9-11 Perspectives

'It is a beautiful day, is it not?' he said almost without thought.

The woman turned to look at him. She admitted curiosity. The man was obviously Arab. Not that it bothered her. One of the things that bothered her most about that day had been the assumptions that everyone made. They all assumed that those who died in the Towers were innocent victims. And they blamed Arabs; all Arabs, even the innocent ones. She though knew the truth...no one was truly innocent or purely evil. It was a struggle, sometimes daily, that she had come to accept as she learned to mourn and accept the flawed man that had heroically given his life for strangers even as he abused those he loved.

She nodded simply, 'Yes, it is.' As her own thoughts went back to another morning, just like this one.