My brother sent me this today. It gave me goosebumps...It's like this guy read my mind and put in words what I'm unable to.

"I fear we have awakened the sleeping giant!"

Admiral Yamamoto after the attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7th, 1941

Wednesday, September 12, 2001 - 12:00 a.m. Pacific

Leonard Pitts Jr. / Syndicated columnist

The barbarians will learn what America's all about

By Leonard Pitts Jr.

Syndicated columnist

"They pay me to tease shades of meaning from social and cultural issues, to

provide words that help make sense of that which troubles the American

soul. But in this moment of airless shock when hot tears sting disbelieving

eyes, the only thing I can find to say, the only words that seem to fit,

must be addressed to the unknown author of this

suffering.

You monster. You beast. You unspeakable xxxx.

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.

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I've got a late 2000 model Fadal 4020 that does the same thing. We use Valcool Turntech as a coolant. I suspect James is right on the money cuz I don't even have to take a heavy cut...any tool that runs at 10 grand for over a minute or so comes out pretty hard. Any program that uses thru the spindle coolant causes all tools to do it to a lesser extent

Regards,

Bo