another interesting point of view

["Shahab Mesbah" <meteor2@moscow.com>]

Dear Friends,

The following letter was written by a friend, Liam Randall, and sent to
three of NPR's news programs, as well as a few other places. I was very
impressed with the principles stated in the letter... enjoy!

"Your brother in arms"
Shahab...


Friends:

I am the Caucasian husband of an American Indian professional woman who
works as an epidemiologist for our Federal Government's Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention.  She is currently a doctoral candidate at the
University of North Carolina's School of Public Health.  I would like to
present a point of view which I have not yet seen represented in the media
on a subject which has been given a great deal of attention, to the credit
of our leaders and media.

In the wake of our great calamity, some of us have succumbed to their baser
natures and seen fit to treat fellow citizens as scapegoats for their grief
and rage.  People with different clothes, such as turbans or scarves, or who
because of dark hair and complexions look like they may be from the Middle
East, have become targets for evil looks, epithets, violence, and even
murder.  I am sad to say that those whose ancestors met and welcomed the
first visitors and immigrants to these shores hundreds of years ago, usually
to their immediate or eventual regret, are also in this group.  My wife, who
is full-blood Nez Perce, and quite dark, with long, dark hair, has been
getting more than the usual amount of stares, lately accompanied by
finger-pointing and whispers. Her Indian colleagues have confirmed that it
is not just her imagination:  all around the country they are seeing the
same thing.

Can you imagine how it feels to an American Indian to be told to "go back
where you came from?"  What a terrible irony.  Whether a Brahmin in a Boston
mansion, a member of an old Savannah family, or a descendant of the founding
governors of New Mexico, to these people every one of us is an immigrant.
My father has ancestors who came on the Mayflower.  My mother was the
daughter of Italians who came through Ellis Island, and felt the pain of
prejudice.  She spent her life championing civil rights, subscribing to
Ebony Magazine in the early 1960s, arguing for equality, often to the
derision of her neighbors and some members of her own family, and eventually
living the last 25 years of her life on the Nez Perce Indian Reservation, of
which she wrote that she could "breathe no other air."  She is buried in my
wife's family cemetery; she is the only non-Indian buried there.  But not
everyone can see others as anything but "other."

Think: does anyone imagine that the men who committed these acts were
wearing desert robes, turbans, and swords?  They were able to do what they
did because they looked pretty much like anyone else in the airport.  And
this is the difficulty we face in fighting this menace--he is not what we
expect.

This is the strength of the United States of America: it is the most diverse
nation in the world.  We embody some of the spirit of all the world's
peoples.  Now we continue to face our greatest test: to embrace all our
differences rather than seeing them as obstacles or sources of fear and
mistrust.  So many have risen to the challenge and given us reason to be
proud, yet a few still bring us shame by yielding to ignorance, fear and
hatred.  This is how the terrorist wins.

The way we win is this: unite in ways that we never imagined, both within
our nation and around the world.  Recognize that what we have in common
counts for much more than anything else.  In the long run, nothing else
counts for much at all.