Daniel Berczik

On the morning of September 11, I was working for Morgan Stanley at a branch office. My co-workers and I watched helplessly as our manager frantically tried to find out what was happening to our friends and colleagues. Thankfully, through the brave efforts of a great man named Rick Rescorla, almost all survived. We lost Rick in the bargain, but he taught us all that we are not to be helpless.

Soon after the attacks, we were treated to admonitions that not only did we have it coming, but also that on balance a few thousand dead was small payback for every past US transgression. This is not the answer to terror. The recent attacks on London, my daughter's home and the muse of my imagination since childhood, further illustrates the depravity of those who would murder denizens of the most open city in the world and prey on it graces.

I was raised to understand that liberal democracy is worth having and that the liberal ideal dies unless vigorously defended. By signing this statement and associating myself with its signatories, I pledge to follow Rick Rescorla's example by defending democracy and refusing to be helpless.