Muslim Canadians
<http://www.nursesunions.ca/na/muslim_canadians.shtml>
Statement of Kathleen Connors, RN
President Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions
The attack of Tuesday was the worst single act of violence in North America against innocent people in my lifetime. To call it cowardly and criminal is a gross understatement. We can only hope that the perpetrators are brought to justice quickly. In the meantime, we will all mourn for the dead, the missing and their families.
Having said that, people in Canada of Arab decent and of the Muslim faith in particular are being victimized. Many of them and the symbols of Middle Eastern culture are under threat. The door of a former Mosque, for example, was set ablaze in Montreal Wednesday. Harassment of Arab-Canadians is not uncommon. Our concern is that these acts will grow in number.
Muslim Canadians, Arab Canadians are no more responsible for these acts of terror than Christian Canadians were responsible for the Oklahoma City bombing.
Nurses have traditionally been advocates for those who are vulnerable. Caring for the health of all Canadians is what nursing is about. Caring for the community is what trade union activism is all about.
From this perspective, I say that this hatred, this harassment is wrong and it's anti-Canadian. We are a multi-cultural society made up of people from all over the world. And no one .... no hate is going to take this from us. So we propose the first step in a solution.
The King of Denmark during World War II wore the Star of David on his coat in order to protect his fellow countrymen and women from harm. Today we are asking the leaders of Canada to don this sticker which says "Muslim Canadian supporter... We are all Canadian" to help protect our fellow countrymen and women and their children from harassment and worse.
There are 300,000 people in Canada of Muslim faith. I represent 120,000 nurses and we say, we are all Muslim Canadians until this crisis is over - all 420,000 of us.
So today we are calling on the Prime Minister and all the members of the government and the Parliament to join our ranks. We also call on our fellow trade unionists and their families to wear these stickers until this crisis is past.
An attack on any group because of their faith or their race or ethnic background or their gender is an attack on the values for which we hold this country dear. Thank you.
The CFNU is the largest nurses' organization in the country. It is comprised of every major nurses' union in the country outside of Quebec. It's led by an elected president and secretary-treasurer and directed by a voluntary board. It's located in Ottawa. Kathleen Connors is a registered nurse of 28 years.
-----------------------------
Quincy vigil celebrates solidarity:
Honors victims of terrorism, American spirit of freedom
<http://www.ledger.southofboston.com/display/inn_news/news03.txt>
by Joe McGee, The Patriot Ledger
September 17, 2001
QUINCY - City officials and clergy led thousands in prayer during a vigil at Veterans Memorial Stadium last night to honor the victims of last week's terrorist attacks and combat vandalism against businesses owned by local Arab-Americans.
Leaders said the evening was a time to celebrate a re-birth in American spirit, but a local Islamic leader also voiced his support for an American war effort.
Many who are missing after Tuesday's attack on the World Trade Center in New York City are Muslims, said Imam Talal Eid of the Islamic Center of New England in Quincy Point, which last week received anti-Islamic messages on its answering machine.
"Seven hundred Muslims left Tuesday morning and never made it home," he said. "Terrorism has no label in religion. Its only label is hatred."
Police in Quincy and Weymouth are investigating three racially motivated acts of vandalism that followed the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks.
Besides the hateful messages left at the Islamic Center, a gas station in Weymouth owned by an Arab-American was almost blown up in a fire.
Quincy residents George Rizkalla, 24, and George Guorgi, 27, said those incidents prompted them to attend the ceremony, though neither considers himself religious.
The two men emigrated from Egypt two years ago.
"People get the wrong idea about Arab people and the Middle East. Not everybody there is Muslim; many are Christians," Rizkalla said. "People don't understand that, and innocent people get hurt."
Clergy who organized last night's event said the country shares a common heritage of fighting for freedom. The shipbuilding industry of Quincy Point helped unify city residents during World War II, and that spirit moves residents to volunteer for the New York cleanup, said the Rev. Robert Monagle of St. Joseph's Church.
"The perpetrators claim they were playing God and they are involved in a Œholy war,'" he said. "We gather tonight as the clergy of Quincy to tell you our God is a loving God. Our God does not allow hate, and innocent people to die."
"We come from different backgrounds, but together we are Americans," he said.
Rabbi Jacob Mann of Beth Israel Synagogue read Psalm 23 of the Bible, saying its message of God as a shepherd is a unifying and "neutral prayer," for everyone.
In a sign of solidarity, the crowd lit candles and waved American flags to the hymn of "Let There Be Peace on Earth."
"The terrorists thought they could damage our faith and diminish our spirit of liberty. They were wrong - the light shines on," said the Rev. Ann Suzedell of Quincy Point Congregational Church.
"I am encouraged by the courage of the police and firefighters and ordinary citizens who have helped each other," she said.
Mayor James A. Sheets lauded 15 Quincy police officers who returned from New York and 30 firefighters whose help was requested for the rescue efforts.
The crowd applauded members of both departments during a presentation of flags at the beginning of the ceremony.
City workers also helped collect money for a victims' relief fund.
Plumbing Inspector Ralph Maher said attending the vigil was his way of giving back to the city and the country.
"The mayor asked me to do it, and I was happy to because it's a great cause," said Maher at an entrance gate to the stadium, as he held a jug of money and handed out some of 2,000 American flags donated by Quincy Veterans Services.
He spent yesterday morning praying at St. Mary's Church, he said.
"It's a great thing. I think the whole country should become part of this thing and unite for the country," he said.
Joe McGee may be reached at jmcgee@ledger.com.
Copyright 2001 The Patriot Ledger
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She Was Muslim; She Was a Victim
<http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-000074805sep17.story>
by Stephanie Chavez, Los Angeles Times
September 17, 2001
As soothing chants from the Koran played over an intercom, more than 500 mourners gathered Sunday evening at a Los Angeles Muslim cultural center to remember their loved one and friend, Touri Bolourchi.
It was a simple memorial service that was also a call for religious tolerance.
Bolourchi, 69, a retired nurse who spoke six languages and loved to garden and read, was one of 65 people aboard United Airlines Flight 175, which hit the south World Trade Center tower. She was an Iranian-born Muslim who had studied nursing in England and had lived in the United States since 1979. She was a wife, mother of two grown daughters and grandmother to two articulate boys who stood amid dozens of candles and an abundance of flowers.
"Grandma, I will never forget the way you knew about everything, the way you could do almost anything," said Bolourchi's 15-year-old grandson, Bobby Turan. "I will never forget your smile; it was as reliable as your Honda. Your kisses will always be like a renewal of energy for me."
Leaders of the mosque and cultural center where Bolourchi had long worshiped hoped the service would help bring about a better understanding of the Muslim faith.
"I feel sorry that there are phrases like 'Muslim extremists' and 'Muslim fundamentalists' used to describe terrorists," said M. Sadegh Namazikhah, founder and president of the Westside's Iranian Muslim Assn. of North America. "Ours is a faith of peace and respect for human life."
The 1 1/2-hour service began with mourners listening to the gentle strains of Koran readings in prayerful Arabic chanting in the Los Angeles center's large auditorium.
Mourners in black greeted the Bolourchi family with long embraces and kisses on both cheeks.
Then Dr. Abkar Bolourchi stood before a poster-size picture of his smiling wife that was surrounded by dozens of white candles. In a strong voice in his native Farsi, he prayed and offered condolences to the thousands of victims of last week's terrorist attacks. A leader from the mosque translated.
"We all saw this tragedy, this fireball of evil," he said. "I share my condolences with thousands of others and hope that they know that God has given them all the power to overcome this tragedy."
Daughter Roya Turan, 40, of Boston arrived in Los Angeles on Saturday night after earlier flight bans at Boston's Logan Airport. Her mother had just completed a two-week visit with her and was supposed to have arrived home in Los Angeles at 11:20 a.m. Tuesday.
Roya's husband too has been caught in terrorism's ripple effect and has been unable to return to the United States from a visit with his mother in Iran.
Roya and her sons boarded their plane Saturday with trepidation.
"I was really scared, but I didn't want my mother to see it," son Bobby said. "As the oldest son, I knew I had to be strong for her."
Too overcome with grief to speak at the service, Roya Turan stood at her father's right side as he read a letter she wrote.
"How do I respond to such a tragedy? My mother was the candle of our family. She was an angel in the form of a mother," Turan's father read.
Daughter Neda Bolourchi, 33, trembling and weeping, spoke briefly as if addressing her mother and stirred the emotions of many in attendance.
"My dear mother, I don't believe that you are not with me and I can't kiss your beautiful face," she wrote. "I wanted to have more time with you, but please know that I love you with all my heart and I am glad that you have guided my life."
In closing, Dr. Bolourchi told his friends and family that he took time in the past few days to write a poem for Touri, the woman he met when he was a young doctor and she was the head nurse at Women's Hospital in Tehran.
"Touri, I'm searching to find you. I'm searching in a garden full of colorful flowers," he said in a gentle, deep voice. "I'm searching for your scent in a thousand roses. When I look, I see your face in a river of water which is the life of this Earth."
Copyright 2001 Los Angeles Times
----------------------------
Air Atrocities
<http://workers.labor.net.au/latest>
Workers Online, Official Organ of LaborNet, Issue No. 111
14 September 2001
The atrocious acts in the USA this week are so horrendous that the day to day battles that unions fight seem, for now, irrelevant.
Thousands of workers dead at the hands of unknown terrorists, office workers and the emergency crews who came to their aid, in a seemingly senseless act of violence. Or so CNN would have us believe.
It is dangerous to draw conclusions at such an early stage, more appropriate to reflect on the horrors of war. But there are a few points that have not come through in the blanket TV coverage that may go some part of the way to explaining the madness.
The attacks have come in a climate of a failure of US geo-politics - the inability to broker peace between Palestine and Israel, the betrayal of the Iraqi resistance and the flowering of the Afghan seeds of fundamentalist militarism sown by the CIA in the late 70s.
In the post Cold War era these failures have channeled hatred against an America that is the most affluent on earth, whose consumption is the most conspicuous, whose culture is the most pervasive.
The growing global disparity in wealth coupled with communication barriers that continue to fall make for a potent brew. And while the US military machine can control the world's nation-states, it remains vulnerable to the acts of individuals.
As America and its allies, including Australia, talk of war, it must be recognized that violence will only beget more violence. While those who have lost loved ones seek vengeance, it is up to cooler heads to think this through and have the courage to argue the case for moderation.
Nation-states can react to terrorism by firing bombs at hostile regimes and massively increasing domestic security, but it is doubtful they can wipe out dissent or block movement between countries.
The US must bring the perpetrators to justice, but to declare war on a people or their religion will only increase the suffering for all. As a wise wag once quipped: 'fighting for peace is like fucking for virginity'.
Of course, the collapse of Ansett (Airlines) does not even sit on the same radar in magnitude as the US attacks - but there are some common threads. The concept of a nation 'owning' a company in a borderless economy is questionable at best, but Ansett seems to have been a victim of nationalism.
Air New Zealand was desperate to have a prize Aussie asset, the Australian Government wanted Qantas to take control, and no one on either side of the Tasman wanted to see Singapore Airlines win the 'prize'.
The losers in this international tussle are now the 16,000 Ansett workers, who have lost their jobs and possibly their entitlements through no fault of their own.
More innocent victims are left to deal with the consequences of our political leaders inability to come to terms with a world where borders are breaking down faster than our consciousness.
The greatest political challenge of our age is to reconcile corporate globalisation with our human psyche, which is still tribal, insular, seeking security from the outside. As thousands of American workers learnt this week, the stakes are high.
Peter Lewis, Editor
LaborNET is a resource for the labour movement provided by the Labor Council of NSW.
© 1999-2000 Labor Council of NSW
----------------------------------------
Fighting for Life
<http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpsie172369427sep17.story>
by Marc Siegel, Newsday
September 17, 2001
AMONG the bereaved and those of us who are treating the World Trade Center survivors this week, there is a common spirit, a need to cherish the preciousness of life. Firemen, EMS workers, nurses and doctors are rediscovering the reason we chose these professions in the first place.
Intense effort is being spent on every single life that might be saved. This is in sharp contrast to the blatant disregard for human life demonstrated on such a grand scale by the perpetrators.
We health-care workers comfort and support one another, working as a unit. Firefighters and EMS workers ranging deeper into the rubble than they should have their eyes washed free of smoke by doting surgeons, and everyone who is injured in the cause is whisked away to St. Vincent's hospital or Bellevue for emergency treatment.
Sign-up lists are filled with the names of nurses who work their regular shifts at the hospital and then volunteer to staff emergency centers in their free hours. Doctors fill the emergency rooms and help patrol Ground Zero without regard to previous rank or position in the medical community. There has been an overwhelming response to requests to the public to donate blood.
At each hospital, a designated wall is filled with photos of lost loved ones with the captions underlined several times: "If any information please call ..." The families of the missing stand beside these walls, crying and praying. Strangers in the street place comforting arms around the shoulders of these sudden orphans and grieving spouses.
Rather than an unhealthy preoccupation with numbers of bodies, there is concern for lives risked in the cause of people who might be resurrected from the wreckage.
My patient Father Mychal Judge, chaplain for the fire department and a characteristically selfless caretaker, was part of the initial wave of rescuers who went in after the first plane hit without any regard for personal safety. Father Judge died in a way that defined his life, instinctively rushing to preserve and honor others. I consider him to be the anti-terrorist.
As I try to help my patients get through the night, as I do my best to deal with the anger and the bottled up anxiety of post-traumatic stress, I think: It's better to grieve than not to feel. Overcoming fear and helping each other in every way we can - this is bringing out the best of what it means to be an American. It is what separates us from those who would simply line up their victims.
Dr. Marc Siegel, an internist practicing in New York City, is the author of the novel "Bellevue."
Copyright © 2001, Newsday, Inc.
-----------------------------------
Tim Jackins, International Re-evaluation Counseling Communities:
The government of the US, other governments, and much of the media are making statements aimed at generating support for policies of revenge. This is to be expected in these circumstances, but can and must be actively opposed if we are to end, throughout the world, the likelihood of such attacks continuing to happen.
The destruction of the persons responsible for the terrorist acts will not make us safe. The military punishment of small countries with any connection to the terrorists will not make us safe. We can easily understand the feelings that lead in these directions, indeed we may have some of these feelings ourselves. We know, though, that these feelings must not be acted upon, instead we must find intelligent policies and solutions that will actually move us and the world forward.
Desperate, destructive, irrational acts of terrorism are done by people who have been terribly hurt by the conditions in which they have had to exist. The conditions of life for a large fraction of the world's population remain so very desperate, as they have been for generations, that some of the minds of those who endure those conditions simply lose their sense of humanity.
As long as these desperately poor, dangerously unhealthy and oppressive conditions exist for any people in the world, we all will be in danger of someone's irrational acts of violence. Finding and killing those who have committed terrorist acts will stop those individuals but it will not stop more people from the suffering that creates such individuals.
We must develop policies that end poverty and oppression everywhere and for everyone. We have both the intelligence to develop these policies and the resources to carry them out. We, together, must actively develop and pursue policies that will value every person, no matter where they live, no matter what their religion, race, or nationality is. This is something that we are capable of, but we must give up the well-established pattern of life that has had sections of the world's populations benefiting from the enforced poverty of others. We humans have developed enough resources so that no one needs to live in poverty. That can never provide security. There is enough for all of us.
The International Re-evaluation Counseling Communities
719 2nd Avenue North, Seattle, Washington 98109 USA
Telephone (206)284-0311 Fax (206)-284-8429 ircc@rc.org
-------------------------
Statements Made During House Debate on Use of Military to Combat Terrorism
<http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/C?r107:./temp/~r107WrlZ1t>
September 14, 2001
... Mr. WATT of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, as I read the War Powers Act, the President actually has the authority to do what we are asking him and giving him the authority to do in this resolution because of a national emergency created by an attack on the United States or its forces. Despite that fact, this has got to be the most difficult vote I will have cast in the 9 years I have been in this body. I am absolutely terrified that we are about to declare, or authorize the President to declare war. But we have got to do it. That is what our constituents sent us here to do, to make the weighty decisions, to cast the difficult votes.
I just hope the President will exercise his authority with judgment and wisdom. And I hope that God will bless America and these decisions.
... the gentlewoman from California (Ms. LEE), a member of the Committee on International Relations.
Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank our ranking member and my friend for yielding time. Mr. Speaker, I rise today really with a very heavy heart, one that is filled with sorrow for the families and the loved ones who were killed and injured this week. Only the most foolish and the most callous would not understand the grief that has really gripped our people and millions across the world.
This unspeakable act on the United States has forced me, however, to rely on my moral compass, my conscience, and my God for direction. September 11 changed the world. Our deepest fears now haunt us. Yet I am convinced that [Page: H5643] military action will not prevent further acts of international terrorism against the United States. This is a very complex and complicated matter.
This resolution will pass, although we all know that the President can wage a war even without it. However difficult this vote may be, some of us must urge the use of restraint. Our country is in a state of mourning. Some of us must say, let us step back for a moment. Let us just pause for a minute and think through the implications of our actions today so that this does not spiral out of control.
I have agonized over this vote, but I came to grips with it today and I came to grips with opposing this resolution during the very painful yet very beautiful memorial service. As a member of the clergy so eloquently said, ³As we act, let us not become the evil that we deplore.²
....
Ms. LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today with a heavy heart, one that is filled with sorrow for the families and loved ones who were killed and injured in New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Only the most foolish or the most callous would not understand the grief that has gripped the American people and millions across the world.
This unspeakable attack on the United States has forced me to rely on my moral compass, my conscience, and my God for direction.
September 11 changed the world. Our deepest fears now haunt us. Yet I am convinced that military action will not prevent further acts of international terrorism against the United States.
I know that this use-of-force resolution will pass although we all know that the President can wage a war even without this resolution. However difficult this vote may be, some of us must urge the use of restraint. There must be some of us who say, let's step back for a moment and think through the implications of our actions today--let us more fully understand its consequences.
We are not dealing with a conventional war. We cannot respond in a conventional manner. I do not want to see this spiral out of control. This crisis involves issues of national security, foreign policy, public safety, intelligence gathering, economics, and murder. Our response must be equally multi-faceted.
We must not rush to judgment. Far too many innocent people have already died. Our country is in mourning. If we rush to launch a counter-attack, we run too great a risk that women, children, and other non-combatants will be caught in the crossfire.
Nor can we let our justified anger over these outrageous acts by vicious murderers inflame prejudice against all Arab Americans, Muslims, Southeast Asians, or any other people because of their race, religion, or ethnicity.
Finally, we must be careful not to embark on an open-ended war with neither an exit strategy nor a focused target. We cannot repeat past mistakes.
In 1964, Congress gave President Lyndon Johnson the power to ³take all necessary measures² to repel attacks and prevent further aggression. In so doing, this House abandoned its own constitutional responsibilities and launched our country into years of undeclared war in Vietnam.
At that time, Senator Wayne Morse, one of two lonely votes against the Tonkin Gulf Resolution, declared, ³I believe that history will record that we have made a grave mistake in subverting and circumventing the Constitution of the United States ... I believe that within the next century, future generations will look with dismay and great disappointment upon a Congress which is now about to make such a historic mistake.²
Senator Morse was correct, and I fear we make the same mistake today. And I fear the consequences.
I have agonized over this vote. But I came to grips with it in the very painful yet beautiful memorial service today at the National Cathedral. As a member of the clergy so eloquently said, ³As we act, let us not become the evil that we deplore.²
--------------------------------
Lone 'nay' vote criticizes lack of debate on force resolution
<http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/259/nation/Lone_nay_vote_criticizes_lack_of_debate_on_force_resolution+.shtml>
by Michael Kranish, Boston Globe
September 16, 2001
WASHINGTON - Callers to the California office of US Representative Barbara J. Lee yesterday received the following ominous-sounding message: ''Due to the national security emergency, our office will be closed.''
But in Washington, the congresswoman, who represents Berkeley and Oakland, had been busy. Lee was the only member of Congress to vote Friday night against the resolution giving President Bush approval to use all necessary force against terrorism.
''Let us not become the evil we deplore,'' Lee said in explaining her vote, worrying aloud that the Congress was barely debating a measure that would send the nation to war.
Lee was not the only member who had reservations about some parts of the resolution. Representative John H. Tierney, the Salem Democrat, complained on the House floor that the resolution didn't require President Bush to make regular reports about his progress to Congress. But Tierney failed to win support for rewriting the resolution, and he ultimately voted for the measure. In the end, only Lee opposed it on a 420-1 vote.
Lee, as the representative of the area long linked in the national consciousness to the antiwar movement of the 1960s and 1970s - the city of Berkeley and the campus of the University of California at Berkeley - is one of the nation's most liberal politicians. This is not the first time she has acted alone.
In March 1999, according to the Almanac of American Politics, she was the only House member to oppose a resolution supporting US troops at a time when American lives were at risk in Yugoslavia.
Lee was elected to the House in 1998 and won reelection with 85 percent of the vote last year.
Michael Kranish can be reached by e-mail at kranish@globe.com
This story ran on page A7 of the Boston Globe on 9/16/2001.
© Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company
-----------------------------------
Phyllis and Orlando Rodriguez's son Greg is one of the Trade Center victims. (I grew up with Phyllis in the Bronx.) They have asked that people share these letters as widely as possible.
Naomi
Copy of letter sent to NY Times:
Not in Our Son's Name
Our son Greg is among the many missing from the World Trade Center attack.
Since we first heard the news, we have shared moments of grief, comfort, hope, despair, fond memories with his wife, the two families, our friends and neighbors, his loving colleagues at Cantor Fitzgerald / ESpeed, and all the grieving families that daily meet at the Pierre Hotel.
We see our hurt and anger reflected among everybody we meet. We cannot pay attention to the daily flow of news about this disaster. But we read enough of the news to sense that our government is heading in the direction of violent revenge, with the prospect of sons, daughters, parents, friends in distant lands dying, suffering, and nursing further grievances against us.
It is not the way to go. It will not avenge our son's death. Not in our son's name.
Our son died a victim of an inhuman ideology. Our actions should not serve the same purpose. Let us grieve. Let us reflect and pray. Let us think about a rational response that brings real peace and justice to our world.
But let us not as a nation add to the inhumanity of our times.
Copy of letter to White House:
Dear President Bush:
Our son is one of the victims of Tuesday's attack on the World Trade Center. We read about your response in the last few days and about the resolutions from both Houses, giving you undefined power to respond to the terror attacks.
Your response to this attach does not make us feel better about our son's death. It makes us feel worse. It makes us feel that our government is using our son's memory as a justification to cause suffering for other sons and parents in other lands.
It is not the first time that a person in your position has been given unlimited power and came to regret it. This is not the time for empty gestures to make us feel better. It is not the time to act like bullies. We urge you to think about how our government can develop peaceful, rational solutions to terrorism, solutions that do not sink us to the inhuman level of terrorists.
Sincerely,
Phyllis and Orlando Rodriguez
-------------------------------