And remember this: like Pearl Harbor, the only reason they succeeded on September 11th was because they were not resisted. And the moment they were resisted, they crumbled. The heroes of Flight 93 now take their place in American history alongside Colonel Travis at the Alamo and General McAuliffe at Bastogne and Molly Pitcher at Monmouth. And their message to us is very simple: stand up to these bastards. Centuries from now, Americans will proudly remember the story of the young men aboard that aircraft as it headed for our nation's Capitol: how they responded instantly to duty and honor and country--and armed only with their bare hands stopped cold those who would destroy our nation. In his last words heard over his cellular phone, Todd Beamer was heard to ask --not just of his fellow heroes, but of all of his fellow countrymen: "Are you guys ready? Let's roll."

We have been warned to expect a protracted struggle--with perhaps many battles to be fought upon our own soil. In this respect, Winston Churchill offers us counsel through his words to the students of Harrow school in the autumn of 1941, after whole sections of London had been leveled by Nazi bombs:

"...We must learn to be equally good at what is short and sharp and what is long and tough. It is generally said that the British are often better at the last. They do not expect to move from crisis to crisis; they do not always expect that each day will bring up some noble chance of war; but when they very slowly make up their minds that the thing has to be done and the job put through and finished, then, even if it takes months-- if it takes years--they do it...

"You cannot tell from appearances how things will go. Sometimes imagination makes things out far worse than they are... But for everyone, surely, what we have gone through in this period... this is the lesson: never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never, never-- in nothing, great or small, large or petty --never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense."

Then he went on to say, "Do not let us speak of darker days; let us speak rather of sterner days. These are not dark days; these are great days, the greatest our country has ever lived; and we must all thank God that we have been allowed, each of us according to our stations, to play a part in making these days memorable in the history of our race."

And so let it be with each of us. We are the home front. And that means that every citizen, acting at every station of private and public affairs, shoulders a responsibility that is equal to every man and woman in uniform. We don't share the same peril, but we surely share the same responsibility.

What that means in practical terms for our public policy at home is that all the issues we have fought for in the past, which were merely important, now become imperative.

The cutting edge of our defense is comprised of our armed forces. But those armed forces depend directly upon the industry, technology and materiel that we produce here at home. The regulations that have hamstrung our industry must be removed. The wasteful spending that has sapped our capital must be stopped. The vast oil resources beneath the arctic tundra must be made available. Our wartime industries will require record amounts of electricity at a time when our capacity is sorely strained. In addition, transmission bottlenecks must be remedied. Three months ago, unknown foreign sources breached the computer systems that control our electricity flow with devastating implications that were never taken seriously. We must now take them very seriously.

The outset of hostilities coincides with an economic recession, compounding the challenges we must surmount. Without removing the barriers to production that have been erected, we cannot produce the high level of support that our military will need in the months and perhaps years ahead.

There must be a dramatic reordering of priorities toward defense at the federal level and toward industrial and technological infrastructure and law enforcement at the state and local levels.

Furthermore, we have to recognize that we face a fifth column in this country that is well organized, pervasive and deadly. As a wartime necessity we must be prepared for security measures we would never tolerate in peacetime. It is reasonable to believe that active terrorist cells are deeply rooted here in California, with designs for future attacks, and law enforcement must be given every means to eradicate them. In a sense our state must be on neighborhood watch.

Infiltration across our borders, which we have tolerated in peacetime, must be closely attended. Those who come to work and prosper in our country should be welcomed as always, but the background and intention of all who enter our borders can no longer be ignored.

And one other thing: we must focus added attention on our schools, particularly upon who is teaching our children and what they are teaching. The American founding principles that are now under such vicious attack from abroad must be reverently defended at home; they must be inculcated and habituated into the hearts and minds of every young American; and the cost of defending those principles must be clearly understood.

I know that these are major changes in the way we have conducted our affairs at every level of government for the past forty years. And I know there are still some who view this as an over-reaction to a single day of terror. So let me reiterate why the singular objective

Outpost               - 6 -               November 2001