I remember after 9/11, that afternoon, I went to pick up my son from daycare. I was living in Orange County, California... a politically left state in America, but a particularly conservative area (voting wise). I had chosen a good family to watch my son, since I needed to work and I was in college at the time. I didn't think anything of the fact that what had happened was to affect my own life so directly, not because I am so self centered, but because the world is small even though it is so large. I knew no one in any of the parts that had been "attacked" and I was not personally connected. I was in my early 20s at the time when this happened and had not a lot of life experience, I wasn't worldly and while the images I saw on the television disturbed me, I didn't realize how sheltered I was living in America. The point of my post though, I picked up my son and the woman who watched him, Sayeeda, she answered the door and she was in tears. 2 other parents had withdrawn their children from daycare and her family was already beginning to receive threats. This was before the onslaught of the media, but it had already begun. I didnt withdraw my son. Her family was amazing with him, it was like having him in a home and loving environment even though I couldn't be there. But the whole thing opened my eyes. She was one of the nicest women I could have ever known and it didn't dawn on me, until then that the treatement of people was so messed up. I love how you explain on the end that extremism isn't confined to a religion or race. I have been in this debate with my mother for years. She is now passed, but it took me years of debating before she could see this as true. I always thought it was like if people used the KKK as a sample of Christians.

Hatred is easy. It takes many, standing up for what is right, to see the light. I love your message and I agree about the media. If it helps, I am sorry it is like this. Blessed be.