sarettah
09-08-2003, 10:13 PM
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/6723912.htm
An open letter to bin Laden
By LEONARD PITTS JR.
Miami Herald
Dear Osama:
How have you been? How are the wives and kids?
I'm just writing to let you know that I still think of you often. Mostly when I take off my shoes.
That's standard operating procedure over here at airports now, Osama. Can I call you Sammy?
Anyway, that's just a routine part of life nowadays. You have to remove your footwear to go through the metal detectors. Nobody's too happy about it except, I suspect, the people who make and sell socks.
It's been two years this week since terrorists under your command crashed airplanes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the Pennsylvania countryside. And walking through security in stocking feet isn't the half of it. Our lives have changed in a hundred other ways great and small. But we handle it, you know?
Heck, if you didn't know better, if you were just taking a cursory glance, you might even think the events of Sept. 11, 2001, had never even happened, so completely do other things claim our attention. People are obsessing on what date Ben and Jennifer - that's two infidel entertainers who are quite popular over here - will get married. We are following with morbid fascination the political circus currently unfolding in California. That's our most infidel state. And we're hotly debating the case against Kobe Bryant; he's an infidel basketball player who got into trouble with the law.
Many things on our mind, Sam. We haven't forgotten about you, though. You, we will never forget.
Just the other day, I was watching 9/11, a documentary aired last year by CBS, one of our infidel television networks. It made the wound raw all over again - brought back the planes, the confusion, the cloud of debris, the rain of bodies. The horror. I felt like crying, Sammy. I really did.
Last week, Newsweek - infidel newsmagazine - carried a report that placed you in the mountains of the Afghan province of Kunar. I found myself wondering why we couldn't just drop leaflets warning everyone who was not you to leave the area - and then bomb the mountains flat. I'm sure there's a solid reason we haven't done that, but the point is, I'd never have said that two years ago.
Of course, two years ago was another country. Another time.
......... (rest of the letter is worth reading)
An open letter to bin Laden
By LEONARD PITTS JR.
Miami Herald
Dear Osama:
How have you been? How are the wives and kids?
I'm just writing to let you know that I still think of you often. Mostly when I take off my shoes.
That's standard operating procedure over here at airports now, Osama. Can I call you Sammy?
Anyway, that's just a routine part of life nowadays. You have to remove your footwear to go through the metal detectors. Nobody's too happy about it except, I suspect, the people who make and sell socks.
It's been two years this week since terrorists under your command crashed airplanes into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the Pennsylvania countryside. And walking through security in stocking feet isn't the half of it. Our lives have changed in a hundred other ways great and small. But we handle it, you know?
Heck, if you didn't know better, if you were just taking a cursory glance, you might even think the events of Sept. 11, 2001, had never even happened, so completely do other things claim our attention. People are obsessing on what date Ben and Jennifer - that's two infidel entertainers who are quite popular over here - will get married. We are following with morbid fascination the political circus currently unfolding in California. That's our most infidel state. And we're hotly debating the case against Kobe Bryant; he's an infidel basketball player who got into trouble with the law.
Many things on our mind, Sam. We haven't forgotten about you, though. You, we will never forget.
Just the other day, I was watching 9/11, a documentary aired last year by CBS, one of our infidel television networks. It made the wound raw all over again - brought back the planes, the confusion, the cloud of debris, the rain of bodies. The horror. I felt like crying, Sammy. I really did.
Last week, Newsweek - infidel newsmagazine - carried a report that placed you in the mountains of the Afghan province of Kunar. I found myself wondering why we couldn't just drop leaflets warning everyone who was not you to leave the area - and then bomb the mountains flat. I'm sure there's a solid reason we haven't done that, but the point is, I'd never have said that two years ago.
Of course, two years ago was another country. Another time.
......... (rest of the letter is worth reading)