As a child I slept squarely in the middle of my mattress. What if, I wondered, someone was under my bed? And what if he had a gun? If I carelessly allowed one of my limbs to drift over the edge of the mattress, he would surely shoot it. That fear, which I now realize was totally irrational, paralyzed me as a child, until, of course, the morning sun poured into my room and assuaged my fear.
Later, as an 8th grader, I watched the conflict in the Persian Gulf with horror. What if, I wondered, Saddam’s planes flew over Chicago and bombed us like our planes were bombing Iraq? Somewhere along the line, a teacher, a parent or a friend assured me that our country is safe. Nothing had ever happened here before.
Since then, I’ve rarely plagued myself with the “what if?” question as it relates to national security. That changed forever Tuesday.
Consider these questions: What if you have never committed a crime, never stolen a thing, never hurt another person? What if today you woke up and found yourself accused of a crime you did not commit? What if when you arrived at work, you found your boss uncharacteristically cold? What if you found people accusing you of being a terrorist or, worse, of killing Americans? What if people told you to go back to your own country?
Because I am white, I will not have to face these “what if?” questions. But today and tomorrow and for years to come, people of Middle Eastern descent will be forced to answer these questions.
These feelings clearly grow out of anger and fear. But they do prove that certain citizens of the United States of America will find themselves treated differently. People will look at them differently, trust them less and speak to them differently.
This country has many white criminals, many African-American criminals, many Hispanic-American criminals, and many Middle Eastern criminals. But there are more than 6 million Muslims living within the United States. Only a few, very extreme criminals perpetrated this crime. If we as a society condemn those who may look like the people we suspect of these crimes against humanity, then we have lowered ourselves to the level of the criminals.
These acts of terrorism are awful because they stripped thousands of our countrymen of their lives, their liberty and their pursuit of happiness. We hold those values close to our hearts. But if in our anger we as a country turn around and usurp life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness from other citizens, then we, too, are criminals, and we are only perpetuating this horrid cycle of violence.
