President's Message - It's Time to Respond! November 2001

Our nation has been changed forever! No longer will our families be totally safe from our enemies when we are well within the borders of our own country. No longer will we board airplanes and travel without a second thought of who else might be on the plane with us. Our nation has been violated, our people killed, our largest city devastated, our economic institutions decimated, our personal security destroyed. Thousands are dead! Thousands of our children are without parents, thousands of wives without husbands, husbands without wives, parents without children! Thousands of lives destroyed. Why? Because they hate us! Why do they hate us? What have we done to them? What did these innocent people do to them? They hate us because of how we live. They hate us because of our prosperity; because we are successful. They hate us because we have what they can never have because of their way of life, their government, their mindset and their philosophy. They have been taught to hate since they were children and they will teach it to their children. For them hate is a way of life. It is their culture. It has been their culture for centuries, for millenniums. It goes back as far as the oldest books to the earliest records of that region of the world. They know no other way!

And who are "they?" That is a much tougher question! "They" are not a country. "They" are not a people. "They" are not all Afghans and certainly not all Muslims. They are numerous and they are well-organized and well-led, but they are of many countries and it appears they are of several nationalities.

In our culture a murderer is condemned. In their culture a murderer is celebrated as long as he killed someone else and not one of them. They have several new heroes today. They are heroes because they died in their quest to kill innocent men, women and children, and they are heroes because they killed so many. We cannot understand it. We will never be able to understand it.

But although we do not understand, we must respond. We are put in the position of having to destroy those who would destroy us. Taking lives and destroying anything is not our way. It would be easier if there were some way we could make peace with them - if they wanted something from us, or if we could stop doing what ever it is that is causing them to hate us. But they want nothing from us. They have made no demands on us. They just want to kill us and to destroy the way we live because they hate us!

Of course we must stop them from accomplishing their goal. Our first natural response would be to hate them in return. If we do that we become like them. Hatred will destroy us as a people as certainly as it has destroyed them as individuals. Since it is our destruction that they seek, our hatred towards them would in itself be a victory for them.

So we must not hate, but we must respond with the resolve to take this to the finish and to remove terrorism and terrorists from the face of the planet. These people do not want to be removed from the planet. They are counting on the American people to not have the resolve to strike back. They have good reason to count on it. They have never seen Americans be resolved to do anything in regards to protecting itself from other nations. Most of them are much too young to remember World War II. They have watched us time and again get involved in skirmishes only to walk away after a few years, a few months or even a few weeks with the job unfinished: Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm, attacks on our military bases, on our embassies and countless other incidences. They do not doubt our power. They doubt our resolve!

One of our nation's leaders said it best, "They do not have the power to destroy us, but they have the resolve to destroy us. We have the power to destroy them but not the resolve." Without resolve, power is of no benefit.

They will have the power to destroy us only if we give them that power. Many people do not understand that the factor that has made America great is our economy. It is our free enterprise system and the companies that operate within it that have created our prosperity. Our prosperity is what creates our strength as a world power as well as our wonderful way of life. If those who hate us can destroy the economic fiber of our country, they can destroy our nation and our way of life as we know it. That is why they struck the very heart of our economic infrastructure - the World Trade Center - which is not only the best known symbol of our economic system, but the very heart of our financial institutions.

Our economy is a very dynamic but delicate system. It is based on the profitability of the hundreds of companies that provide jobs, opportunity, goods and services and our way of life. If those companies suffer, we suffer. If they fail, we fail. A ten percent drop in sales will destroy many companies and do serious damage to most. When a company loses revenue it must adjust by reducing expenses. Layoffs are the quickest way to reduce costs. People without jobs cannot buy products, causing other companies to lose revenues that cause them to layoff more people - thus creating a chain reaction that can only be broken by a major stimulation to the economy. This stimulation can only be caused by either the private sector, business sector, or the government beginning to spend money - in other words, if someone begins to buy something!

People all over are asking, what can we do? The important answer to them is: Go buy something! Support your local businesses. Keep the economy going. The worst thing you can do is stop living the way you are used to. I do not mean go out and max the credit card or spend more than you can afford. I mean, if you were going to buy a new dress, this is the week to buy it. If you were thinking about buying a new car, do it this month. If we stop supporting business, businesses will not be able to support us by providing us with jobs and goods and services - not to mention pay income taxes that fund our government. If our economy falters, the terrorists win. They accomplish everything they set out to do. We should respond to them, not run from them. We should respond to them militarily as well as economically - with tremendous resolve!

The vast majority of our Melaleuca family have full-time jobs. With the challenges to our economy, your employer needs your support now more then ever! As part of your response to these terrorists, regardless of who you work for, be the best employee you can be. Be upbeat in the workplace. Speak positively about your employer. Be supportive. Accomplish more. Work harder and smarter. I'm speaking not only to the Americans but our Canadian friends as well. We are all in this together. Those who hate us have declared war on our families, our society, our way of life and our future. It is time for us to respond! Go out and buy something! And be more productive!

Those who are building a Melaleuca business... you know what to do! It's time for us to respond! All of us!

Sincerely,

Frank L. VanderSloot
President/CEO

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