9/11, The Flip Side

Photo: 9/11 Healing Field, Tempe, AZ

We’re 20 years in now, yet sometimes it feels like yesterday. Anyone who was older than a toddler at the time will remember that day and the days that followed, where we were when we heard about the planes in NY, DC and Pennsylvania, and the emotions that stunned us in waves as we absorbed more and more of the appalling details. Speaking for myself, there’s still a twinge of bewilderment and disbelief, and I didn’t even have any personal connection to those events. I lost no one I loved or anyone I was even acquainted with, on that day or as fallout from that day. It’s simply the ludicrous expression of hate that, even now, I can’t wrap my head around.

There was indescribable destruction on 9/11- the long-term impact is immeasurable, countless echos still unheard. Any attack, whether a personal one or an all out war, will inevitably evoke an emotional response, most notably the possibility of retaliation- understandable and occasionally, as in defense of a country, necessary. I would never be so arrogant as to diminish anyone’s experience with regard to 9/11, we all felt that some kind of response was necessary. But there’s always a flip side.

This morning I was watching the local news and it brought to mind another story that horrified me at the time, of an Arizona man who was killed shortly after 9/11.

We were living on the East Coast then but the story of Balbir Singh Sodi was broadcast nationwide. Balbir, along with his brothers Rana and Harjit, emigrated from India in the 1980’s and owned a small business in Mesa, Arizona. Mr. Sodi was Sikh, a particularly generous man of a peace-loving culture. According to a story on NPR, “On the morning of the day he died, Balbir donated the contents of his wallet to the victims of the attacks.” His brother Harjit recalled Balbir saying he would like to donate blood in order to help out. Later that day Balbir Singh Sodi died as the consequence of a another incidence of misplaced hate. Assuming Mr. Sodi was Muslim, a man shot and killed Balbir in retaliation for 9/11. Despite Balbir’s kind and friendly character being well known in his community, Rana Sodi said attitudes towards his brother and other Sikhs drastically changed following the Sept. 11 attacks. He remembers images of Osama Bin Laden on TV. “People saw only a turban and a beard,” Rana said in the NPR piece.

The flip side of hate can not be more hate. It can’t be hostility and retaliation as was the case in Mr. Sodi’s senseless death. Yes, the obvious reaction to being attacked is to respond in kind. We do not need to love our enemy but we do need, at the very least, to accurately identify them and rely on the appropriate entity for an informed response. There were, and are, specific people and organizations responsible for the 9/11 attacks. All are beyond the power of each of us as individuals to deal with.

Had we lived in Arizona as we do now, Mr. Sodi may have been a neighbor or a friend. We might have frequented his gas station, or waved as we passed by. It’s almost unimaginable to me now. My heart goes out to everyone who was touched in any way by the horrifying events on 9/11, to their families, friends and neighbors, to the first responders, all who put themselves in harms way to help, to our heroes in health care, and to the many citizens and their families who, like Balbir Singh Sodi were affected in the aftermath by narrow-minded retribution.

Please let the flip-side of 9/11 be more friendship and kindness, love and respect toward the people in our neighborhoods, the folks who run the small businesses in our communities, and the people we pass on the street. We simply can not let hate win.