WE BECAME MEAN

During that morning I spent an hour in the empty conference room watching the news. The mathematics of the event was staggering. There were only three other people in the office. The UPS delivery man had informed me "we've been attacked" when I first arrived at work, and the events on the television screen showed how, when, and what.

I left before twelve, first going over to Monzer's eatery, where his employee at the time, whose name I don't remember, was cleaning up and nearly in tears. Then I visited Abdullah and his family. They were in a state of shock.
I was worried about these people, whom I had known for years. We were all familiar with mob "sanity", and remembered what had happened after Oklahoma City.

San Francisco (and my office) came through splendidly.

It cannot have been easy to be a Muslim in America during the months afterward, but we tried not to make it hard. At least I don't think so.
We're better than the rest of the country.

American citizen Hassan Awdah, the owner of the Marathon gas station, behind bulletproof glass Sept. 12, 2001 in Gary, Indiana.

[SOURCES: NBC NEWS - Aftermath and SFGate - Backlash.]

I still remember the face of the gentleman behind the fractured station window as shown above. Someone had fired an assault rifle.


As a nation we got plenty of chances to show what hatreds simmer here, and we did. Abundantly. There have been eighteen years of it.


Xenophobia has become the dominant culture.




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