Editor,
I realize that this is a subject that has already been addressed numerous times on radio and in the pages of the Daily Lobo since Tuesday's events. However, I feel that it is of such importance that it cannot be discussed enough.
What happened Tuesday was not just a crime against the American people, it was a crime against the whole of humanity. It did, though, serve to intensify my pride in being American.
However, when I see and hear other Americans engaging in hate-mongering and the dissemination of racist rhetoric against our Arab-American brothers, quite frankly, I'm embarrassed. That's not what being American is about.
I have loved ones of Egyptian and Palestinian heritage, and I abhor the possibility of hate crimes or bigoted rhetoric being directed at them. When one engages in the perpetration of hate crimes, one lowers oneself to the same level as those who committed Tuesday's travesties.
Such bigots are of the same mindset that bred the heinous crimes that we witnessed in New York City and Washington, D.C.
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Like all Americans, I am angry and offended by Tuesday's terrible deeds and believe that the perpetrators of these terrorist acts need to be dealt with swiftly and severely. However, I also feel that the only long-lasting solution is to stand together as human beings to put our important, but small, differences aside for a while and start to look at what we all have in common - our humanity.
I want my Muslim and Arab-American brethren to know that just like the terrorists who committed these atrocious acts constitute but a minute percentage of Muslims and Arabs, these hate-mongers who ignorantly sling racist rhetoric in your direction are but an insignificant minority of the rest America.
So, I urge everyone to stand up with all good Americans, those of every ethnicity and religious background - Arabic, Asian, African, European, Latino, Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu. Fight the small, but vocal, minority of hate-mongers out there who would use Tuesday's events as an excuse to voice their racist rhetoric and further their warped agendas.
There's a fine line between pride and prejudice, and it would be all too easy for us, as Americans, to cross that line. Let's be an example and show the rest of the world that we're better than that.
Joshua Narcisso
Undergraduate student
