Unity essential in response to terrorists

Posted 9/27/01

Unity essential in response to terrorists

By U.S. Senator Mark Dayton

During the last two weeks, I have seen unimaginable sights. I watched an American F-16 fighter plane streaking low over our nationís Capitol. On a Senate trip to the World Trade Center site, in New York City, our ferry was led down the Hudson River by U.S. Coast Guard gunboats. At the New York docking pier, Army troops were manning machine guns behind sandbag bunkers.

Ground Zero at the World Trade Center is a holocaust. Two, 110-story towers are reduced to two enormous piles of grotesquely twisted metal and huge mountains of rubble. Buried inside are over 6,600 remains. Only 241 bodies have yet been found; the rest are still "missing,î although their fates are known. Most of them were incinerated in fires so intense that steel melted and other materials vaporized.

The Pentagon withstood its terrible blow far better than the World Trade Towers. Constructed during World War II, the Pentagon was better prepared by its builders for an Armageddon. Its powerful structure absorbed the hijacked airplaneís fierce impact and contained its lethal explosion, so that the damage, although severe, was limited. Touring the Pentagon, I imagined that much of its 60-year-old steel structure was forged from Minnesota iron ore. Those miners of two generations ago would be proud of their results.
The mood in Washington is somber and grim. None of us knows what lies ahead. Yet, our determination and resolve are extremely high. And our sense of united purpose is absolute.
From the night of the attack, when almost 200 members of Congress joined together on the Capitol steps and spontaneously sang ěGod Bless America,î we have truly been working together. There has been very little maneuvering for partisan advantage, because most of all, we want to make the right decisions together.
And no one can doubt that they are momentous decisions: a resolution authorizing the use of military force against our terroristic enemies and accomplices; $40 billion for emergency aid and military buildup; new anti-terrorism authority. None of us could have imagined these actions just two weeks ago. Even now, it seems at times unreal, like a very bad dream.

But it is real. The attacks and their terrible devastations are real. The continuing threats to our nation are real. Our responsibilities to shoulder these burdens and to endure these dangers are real. Obviously, we did not choose them; they have been horribly forced upon us. Yet, we must rise up to meet them.

These terroristic threats must unite us, not divide us. Last Sunday, I visited an Islamic school in Fridley. I looked into the faces of very frightened children who have been the victims of harassments and threats. We must not allow this kind of emotional terrorism to happen in Minnesota. Our state is now an international community. Every day in Minnesota, we encounter people from all over the world, who are now our fellow citizens! We are all in this together. We are all Americans. Our unity is essential to our success.

Together, we will succeed.