R000996
Saturday, March 16, 2002 2:37 PM
In Memory of
And So Many More
FOR THE RECORD: I am a Christian heterosexual woman who has been married to
the same man for over twenty years and I am OUTRAGED at the treatment given
to the families of the homosexual victims of September 11.
I do not want to believe that my fellow Americans can assert that the pain
and suffering of these people somehow matters less simply because of their
sexual preferences. They are as God made them, just as we heterosexuals
are--as beautiful, as loved, and as worthy of being loved as are we.
Three of these victims have received special attention in all this-- , who helped keep one of the planes from crashing into the U.S.
Congress; , who died while ministering to one of the World
Trade Center victims; and , who was the of the plane
that crashed into the Pentagon. We have seen their faces--heard from their
families--mourned their loss. How can we now deny them equal dignity? How
do we declare the lines of these heroes unworthy of recognition?
The fight for civil rights, fur the human rights of our fellow citizens still
has a long way to go in this country. A fitting step, and appropriate step,
an imperative step in this march should be and can be and--please God--WILL
be equal treatment under the law and equal treatment in love for all of US
who have been touched by this event.
Our response to their carnage was to pull together. No one asked about the
color of the victims pulled out of the wreckage. No one refused to be
rescued by a Good Samaritan who didn't have matching skin color. No one
demanded that his or her donation go only to those who showed the proper
church attendance. Let's not start doing identity checks now.
Our enemies declare people non-persons on the basis of difference from
themselves and use that declaration to justify their actions. They proclaim
the bombings justified because we do not share their faith. Their women are
treated as property because they do not share the Taliban's physiology.
Those of their own people who disagree with them are tortured and killed for
sport in the name of their God. Our country, our own president has declared
this behavior EVIL. Let us not imitate them.
We know better. Our history as a nation of immigrants has taught us how much
stronger we get when we accept the unique gifts that every group of people
has brought to our shores. Let us not turn our back on who we are. Let's
not let the Taliban win.
Patriotic American
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