Agree or disagree? Visit our message board

By all means, we should take as much time as we need to come to grips with the national tragedy so cruelly and heartlessly inflicted by cowardly, sub-human terrorists this week. We should mourn the dead, comfort the afflicted and extend as many helping hands as humanly possible. We should pray for our country and pray for humanity.

And then we should look terrorism right back in the eye and sneer. We should show the world that while we might be bent, we are not broken. While we might be stunned, we have not lost our resolve. While the chicken-hearted who hide behind guerilla warfare might blindside us, they will never, ever win.

And in our backyards, after several moments of silence and after shedding plenty of tears, we should begin to do that as soon as possible. We should kick off, we should go deep, we should tackle and stiff-arm and throw our fastballs.

To hell with those who think they can sink us, and the sooner the better. Wounds must begin to heal. The question is, when?

Some people are ready today, and some aren't. Some will be ready tomorrow, the day after, next week, and some won't. Extend this out as long as you like. There is no perfect time.

The point is, we all ache, and nobody's going to hold up a green light and make us feel better. It will happen gradually, not suddenly. It will happen over time, not overnight.

Sports can be a part of the healing process, should be a part of the healing process, but there is no substitute for time. Time is the great healer, and time is what will slowly walk us down the aisle toward recovery and renewal.

But meanwhile, do we just screech our lives to a stop? Are we supposed to just brood and walk around in a state of shock? And for how long? A week? Two weeks? Three?

Tuesday's unspeakable acts leveled this country like it has rarely been leveled before. We needed time to grieve, to pray, to think. We got it, and we will never forget.

But we shouldn't feel guilty if we begin to pick ourselves up off the floor. We shouldn't slink into some dark corner, embarrassed, to dust ourselves off.

No way do we want to give the world even the smallest impression that terrorism can beat us down and keep us down.

This country has overcome longer odds than what we currently face. This country has soared to great heights by meeting far steeper challenges than those presented by terrorist savages.

We must vow that, while our lives may have been altered this week, they have not been permanently sabotaged.

We must vow that, while our priorities may have been rearranged, we refuse to be conquered by fear.

We will gather our breath, we will regroup, we will come back. We will work our jobs, we will play our games, we will take walks through parks with our families on beautiful, starlit nights.

Terrorists be damned.