'Another Punch in the Stomach'
OpinionJournal readers on the murder of Danny Pearl.

Saturday, February 23, 2002 12:01 A.M. EST

Shelley Taylor:
I had hoped against hope that all would turn out with Danny Pearl's safe return to his wife, Mariane, and his soon-to-be-born son and all of you at The Wall Street Journal. I just read that it looks that this is not to be. I am so sorry. I really am. I am sure that there will be some kind of memorial service for him with colleagues and friends along with family to pay homage to Daniel Pearl and the life that lead him to distant lands in order to report the news to the rest of us. If you attend, I hope that you will carry with you the condolences of all of us who read the Journal and make it a part of our lives each day.

I never met Danny Pearl, but in his all-too-short life, he lived and loved and worked in a special way. I would not feel the loss if it were not so. My heart aches for his wife, now widow, but throughout this ordeal, she has remained strong. She will be a wonderful mother and teach their son how great and brave his father was. Danny Pearl may be gone, but a part of him will live in his son. How wonderful for the world.

Again, I am so sorry. We cannot always write the ending to the story the way we would like it to be. We go on the best we can and remember the good about those who have touched our lives in some way and are now gone. God bless you and the rest of The Wall Street Journal.

Alice Felt:
We are so sorry to hear of the death of Danny Pearl, and our prayers go out for his family, friends and colleagues at The Wall Street Journal. No words can describe how deeply saddened we and I'm sure most Americans are that his kidnapping ended so tragically, evidence of the evil we face and hopefully will overcome.

Nancy Eckert:
My condolences to you and the Wall Street Journal staff on the death of Danny Pearl. I had prayed that he would return safely, and felt particularly grateful for your work at OpinionJournal in keeping the rest of the nation apprised about the new anti-Semitism and Islam. I hope you know how very important this work is. Because of your work, I'm speaking up a lot more now about my early career days in Chicago and my priceless heritage in meeting Holocaust survivors who related their stories. And the heritage of living in a town with so many family-run delis and people reading "O Jerusalem" on the buses and the kids of people with whom I worked coming back from working at kibbutzim over the summer.

I didn't realize it at the time, but I certainly appreciate it now that as a baby boomer I was incredibly blessed to have been in that large city at that particularly time in history. I understood it even better when a fella in his 20s here in Seattle made a pilgrimage video of his family's Jewish roots in Russia and showed it to co-workers. He grew up on the Eastern seaboard, and very few people in his small town were Jewish. So he feels the lack of that group support which I now understand was an important moment in time.

May the Lord comfort you and your associates at this time of mourning.

Richard Zuelch:
Please allow me to express my sincere condolences to both the staff of The Wall Street Journal and to Mariane Pearl, who is now the widow of the cruelly murdered Daniel Pearl.

This truly is an act of barbarism. I do hope that, at the least, his family will be allowed to recover his body so that it may be returned to the United States for proper--civilized--burial. His widow is now undergoing an agony of grief, and his unborn child will never know his father.

Mr. Pearl's vicious murder is only the latest demonstration as to why this country is at war with terrorism in that part of the world. My prayers and thoughts are with the family, and with his surviving colleagues at The Wall Street Journal.

Paul Deffenbach:
We pray for you to find peace in your hearts when such heartbreaking events unjustly descend upon you. Evil in the world is a terrible thing. Daniel Pearl was shining light on a part of the world that has descended into darkness. To be a journalist in search of truth is an honorable profession. It shines light on darkness, informs the good about evil and connects us all to the human condition of our fellow travelers on this planet Earth.

We pray for you. We also pray that you continue to search for the truth, although with hearts hurt by terrorists, undaunted by their cowardly and evil appetite for unjust power. Evil cannot survive in the light of truth. Continue to shine in the memory of Daniel Pearl.

Napoleon Cole:
I hope you know that I'm not sending in this item to make light of Danny Pearl's murder. I do find it interesting that President Bush used the words "deeply saddened" to describe his feelings:

Laura and I and the American people are deeply saddened to learn about the loss of Daniel Pearl's life.

As one of your most loyal readers, and frequent contributor to the Best of the Web, I must say that I, too, am deeply saddened, however cliché it might sound. I wish all the best to those of you at The Wall Street Journal.

Rosslyn Smith:
My thoughts on hearing about the execution of Dan Pearl:

I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:
"As ye deal with my contemners, with you my grace shall deal;"
Let the Hero born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel,
Since God is marching on.

--Julia Ward Howe, "The Battle Hymn of the Republic"

Our enemies often forget that this nation knows all about holy wars. We were born in a war fought against long odds against a superpower over a political principle. Four score years later, our Civil War, fought almost solely on principle over any economic interest, became one of the bloodiest wars in history to that date.

Enemy after enemy has found that we are as a people very slow to anger. But when we are finally stirred to fight, we are more bloody damned efficient at killing than the current enemy can begin to imagine.

And since we loathe fighting the same war twice, once we have licked you, we we will reshape your culture to our own devices. When we left Europe for the second time in 30 years, a thousand years of bloody strife between England, France and Germany was a future impossibility. In a mere handful of years we remade the Samurai culture of Japan into something as near to pacifism as exists in the modern world.

Cross us and you'll see Whose truth goes marching on.

Sharron Barton:
Just to let all of you at The Wall Street Journal know how sorry I am about Daniel Pearl's death. The news was another punch in the stomach just like September 11 was. How senseless and cruel to do this to a person. I pray that God will comfort Daniel's family, friends, co-workers and all of us.

Jose Guardia:
In the sad moments after the brutal and despicable murder of your colleague Daniel Pearl, I want to transmit my sincere sympathy and condolences.

His brutal murderers must, and will, know that freedom is alive more than ever, and that Danny's death will reinforce the strength of all of us who firmly believe that there's no place for fanaticism in this world.

Raghu Desikan:
I was sickened and truly saddened to learn the news. In fact, I work in the same building as the Journal's New York newsroom and was rushing out at 5 p.m. Thursday when I noticed some cameras outside, but did not pay attention till I got home and saw the news.

As a father of two with the younger one a tad over two years old, nothing comes close to coming home to a cheerful infant waiting at the window waiting for dad to step in. I am heartbroken that Danny's little son will miss out on that.

I also did not know till I read the paper that Danny was the writer of the hilarious 1993 teen-pageant story that I somehow remembered all along. Will it be possible as a tribute to post some of his best articles on the Web? [Editor's note: They're here.] Better still, how about a collection of his stories as a book? Nothing would be a better and longer-lasting tribute to his work. And how about this suggestion for a title: "Pearls From Danny." As a musician he would dig it, the closest thing to a greatest-hits album for a print guy.

Once again, my condolences to all of you at the Journal. As some wise man figured out ages ago, time alone heals.

William Harrison:
I work one floor below the Journal's Washington bureau. As a fellow American, a sometimes tipster to Best of the Web and someone who has gotten to know several of your reporters, please accept my sympathies and condolences on learning of the murder of Danny Pearl.

Please let me know how I can contribute to whatever memorial fund, etc. that the Pearl family and the Journal decide to establish in Mr. Pearl's memory. I am sure I speak for all of my colleagues at First American Financial Corp. in decrying this atrocity and hoping that the killers and their aiders and abettors are apprehended swiftly and meted out the same punishment they inflicted on Mr. Pearl.

John Mallon:
I am just sick about the murder of Danny Pearl--and furious. I opened my heart to this story because something about him reminded me of my nephew, Danny. Now my heart hurts. I'm very angry.

God bless his soul and his wife and unborn child, and you and all his colleagues and friends.

John Marovich:
To all those touched by Danny Pearl's death, please accept my deepest sympathy. I so admire the staff of the Journal that I, too, feel the loss.

Russell Depalma:
As an American, a Jew and a former journalist, I am disgusted at the cowards who would take an innocent man from his family and friends. I sincerely apologize for your loss and hope that true, Old Testament justice will be meted out upon Danny Pearl's murderers.

Edward Christie:
I never knew Daniel Pearl. But ever since the news of his butchering came in front of my eyes, I've done little else except read about him, his life, his career, and his loving family and friends. Daniel personified the American spirit in so many ways.

Since the attacks of September 11, I've found a certain comfort in a quotation from Walt Whitman. He wanted to describe the people of the United States in the mid-19th century. Whitman's description fits Daniel Pearl. Indeed it fits us all, even though it was written to describe Americans who lived 150 years ago. Perhaps if the terrorists who are out to kill us would put down their box cutters, take off their exploding shoes and lay aside their how-to-fly-an-airplane manuals for a minute and read this quotation, they might finally begun to see that theirs is a fool's errand:

"Their manners, speech, dress, friendships,--the freshness and candor of their physiognomy--the picturesque looseness of their carriage--their deathless attachment to freedom--their aversion to anything indecorous or soft or mean--the practical acknowledgment of the citizens of one state by the citizens of all other states--the fierceness of their roused resentment--their curiosity and welcome of novelty--their self-esteem and wonderful sympathy--their susceptibility to a slight--the air they have of persons who never knew how it felt to stand in the presence of superiors--the fluency of their speech--their delight in music, a sure symptom of manly tenderness and native elegance of soul--their good temper and open-handedness--the terrible significance of their elections, the President's taking off his hat to them, not they to him--these too are unrhymed poetry. It awaits the gigantic and generous treatment worthy of it."--Preface, "Leaves of Grass" (1855)

Toby Bronstein:
This story, from its beginning, grabbed my heart and wouldn't let go. I didn't know Danny Pearl, nor am I a journalist. But his kidnapping and subsequent murder are emblematic of the events of Sept. 11, displaying in ghastly focus the savagery we're dealing with--then and now.

Heartfelt condolences to the family, friends and colleagues who have suffered such a terrible loss.

Msgr. Timothy Collins:
Cannot escape the sense that as Americans we live amongst people of great, great quality. Daniel Pearl enriched lives. One can never be sufficiently grateful; one can pray and remember--and try to be worthy of a noble life.

Michael Brown:
As an American and a subscriber to The Wall Street Journal (print and online), I was deeply saddened to learn of Daniel Pearl's murder. The Journal is my daily newspaper, and I am fond of all the contributors who help me understand the world and life a little better every day. I did not know Daniel, but I am poorer for his loss.

This tragic episode has further solidified my thinking on two items. First, I believe that we should set aside the label terrorist, and start calling these people by a more accurate descriptor, murderers. This would eliminate the ability of the relativists in our midst to find justification or meaning in their actions Second, this event, like the events of Sept. 11, has exposed the bankruptcy of Islam as it is taught and practiced in many places in the world. My condolences to the Pearl family and The Wall Street Journal's staff. You are in my family's prayers.

John Ambrose:
May I express my sincere condolences for the loss of your friend and colleague, Danny Pearl. Although I did not know him, I remember his wonderfully written, always insightful articles in the Journal. I write this on the fourth anniversary of the death of my own father, who shared Danny Pearl's fundamental decency and expansive attitude toward life. The deaths of good people, although devastating to those left behind, are still, in a sense, joyous events to all people of faith. We can only imagine what kind of new existence our departed friends and loved ones begin with their passing.

I believe that the best way for all of you to honor his memory is to maintain the high standard of ethical journalism that not only characterized his work but is the hallmark of the finest daily in the country. May God be with his family and all of you during this time.

Anne Elizabeth Brown:

The world mourns
the violent passing of a gentle spirit
a defender of everyman's "right to a voice"
Who gave his life
for his belief
that everyone's story should be heard
(right or very wrong). A brilliant wit
a courageous heart
A terrible waste that he should have been
so prematurely uprooted
What we could have learned . . . have understood
from this man's passion, to unearth
what it is that drives others
what makes us, as men, tick
Now, all eyes watch his gracious widow
for clues to how deeply this one man
might personally effect each one of us.
We see in her eyes, her unwavering conviction;
the spirit of her lost husband, a spirit of
hope, courage, and undying faith in love

Mark Adams:
Please add my sorrow to the rest. I don't know Daniel Pearl. I don't know you, but his death shows that good and evil are simple. A man employed in good work--fact finding, truth telling--is killed by evildoers--liars, truth twisters. Good and evil are not complex. It's the mix in us which is complex. The golden rule is responsibility for what we do. If I lie, I am a liar. If I murder, I am a murderer. If it's any consolation to Mrs. Pearl or to you, Mr. Pearl's ordeal will add to the strength of truth and good.

David Lloyd-Jones:
Danny Pearl's last words, "I am a Jew and my father is a Jew," remind one of Akiva's remark just before his murder by the Romans, by tearing his flesh off with pincers, at dawn: "They give me the chance to say Shema Israel! as it should be said."

Danny Pearl died with his Shema Israel! on his lips--and President Bush spoke for us all when he said, in Beijing, "God bless Danny Pearl."