Out here in rural America, folks have been awfully busy the past couple weeks. Not only is it harvest time, a critical moment for farmers and those who depend on them, but also rally time. Attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon near Washington, D.C., stopped all of us in our tracks, briefly, before galvanizing a tremendous outpouring of support for the victims and rescuers.
In almost every small town and rural outpost across America, folks have been staging fund-raisers and gathering supplies and donating dollars for relief efforts in those cities hundreds of miles away.
Countless parades and prayer meetings and public gatherings erupted spontaneously in the aftermath of the attacks. Flags unfurled from doorsteps and shop windows and truck antennas, all to show our unity with people most of us have never met and likely wouldn't recognize, but with whom we share a common destiny as Americans.
At a time like this, we feel extra fortunate to be living out here in the country, not only for the general lack of traffic and crime, but also because we are less of a target for terrorism. We have no tall buildings or national symbols to topple. A terrorist attack in North Dakota wouldn't have the same impact as one in New York City; it certainly wouldn't have as much live television coverage.
Because of that good fortune we feel moved -- compelled really -- to send our food and blood and prayers to our city brethren in this time of crisis, just as they have helped us out in times of flood and drought and terrible storms.
America is not just cities and highways and airports and banks. It is also farms and rangelands and orchards and parks. The diversity of our geography and industry and peoples and their beliefs is what makes the United States strong, and different from most other nations.
Those who attacked the World Trade Center may have believed they were attacking capitalism or Jews or New York City or U.S. foreign policies, but they also attacked and killed Mexican immigrants and Iowa farmers and Muslim faithful. They made war against a way of life that embraces many faiths and politics and races and lifestyles, all living together with respect and dignity and freedoms.
The price of freedom, sadly, can include the loss of civilian lives. Our freedoms of speech and religion and travel and free assembly can, and have, been used against us. Our free society will always be opposed those who want to impose one religion or one race or one way of life over all others. And, enemies to freedom can be found at home as well as overseas.
Our greatest defense against fascism and totalitarianism, in all their forms, is our diversity and our solidarity. Like a stock market portfolio or a family farm, a diversity of products and approaches and locations is a hedge against vermin and panic and wildfire and terrorism as long as it all holds together, each part supporting the other in times of trial.
America is not only cities, but open spaces and small farms and national parks and suburbs and factories and rural villages.
America is not only Christian, but Muslim and Buddhist and Hindu and Jewish and atheist and pagan.
America is not just white, but black and Indian and Oriental and Hispanic and Native American.
America is not just capitalists, but philanthropists and socialists and environmentalists and conservationists.
America is not just one kind of place or people or way of thinking, but a collaboration of many. God bless America.