Abdul and 9/11
On September 11, 2001 I was on my way from Springfield, IL to Bloomington, IL to buy a new car. There is a Mitsubishi plant there and I liked the model. On the way there on I-55 I had the radio on. I was listening to the local news when it was reported a plane had hit one of the Twin Towers. Like many of you I thought it was a small plane and did not think more of it. That was until the next 767 hit. My 60-mile drive became a very surreal experience. I didn’t know exactly what to think until I got to the dealership. They had on Fox News. I can still hear the newscast and see the pictures of the flames and rubble in my mind’s eye. Oddly enough I did complete my transaction and later drove to the home of my best friend. I sat and watched ABC News for an hour. That was where I saw the second plane hit the tower. I got in my car and drove back to Springfield. Being the state Capitol you would expect it to be busy, but it became ghost town. The government was closed and most of the city was shut down. I spent the rest of the day watching footage.
It took a while for me to fully grasp what had happened. My grandfather had Pearl Harbor. I had 9/11. For the next couple weeks I couldn’t look in the sky at an airplane without thinking if that was the next one to be hijacked and turned into a weapon. 9/11 stuck with me for very long time. It even impacted my annual travel plans. I usually go to Seattle every other year for about 2-3 weeks. This year I wasn’t planning to go until a friend from law school told me, and it sounded corny at the time, “if you don’t go, the bad guys win.” Truer words were never spoken. I had to admit I was nervous but then I thought what idiot would try to hijack a plane with dozens of able-bodied American men and women who were willing to take action, particularly one who wouldn’t mind getting his picture on the cover of Time or Newsweek and becoming a hero. I actually had a good time.
I will admit having a name like “Abdul” in a post 9/11 world is something not a lot of people have to deal with. And for a while, I know some folks I met over the phone were relieved when they realized I was Black; although I do get the occasional reminder, even five years later. My second day at WXNT I got an e-mail from someone saying “they didn’t want to listen to no terrorist talk radio.” I wrote him back telling him he used a double negative which meant he did want to listen to terrorist talk radio. I couldn’t resist.
But the one thing 9/11 has taught me is to not let the bad guys win by changing what’s great about America, the free flow of debate and ideas. I have never subscribed to the theory that you can’t support the troops without the supporting the war. Or engaging in dissent only emboldens the enemy. America was founded on free speech, dissent and robust debate. The debate must be responsible and it must in context. But they day we censor ourselves because of what other people might hear is the day the bad guys win because they will have forever changed America, and not for the better.
