(Lex Marshall submitted this letter because he and his wife, Ruth, have wonderful memories of a month they spent around the holidays with the Gantt family in Chadds Ford.)

Usually at this time of the year the major interest of Australians is the things they need to do around Christmas, the status of the Australian cricket team, the cost of fuel, and, to a much lesser extent, their opinion of their political leaders.

Today, none of that matters.

Almost the only thing that Australians are discussing today is the tragedy in Sydney. For any American who is unaware of what happened, here is a brief summary: A 50-year-old man who had come to Australia from Iran claiming to be a political refugee used a shotgun to take 17 people hostage in a Sydney coffee lounge on Dec. 15. Heavily armed police converged at the scene and experienced negotiators attempted to resolve the situation.

During the day and evening a number of the hostages escaped when the gunman was distracted. When police heard gunshots, they stormed the lounge, where they found the gunman dead, as well as two of the hostages.

Investigators learned the gunman was a self-proclaimed Islamic cleric known to police. What all Australians want to know is why this man was in a position to commit this horrible crime. At the time of the incident, he was on bail. He had been charged with being an accessory to the murder of his wife and was also charged with around 40 different sexual violence matters. Previously he had been convicted of sending hate mail to the families of Australian soldiers who had been killed in Afghanistan.

Since then, Australians have not only paid tribute to the slain hostages, but they have also voiced defiance: You cannot and will not beat us with any act of violence.

One example of this attitude is contained in an email that has circulated widely:

I just caught a train home through the central Sydney line. The mood was very different to my usual Monday afternoon trip home. Less people were looking down at their phones. As you walked past complete strangers they gave you a little nod and a smile. As I got off at central station I saw two grown men in suits run into each other, they obviously knew one and other. They gave each other a manly hug and asked "how ya goin?"... they both responded with "Yeah... shit day but good, I'm going good mate."

I realised on my trip home that terrorism WILL NEVER work in Australia. We are not scared. We are not terrorised. We are gravely concerned about our brothers and sisters in that coffee shop. But you will not win. You will never be able to tear apart this nation.

Why? Because we have a weapon stronger than yours. Stronger than your religious beliefs, stronger than your hatred, stronger than your pathetic fear mongering, stronger than your misguided violence, stronger than you. We are Australians and we have a secret weapon you will never have or understand...mateship. We are a nation of mates who will never be broken by the actions of a cowardly few.

What I realised on the way home was; that in your attempt to scare our nation you have galvanised our mateship. You failed. Amen.

No doubt most Australians will soon begin to think about the holidays, cricket, the cost of fuel, and even their opinions of their political leaders. But we will not forget the two dead heroes of this tragic siege, and we will be pressing the need for much more stringent assessments when persons charged with serious offences are seeking bail.

Lex Marshall

Adelaide, South Australia