I will never forget that day. As I was dressing for work, I had the television on and stopped to watch in horror as the planes flew into the twin towers and they collapsed before my eyes.
It still brings tears to my eyes and pain to my heart as I remember. I hope we never forget that day and that the horror never fades from our hearts and minds.
The next day I wrote the following. Little did I know then the "witch hunt" that was to come or how so many would be so ill-treated by the American government that I was so proud of that day. I had no idea that history was about to repeat itself, nor that many of those responsible would still be free even six years in the future.
Yesterday our whole world changed. We learned that we were no longer safe here in America. We learned that evil knows no borders or boundaries. It is a lesson our parents and grandparents already knew, but we in the 50 and under age group had only heard about it in history books. Yet even our parents and grandparents could not have imagined the horror that touched our world yesterday. Pearl Harbor was an act of war and not an act of terrorism.
I have cried many tears and my heart is heavy in my chest. One incident stands out in my mind, horrifies me and fills me with shame. It is a though, a feeling that I felt briefly yesterday and the terror is that it is in the hearts and minds of many Americans right now.
On one news report we heard in the words of the witnesses the horror they felt at watching the planes plow into the World Trade Center. One of the voices I heard was that of someone with an Arabic accent. For one brief second, I felt anger that the person would dare to describe to me the horror of what they had seen. Then I was horrified with myself for even thinking that way.
I have never been prejudice. I have always treated everyone the same and have friends of many races. We are all people. We all have hopes, dreams, and suffer pain. The color of someone’s skin or the place of his or her birth has no bearing on what is inside them. I believe there are more good people than bad people of every race. The Muslims and/or Arabic people are no different.
Only a very small faction of the Muslim Religion is extremist. The Koran teaches that if you commit suicide you will go to Hell. No true Muslim would ever commit the autocracies that we witnessed yesterday. Yet already we are seeing Americans striking out at their fellow Americans and vandalism being perpetrated at Muslim Mosques. In Texas, a window was shot out at a Muslim Mosque. I fear this is only the beginning of the horrors we will hear in the coming weeks and months.
The American people are so angry that they are searching for someone to strike out at and they are striking out at themselves. By committing these acts of violence against Muslim Americans, we are acting no better than the terrorists who bombed our great land. In fear and hatred, a small group of Americans are hurting innocent people. The worst thing is that the American people of Arabic descent are experiencing the same horror and pain as we all are, but now they must fear for their lives. It brings to mind the U.S. concentration camps that the U.S. sent our Japanese and German Americans to during World War II, a horrible black mark on our history that most don't like to think about.
It’s time for us all to stop and take stock, to look within and without and realize that the enemy is not Muslims, but a band of terrorists. Our government is seeking them out and they will find them. Our government will decide how best to deal with them and we the American people will be right behind them, all of us of all races, colors, and religions.
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