United We Stand

“The number of forwarded emails I've been getting is ridiculous. Here's one from this morning:

PLEASE
Friday Night at 7:00 p.m. step out your door, stop your car, or step out of your establishment and light a candle. We will show the world that Americans are strong and united together against terrorism. Please pass this to everyone on your e-mail list. We need to reach everyone across the United States quickly. The message: WE STAND UNITED - WE WILL NOT TOLERATE TERRORISM!
Thank you.
We need press to cover this - we need the world to see.

LET THEIR SPY SATELLITES PICK UP A HUGE FIRE OF LIFE COMING FROM ACROSS OUR COUNTRY ON FRIDAY. PLEASE READ BELOW AND DISTRIBUTE TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW. ONE NATION, UNDER GOD, WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL.

===============================

I'm sure it's well-intentioned, but can anyone show me where bin Laden (or, for that matter Afghanistan or Pakistan) is reputed to have SPY SATELLITES?”

“Oh yeah, and they put men on the moon too!

I'll go along with the "one nation" bit but "under god"????
THose wacked-out Islamic FUNduhMENTALists are doing "god's work" too.

We need a little work on the "liberty and justice for all" part too:{]”

“Spy satellites?

Good God, most of Afghanistan doesn't even have electricty!

The ignorance of some folks is amazing. That is in the same vien as the US sending a shipment of Jello to to the starving people of Biafra many years ago. Nice thought but how about sending something with nutritional value?”

“i'll be backpacking, but i'll light a fart, from the mountaintop!”

“I like that.
Just don't burn your pu$$y hair!”

“Ya might wann trim that butthair up a bit, lest ya start a forest fire, raddy.”

“kleetn likes a man with a shaved a$$!

and tom, i'll try to keep it away from your toupee!”

“radagast-
I like the way your beard tickles my balls!”

“i don't have a beard, like kleetn's daddy does.”

“I got two stating that we all should wear red, white and blue today. I hate FWDs for the most part. Especially petition forwards!”

“My father is deceased. I'm sure you didn't know this, and probably don't give a sh!t, but I'd appreciate it if you would not mention him in anymore of your jokes.”

“I, for one, don't care to wrap my a$$ in the flag.

Wearing patriotism on one's sleeve is a bit tacky.

That's just me though!”

“The candle lighting thing has a nice sentimental ring to it. It's also probably well-intentioned.

However, it's still light where I live at 7:00 PM.

Perhaps instead, I'll light a candle inside tonight to remember all the fallen victims, all the rescue personnel, and all the volunteer efforts.”

“Those fire fighters are some REAL studs.......and studdettes!”

“sorry, kleet. maybe tom has a beard and just got real flexible!”

“back to the original subject, for a minute. my thought, while opening the 37 copies of this email, was that i don't want them to see us grieve. i think that a more powerful image is that we come together, repair the damage, go on with life, and effectively destroy those who did this and those who helped.”

“now, back to the locker room. kleet and the ladies can be excused.”

“Local Arab-Americans say they have become targets

09/14/01

Robert L. Smith
Plain Dealer Reporter

At Holy Land Imports yesterday morning, the lambs hung from meat hooks in a neat row of 12. Sacks of rice lay like sandbags at the window, near vats brimming with olives.

All that was missing in a market with a Middle East flavor was the essential ingredient - customers. Store owner Mohammad Mohammad walked lonely aisles.

"Most of our people, they're afraid to come to the store," he said, turning toward his front window and the gaping hole left by a beer bottle. "A lot of the women, they've been hearing things yelled at them from cars. Now they're scared."

Merchants up and down Lorain Ave. near W. 125th St., in a retail neighborhood many call "Little Arabia," spin similar tales of fear. In the simmering aftermath of Tuesday's terror attacks, local Arab-Americans say they have become victims of misdirected wrath.

President Bush urged the public not to take vengeance against Arab-American and Muslim communities.

The president said yesterday that "we must be mindful . . . we treat Arab-Americans and Muslims with the respect they deserve."

"We should not hold one who is a Muslim responsible for an act of terror," Bush said.

Police say there have been no reports of assaults or serious crimes against Arab-Americans and Muslims in the Cleveland area. But broken windows, racial slurs and threats, coupled with some hate crimes nationally, have created a climate of foreboding.

Some cab drivers are staying off the road out of nervousness, even those who are not Arabic but fear they look it, said Devo Bavishi, operations manager for Ace Taxi in Cleveland.

Tuesday night, someone threw a Molotov cocktail at the Sikh temple in Bedford. The fire did no damage, Sikh leaders say, but it underscored ignorance.

Sikhs are not Arabic nor are they Muslim. But their religion requires them to wear turbans, not unlike the turban worn by Osama bin Laden, the Saudi terrorist widely suspected of hatching the bombing plot.

"We're getting the finger. We're getting, Go back to your land!' " said Cleveland State University student Navtej Singh, a Sikh. "I was born in Cleveland. I'm the biggest Browns fan in the city."

Meanwhile, black Muslims share the trepidation of their Arab brethren. On Wednesday, Brenda Beyah visited the First Cleveland Mosque on E. 131st St. to pray for families of the victims of Tuesday's terrorism. She then went straight home. For Beyah wears a hijab, or head scarf.

"Our leaders instructed us not to put ourselves in the limelight right now," she said. "We do know there are people out there who are hurting. We're hurting, too."

Leaders in Cleveland's Arab-American and Muslim communities have universally condemned the bombings and many express anguish. Yet as they exercise caution, they also chafe under what they see as an unfair slight.

"I came here in 1967, when I was 10 years old," said Freddie Assad, owner of Assad Bakery on Lorain Ave. "I'm an American."

Yet his two sons at Westlake High School have heard fellow students call them terrorists, Assad said. He added that other Westlake students were quick to stand by his children.

"America is the greatest country in the world," he said. "But you can't blame what happened on us. You can't do that, man."

Stepped up Cleveland police patrols have probably helped curtail vandalism along Lorain Ave., merchants say. And some reports of anti-Arab attacks have been exaggerated.

Wednesday night, there were reports that an Arab-American restaurant owner in Little Arabia had been assaulted with brass knuckles. That owner, Abdul Aburammi, said yesterday that he ejected a threatening customer but had not been hit and saw no brass knuckles.

Nevertheless, across the country, Arab-Americans, Muslims and other groups continue to report harassment and violence.

Police in suburban Chicago turned back 300 people late Wednesday, some waving American flags and shouting "USA," as they tried to march on a mosque. Shots have been fired at a Muslim home in Michigan and at mosques in Toledo and Texas.

And in Huntington, N.Y., a 75-year-old man tried to run over a Pakistani woman in a shopping mall parking lot, police said. The man followed the woman into a store and threatened to kill her for "destroying my country," authorities said.

This is my neighborhood.”

“The American people are understandably frustrated and, not having a way to help leads to them taking it out on eachother. We have seen examples of that right here on this forum!

It is scary. There are people driving around here with signs, screaming out the window in towns "kill the 'rabs."

:o\”

“Cleveland rocks!

Hang on to your lug nuts!

radagast-
You workin' in a locker room?
You polishin' knobs there?”

“no, officer.

do you need to check my bag?”

“I ain't touchin' that bag!”

“That article is sad and scary and what AmyG said is exactly the reason behind actions like that. Skiracer, I think your idea is a nice one. It makes it a little less of a show.”

“Well that was a sobering article on misguided prejudice. I hope the message gets out and the ignorant stop the persecutions.

And hey, Tom, rad, and kleetn. STOP IT! I feel very strange sitting here laughing my a$$ off like some lunatic. Then again, maybe that's just what I needed. Thanks.”

“tom, get out of kleetn's miniskirt!

arclite's back!”

“You dreaming about my back again, rad? Don't go there. You guys already seem to have each other's backs covered. You guys give new meaning to "united." Ooooh the horror!”