted, Bravery is undeterred, and America still stands Proudly. Buildings and institutions can be replaced, and your many victims are now nestled safely and lovingly carved upon the palm of God.

I feel at this moment that I could leave my home and go anywhere and up to anyone at all in my country, or any other country in the Free World for that matter, and no matter who or what that person may be.... rich, poor, young, old, man, woman, black, white, oriental, whatever... and join them in saying, “We Shall Get Through This Great Tragedy And We Shall Become Stronger Because Of It.... My Friend, We Shall Stand Together.”

I also feel great hope for the future in knowing that we will never forget Tuesday, September 11th, in the year of our Lord Two-thousand and One.

Greetings,

The events of this last week have left an indelible mark in history.

Even though we are half a world away the members of the Rotary Club of Invercargill Sunrise feel the pain of all those families destroyed by this senseless act.

On behalf of the members of our club and city I extend to the families in New York, Washington and other areas affected our deepest sympathy.

It is our fervent hope the American government finds and punishes the perpetrators, those hiding them and the bankers financing them.

God bless America.

Willy Couper
President, The Rotary Club of Invercargill Sunrise, Invercargill
New Zealand
Kind Regards,
Lou Harrison-Smith P/P
Webmaster, Rotary Club of Invercargill Sunrise
Give Kids a Chance

Editor;

I would like to say a few words on the 2 o’clock closing times imposed in Pattaya. Why do you have to change things in that wonderful city? My husband and I have been coming to Thailand for the last two years and have fallen in love with Thailand and we love coming to the Pattaya area. We love Walking Street just as it is. British People find the heat difficult at times and it is much cooler in the early hours. If people are going to commit crimes they are going to do it anytime, it won’t stop them. Thailand is called the Land of Smiles, with all these changes the people and the tourists will smile no more. Please save the Pattaya we know and love so much...people from England will be drifting back to Spain, as it is only a short trip and bars and business open until 5 o’clock in the morning.

Editor;

Your article on the act of cowardice is how most Americans are feeling about the outright act of war committed not only against the USA but all freedom loving people. Your editorial was very heart warming and we have always thought of Thailand as a friend. With friends like Thailand, terrorism will be defeated.

Editor;

We Americans in Thailand would appreciate it greatly if you printed this in your newspaper:

You monster. You beast. 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, cultural, 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.

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 its 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, indeed, 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 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.

You see, there is steel beneath this velvet. 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.

Still, I keep wondering what it was 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 about. You don’t know what you just started.

But you’re about to learn.

Dear Sir,

What an astonishing diatribe of ‘old cobblers’ poured forth in the ‘Editorial’ of the issue of Friday 7th, September 2001.

Fabled nightlife, enforcement officers, freedom or rather the lack of, and so on and so on, ad infiniteum: is George Orwell’s ‘1984’ already with us and I’ve not noticed?

As to ‘fabled nightlife’, that is hardly the adjective I would have thought appropriate for a resort that is known world wide, more or less, for the notoriety of its nightlife.

‘Enforcement Officers’, what a quaint term for those gentlemen whose appointed duty is to uphold the laws of the Realm.

As for freedom, there is no such thing as complete freedom in any society, only the freedom to live in accordance with the rules imposed by that society, whether a dictatorship or a democracy.

And, like it or not, ‘the legislators’ in a democracy are the elected representatives of the people.

It would appear to me that ‘freedom’ in Pattaya is construed to be the freedom to obey the law only when it suits one to do so and if this freedom infringes upon the lawful rights of others; tough luck, if anybody objects a handful baht will ensure that such objections fade into oblivion.

Finally, I would suggest that the number of tourists who are tucked away in their beds by midnight or shortly thereafter exceeds those ‘aimlessly wandering’ round the streets of closed bars shortly after 2 a.m.

Don’t worry sir, the world will not end if the bars of Pattaya, not to mention Bangkok, finally do indeed close at 2 a.m.

Yours faithfully,

To the editors of the Pattaya Mail,

Thank you for your editorial of Sept. 14. It was one of the most profound that I have read so far. I was in the World Trade Center several years back during a vacation to New York, looking at the whole of the city from the top. It is still hard for me to believe that it is gone. But I know that it is.

You are right. Terrorists are cowards. They plant their bombs or send their misguided minions to destroy themselves as well as their targets, and then they hide.

America and the world must find them and stop them or they will bring the world to a halt. If they are not stopped, they will hold the world hostage in fear to what they will do.

No matter what their grievances are, there is no justification for murder.

Good luck to you and your country. I hope to be able to visit your wonderful city and country some day. Sawadee Krup!

Sincerely,