wfn.org | Don't blame Arabs, New York survivor says

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Sept. 17, 2001 News media contact: Linda Bloom (212) 870-3803 New York
10-21-71B{400}

NOTE: This article was written as a letter to the editor to the Des Moines
(Iowa) Register. It was read during the Sept. 16 service of hope and
remembrance sponsored by the New York Annual Conference of the United
Methodist Church.

By Jay Alan Zimmerman*

NEW YORK (UMNS) - I lived the first half of my life in Oskaloosa, Iowa, and
the second half in another small town called New York City.

Tuesday morning (Sept. 11), my wife and 5-year-old son went to school the
way we always do: on a subway that goes under the World Trade Center. As
they stood in the schoolyard waiting for the teacher, a roar made them look
up. It was the first plane.

When the second one hit, I thought it was thunder. I looked out the window
of our 18th floor apartment - which we had just moved into 10 days ago - and
saw a beautiful shower of papers over Broadway. This made me happy, because
I thought it was a ticker-tape parade (I'd missed the last one for the
Yankees). As everyone knows, the day got considerably worse.

Now our home sits like a ghost, blanketed in possibly hazardous dust,
without phones, power or water, in a zone called "ground zero." At least we
hope it's still standing; they won't let us down there to find out. And
we're the lucky ones.

I know you all have been touched and hurt, possibly lost friends and family
members or know someone who did. But I hope you can do one thing for us: The
next time you hear someone say or do something hateful towards an
Arab-American or Muslim, remind them of the story of the Good Samaritan.

My wife and I were separated for over six hours that tragic day and couldn't
make contact. She didn't know if I was alive. While I trudged through thick
ash and falling papers with a T-shirt around my face, she walked uptown with
my son. She had no money, no credit cards, nothing but a key to our
apartment. After blocks and blocks of walking in the hot sun, she asked a
store owner to please give her a bottle of water even though she couldn't
pay for it. He gave it to her - and he was an Arab-American. Many more
blocks and an hour later, after trying to borrow cell phones to call me, she
went into a candy store and asked if she could use the phone. The
Arab-American manager handed it to her.

These may sound like little things, but they are big when you are in need.
In the midst of ash and destruction, I watched New Yorkers of all colors and
backgrounds suffering together and helping each other. We really are a small
town in many ways - helpful and supportive of each other in times of need -
but the majority of us are not Caucasian or Christian. My family is part of
the minority. 

I believe those who strike out at others because of their race or religion
aren't doing it to help America. They're doing it to vent their frustration
and boost their own egos. Remind them of our story, of "life, liberty and
the pursuit of happiness" for all Americans, and of the freedom of religion.

We will conquer these terrorists, not with hate and aggression, but with
what they truly fear: the power of our ideas, our individualism, our love
and our freedom. This is what built the twin towers and this is what will
build a better world.
#  #  #
*Zimmerman is a member of Park Avenue United Methodist Church in Manhattan.

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United Methodist News Service
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