Bravo!
Erek
I’m saddened to hear that redtail. Nothing’s happened here in Stillwater or on OSU’s campus as of this afternoon. Everyone I’ve seen has been going out of their way to try to keep things from getting too tense.
Again, in my backyard. There’s a street here in Providence that I’ve loved since I was a kid, it’s kinda eclectic and funky, like a mini Haight-Ashbury or Newberry St. Lots of kids hang out there, some are your typical gutterpunk types, others are the kinda pseudo-hippies that panhandle, even though you can tell they live on the Upper East Side with mommy and daddy… Anyway. My housemate walked by a group of them who were harrassing an overweight Mexican woman, saying “Look at her, she’s so fat she’s probably got a bomb under her shirt, the fucking Arab.”
Rasa: I cried when I read your first post about the Indian man. I wept again when I heard on the news that a Muslim student was attacked and "pelted with eggs while the attackers chanted “Die Muslim Die.”
I was expressing my outrage to my Aunt today about things just like this. She said that people are afraid. I’m sorry, that doesn’t excuse racism and bigotry. Fear is one thing, I understand fear. I feel it deep inside, and have every moment since Tuesday morning. Beating people for the religion and taunting women because they look Arab are not acts of fear.
I thought my heart had broken on Tuesday.
I was wrong. Whatever was left is well and truly broken by these horrific stories, and the ones I have seen on the news. I join Irishman in his feelings. I am proud to be an American, and I am sick to know that any of my fellow citizens could behave this way. And while I am at it, let me say that I feel the same way about racists of any kind. The gay bashers, people who think that the color of your skin makes you less, somehow, than the rest of us. People who feel that your religion makes you less. I cannot comprehend, I do not ACCEPT this.
I NEVER will.
Scotti
“Get your stinking, filthy religion out of my country. Get your stinking, filthy, Islamic Muslim religion, or whatever you call it, it’s not a religion, out of my country.”
–found on an answering machine at the Islamic Center of New England
One of my girlfriend's students commuted into Logan Tuesday. He was detained and questioned by FBI agents for two hours. They thought his pager was a bomb. He is black. (Note that this is a FOAF story, so some "facts" may be exagerated.)
Has Bush – or Powel, or Kennedy, or anyone in an official capacity – made a general plea to Americans to not harrass those of Arab descent? I’ve been following the news pretty closely, and I can’t recall any such request. I may have simply missed it, but such a thing seems conspicuous in its absence.
Bush has. I saw it on either CNN or ABC, I forget which.
So have Governor Pataki (sp?) and Mayor Giuliani (again sp?).
You’re right.
“And as we do so, I urge – I know I don’t need to tell you all this – but our nation must be mindful that there are thousands of Arab-Americans who live in New York City, who love their flag just as much as the three of us do, and we must be mindful that as we seek to win the war that we treat Arab-Americans and Muslims with the respect they deserve. I know that is your attitude as well – certainly the attitude of this government: that we should not hold one who is a Muslim responsible for an act of terror.”
–G. W. Bush
Good on him.
Nothing has really happened here, thank God, but…
At the Citadel, my nephew has a large group of friends still. (He graduated in May.) A lot of these kids are Muslim, and he met them because his old roomie was active in the Muslim Youth Group there. He emailed a couple of general emails to the kids to let them know his old roomie was ok. (Old roomie had an interview at the WTC at 1:00 on Tuesday.) One of the kids emailed him back to tell him that they are scared to leave their rooms, because they are scared that they will be attacked.
These poor kids are afraid to go to class, because they are scared of getting jumped. They are here to get an education, and many of them have plans to join the military after college. Hell, most of them were BORN here.
Why are people so friggin’ ignorant?
with trying to find something to do in reaction to all that’s happened this week. Something more personal than giving blood and money (though those are important,too.)
So today being Friday, the Muslim “sabbath”, I bought a couple bunches of flowers and went to the nearest mosque (found it in the Yellow Pages) and handed a flower to each of the people arriving for the 1:00 service, wishing them “salaam” (peace) just to show we’re not all filled with hate.
I hope I didn’t commit any cultural faux pas. Perhaps they thought I was just wierd, but I hope they understood.
I feel so much better today.
As I said, Gov. Keating, David Boren (ex-Senator and current president of OU), and other civic and religious leaders have been standing up for our Muslim and Semitic communities.
Today I watched part of the memorial service held at the Murrah Memorial. They had the head of one of the local Islamic organizations as a speaker. He looked awful - said he’d not changed clothes in two days because he’s been so busy and looked it - but he spoke well. He said that he has received many calls and messages from Oklahomans expressing their support and their understanding that all Muslim and all Middle Eastern people can NOT be held guilty for the actions of a few fanatics.
He said that he had received NOT ONE hate message.
More than that, I looked carefully as the cameras scanned repeatedly through the crowd. I saw many people of apparent Middle Eastern / Semitic origin; I saw many who would appear to be Muslim. (Few were in traditional dress, but many of our folks don’t wear that anyway.) I saw these people standing in the MIDST of the crowd. No separation, no pulling away - they were Oklahomans and Americans and that is what mattered and that is why they were there.
Even better, when he prayed from the Koran, I saw that most of the audience bowed their heads in prayer. I saw many repeat “Amen” at the end.
Okies drive me so damn nuts so much of the time. Lots of 'em are ignorant, arrogant, bigoted SOBs.
But sometimes I realize how many are not. And occasionally we make me so dern proud I could bust.
Last night, the Seattle Police arrested a man who had fled when he was interrupted in dumping gasoline around a local mosque.
I live just down the street from this mosque, and have looked carefully at it each time I go by, for signs of vandalism. Last night’s events were very nearly my worst fear.
However, if you go by it now, you will hardly be able to see the front steps, as they are covered in flowers left by neighbors. I take great pride in our nation that the rational so far outnumber the bigoted and ignorant. I just wish that the small minorities couldn’t hurt us so badly.