“You may say I’m a dreamer, but i’m not the only one…”– John Lennon

Today is always a strange day for me… It will forever be etched in my memory… I went to biology class at 8:20am in the morning and came home to take a nap since I was up cramming all night. I was awakened by a pounding on my door. People were running up and down the hall way of the floor I was responsible for as a Resident Advisor.

I had students running up to me crying, saying their brother and father worked in the World Trade Center. I didn’t know what they were talking about… My quizzical look was returned by a student who told me to turn on the television. As I turned it on, the image on the screen was the second tower being hit. I almost threw up when I went outside and saw smoke rising from the Pentagon miles away. I knew then, that America would never be the same.

Having grown up in Saudi Arabia, I knew all about checkpoints, suspicious packages, and checking under car hoods whenever we entered a new compound. I grew up watching commercials on the US Armed Forces network about how to protect yourself and your family from terrorism. I remember the occasional bomb threat at school…the Gulf War, and the invasion of Kuwait…

When I saw this happen… I knew that America would change. And with Bush in office I was fearful about our future. Of course my fears came into fruition when we invaded Afghanistan. It seemed everyone was out for blood without thinking about our foreign policy, who was really the enemy, or anything else except for revenge…

I remember organizing for anti-war marches and being yelled at and threatened by conservatives on campus. Even liberals were throwing around words like “traitor” and flag waving more than ever before to seemingly out do each other. I knew we were about to enter a new era of McCarthyist craziness when “arablover” and “liberal bitch” was scrawled on my door. I even felt sick when a frat boy came to tell me that his frat was going to “pistol whip and rape me” becuase I was against the war. Appearently, one of their brothers lost someone in his family. They needed someone to blame.

I feared for my friends. For the first time I didn’t always tell people where I grew up until I trusted them. It was a matter of safety. A matter of smarts. A matter of survival.

Since then, my passport has been looked at a little closer at airports. I get questions at customs about why I was in Saudi so long (as if as a child I could have been a part of an intricate terrorist plan)… I have been called a traitor too many times… because I know and believe wholeheartedly that peace and diplomacy are the only answer. I can’t support slaughter to make a point. I can’t support slaughter to help distract us from terrorism in our own country, homelessness, hunger, racism, sexism, violence, our sub par public educational system, and our student debt nightmare.

What happened on September 11 was dreadful. The people responsible for this terrible crime deserve the utmost punishment and damnation. War against innocent civilians
will not bring back our loved ones. It will not heal. It will only make our wounds fester, as we have seen over time. They say Iraq is Arabic for Vietnam and I believe it… We’re sending young and beautiful people with whole lives ahead of them over to suffer and/or die in a war they CANT win. You can’t fight terrorism with war. You can’t bring justice through revenge…

I’m praying for all of the people who lost loved ones. For all of the people who have loved ones fighting in Iraq right now… and for all of the civilian souls that are suffering daily in Afghanistan and Iraq for ugliness they had no part of.

I wrote the following article years ago… and it pains me that we still have so many dying, and there has been no real progression towards peace…

Saving Our Troops, Saving Ourselves
http://www.wiretapmag.org/stories/26516/