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One
Year Later
BY
JUNG HEE CHOI Salman Hamdani, a 23-year-old Pakistani American, did not come home last Sept. 11. Although he was a trained emergency medical technician, government authorities and the media suspected Hamdani of being involved in the attack. But his mother knew in her heart that he was missing because had gone to the World Trade Center to help. “This boy, he would have gone there immediately,” Talat Hamdani insisted. It turns out that Hamdani, not the government, was right. Salman’s remains were discovered at Ground Zero in March, proving that he died a hero. Hamdani also disagrees with the government about the “war on terrorism.” “What [the terrorists] have done is wrong, but if we respond the same way, what is the difference between them and us?” Hamdani asks. “Whoever dies, it’s still a mother’s child that dies. Somewhere a mother cries. That is what the world does not seem to understand.” A year after the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, more people, like Hamdani, question whether war is the answer. There once seemed to be a broad consensus behind the president. But recent opinion polls now show that only 36 percent of Americans believe the country is headed in the right direction as opposed to 60 percent last March. Kelly Campbell, whose brother-in-law Craig Amundson died in the Pentagon, doubts that support for the war was ever as wide as reported in the media. “We were told that everyone supported the war. The main argument was we had to do this for the victims and their families, that revenge equals justice for the families,” Campbell says. “We didn’t feel that was true for our family. The more we spoke out, the more we talked to people, we found out this wasn’t true.” PAINFUL REALITIES Sept. 11 was followed by more violence and death, bloodshed and destruction and promises of “permanent war.” The U.S. bombed Afghanistan, killing thousands of innocent civilians but still turned up empty handed in finding Osama bin Laden. The administration has mobilized thousands of military personnel all over the world, threatening to invade dozens of countries, particularly Iraq. At home, the government has trampled on basic constitutional rights and used racial profiling to harass, detain and deport thousands of Arabs, South Asians and Muslims. Watching these events unfold post-Sept. 11 adds to the pain of losing her son, Hamdani says. “Whether it is bin Laden, whether it is Sharon, Arafat or Bush, their children are fine,” she cries. “They will keep on fighting and they will keep on killing, but they all know where their children are. But no one called us to see where are our children. Feel our pain, step into our shoes, and see how our lives have changed.” Masuda Sultan, who traveled to Afghanistan last December after 19 members of her extended family were killed during a U.S. air raid near Kandahar, questions if U.S. actions made the world any safer. “It’s difficult for me because I’m not a pacifist. I still believe that military force is sometimes necessary. But it is so clear to me that we are not any more secure.” Sultan says. “It seems like somehow we are becoming even more in danger. I wonder what kind of world we are creating.” While Bush continues to escalate violence, a growing number of people are searching for alternative solutions, particularly as a way to honor their lost loved ones. ANOTHER WORLD IS POSSIBLE Campbell, along with her husband Barry Amundson, now commits her waking hours to September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, an organization of the families of Sept. 11 victims who seek nonviolent responses to terrorism. “Our hope is that Craig will not have died in vain.” Campbell says. “We really want to take back this day, and take this time not to talk about war, but about peace and healing. This is what we can do to change the world.” Sultan, who now works for Women for Afghan Women, which seeks to empower Afghan women and girls in the New York area and in Afghanistan, realizes that achieving peace is harder than making war. “We don’t fundamentally do the work of peace because it is difficult work,” she says. “It seems easier to try to keep people that hate us at a distance, than try to figure out how to get them to look at us differently.” But peace is the only solution, concludes Hamdani, who has established a memorial fund in her son’s name at Rockefeller University, where Salman attended school. “If you want to make change, make it positively. Do it through love and compassion.” _________________________ |
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