For years now, they have been deadly serious and we haven't. Finally on Sept. 11, after a decade of one-sided war, the horror burst over our homeland. We must become deadly serious now. From today forward, without closing our open society or abandoning our humanity or forsaking our self-evident truths, we must engage these enemies with ferocious purpose to match their own and master it. It's time to get real.
Ideas have consequences.
Ours at the best have fostered freedom, opportunity, and plenty for more people in more places than ever before in history. But our ideas at the worst have left America passive and irresolute in the face of lethal poison from their ideas, surging around the world and into our own streets, unheeded until the moment of impact. History's challenge is sometimes subtle and silent, but not this time. Our spirit is unbowed, thank God for that. Each of us, one at a time and day by day, can help determine the answer.