Posted on 10/21/2001 9:50:35 PM PDT by Atticus
This evening I had dinner at an Indian (Hindu) restaurant in Montclair, New Jersey. During the meal, several people at our table were discussing pictures of the World Trade Center (pre-9/11) that were on display at a framing gallery next door. When we left the restaurant, I decided to check the pictures out for myself. It was a wonderful tribute: an American flag surrounded by four or five balck and white posters and photographs of the twin towers taken from different angles, some during the day, some at night.
Then something surreal happened. As we started to walk toward our car, three Arab men in their early 20s passed us. I am no expert in ethnic identity, but I am absoltely sure the men were Arab and definitely not Indian or hispanic. They were speaking to each other in their native tongue. As they walked past the storefront with the pictures of the WTC, one of the men looked at the pictures and then said something to his friends to draw their attention to the pictures. Then the three of them bursted out laughing and walked away. My blood boiled and I shouted at them. I think my words were, "Hey, you think that's funny, you f*#%ing Arabs?" They just waled along, oblivious to me. It was a sad and chilling experience.
It should be noted that the poster who asked the question didn't answer. It appears that he only wanted to incite the crowd. Kinda like the guys who always yells (from the back of the mob) "lets get em". They never do anything or have any ideas, they just slink away to a safe place and watch the fun as everyone runs past them.
Cut me some slack, Thomas J. I didn't slink away, although I admit I never got around to responding to your post #133. I posted my eyewitness account after midnight on Sunday. I was not prepared for the debate--let alone the fury--it stirred. I know that several people have argued that I should not have been jumping to any conclusions about what I saw because I don't speak Arabic, etc. But, to quote Lou Costello, I saw what I saw when I saw it.
As for the question of what we do about the enemies in our midst, I posed the question because I do not have the answers. My aim was not to inflame or incite. I can't debate all of the solutions offered on this thread (deportation, internment, nuclear bombardment, etc.). I do agree that private citizens play a major role in maintaining the peace. That means not being afraid to confront people who are acting disrepectful or suspicious -- or to call the FBI or the police when your instincts tell you something is not right. It means being watchful. It means putting political correctness aside. Someone suggested that if my instincts had been wrong and the three guys were really loyal Americans making an anti-Bin Ladin joke, I deserved to be decked. Well, that's a chance I'll just have to take.
In fact,my reply(#190 ??)is a whole thread which started on 10-21-2001...called "Citizen Army/Citizen Alert"...didn't even see it till about an hour ago...read the thread...ya woke a few folks up!!
Can I quote #3?
Yeah. Just some isolated criminals without the support of anyone. Talking does seem to be a waste of time, in this case, its true.
I think it is going to take a nuc going off on American soil to get them to wise up, and even that may not convince them.
Or they might have been saying "Wait til they see what happens to the Super Bowl!" I'd rather be wrong and do something to prevent another ATROCITY than be right but have done nothing for the sake of Political Correctness. Political Correctness has already killed thousands of Americans this year, it's way over quota.
As a general rule I wouldn't shout obscenities, but rather I would submit my concerns to the FBI as described above, or even better, take a picture with my disposable camera...
...where did I call anyone racist?...
three potential Arabs showed their true colors by laughing and speaking in their native tongue...
In the first quote you insinuate, and while not actually stating it, it is doubtful that you could be more clear unless you actually said "you are a racist." That answers the question you ask in your second quote. In your third quote you present out of context by neglecting to mention that these "potential arabs" were laughing at an inappropriate place and time, again insinuating racism. You are playing word games. Why?
If you are mugged by an oriental, say, is it racism to tell the cops that it was an oriental? Or is it pertinent? If the poster thought they were arabs (correctly or not) and thought they behaved suspiciously (by apparently laughing at pictures of an atrocity perpetrated by arabs and applauded by arabs) then the poster had every reason and every right to become angry. I don't know how I would have reacted, had I been the witness of these events - maybe the same, maybe differently. I wasn't there, so I will never have exactly the right context. You could be saying "Here's what/what not to do in those situations" as have so many above, but you seem instead to want to oppose any perspective that isn't quite politically correct enough; divisive rather than unifying approaches. What's up with that?
We would have lost World War II if people back then had your attitude. We did pre-judge Germans with thick accents, we didn't allow Hitler's Nazi youths to attend our universities, we didn't allow Nazis to roam freely about the United States. And during the war, anyone from Germany was suspect. I wish these Muslims were blue-eyed blonds because it seems that would be the only way we could do the right thing again.
It didn't go down that way. Read my original post and follow-ups. The speaker said something to draw attention to the photos. It was no more than a few syllables. My best guess is that he said, "Hey, Look! Look!" When the other men saw the photos, they bursted out laughing. They was no "tittering." They weren't standing around cracking jokes. It wasn't like the final Seinfeld episode where the main characters witness a carjacking and stand on the other side of the street making one fat joke after another about the victim while the crime is in progress.
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