Sarah Geselowitz
First Place Winner
2010 Penn State Essay Contest
Honoring the Fallen with Understanding: Proposal for a Multi-Cultural Celebration
On September 11, 2001, America as we know it was shattered. Terrorist planes ravaged the
World Trade Center and the morale of the American people. In the wake of the devastating event came
fear, sorrow, raw grief, and hatred. Our people asked, who would trade innocent lives for political
motives? Hatred and prejudice were stirred against Muslims throughout the world, as they were
blamed for the crimes of extremist Muslims. Recently, President Obama has chosen to face the wounds
of the past, commemorating this bitter attack with a National Day of Service and Remembering, to
honor both “the victims and those who rose in service.” This event, in which community service is
encouraged, should be used as an opportunity to emotionally heal the wounds that ravaged our country
the day of September 11, 2001. To do so, Americans are offering creative ways to enact community
service, remembering those who died during and after the attacks. Yet what about the victims of
September 11, the innocent Americans who suffered the hatred and suspicion of a nation? A
multicultural fair celebrating and exploring the tenets of different cultures and religions – including
Islam – would foster understanding between the Americans suffering in the wake of terrorism.
Meanwhile, donations from visitors to the fair could be forwarded to a charity of the community’s
choice, appropriately honoring the need for community service.
One major group of victims of the September 11, attacks – a group that often goes silent and
un-honored – is the Muslim community in America. In addition to suffering the shocks of foreign
attacks, Muslim Americans bore the brunt of the senseless hatred stirred by the attacks. The September
11 attacks spawned a major backlash against Islam, in all its forms. Even – and especially – Islam’s
innocent American members, who had and have nothing to do with radical Islam, were treated as
outsiders and criminals. Muslims speak and write about being ridiculed, avoided, and shunned after the
attacks. And this prejudice persists into the modern day, in which Muslims in airports and public
locations are squinted at with suspicion and terror. I have seen white Christian Americans speak with
bitterness about not associating with those people who “attacked our country.” Obviously, this is a
major blow for innocent Americans, our Muslim communities, who had no more to do with the attacks
than any other American did. Isolated and reviled in their own country, Americans were disdained by
other Americans for a crime they had not committed. This is a wound, as much as any other, that
requires healing. A multicultural fair would extend support for these unseen, un-honored victims.
Perhaps it would not be enough to apologize, but it would be a beginning: an effort to restore American
innocents to their rightful status. It would be a beginning to helping Muslims and non-Muslims in our
nation to be reconciled after the senseless hatred born of the September 11 attacks.
Such a multi-cultural affair would benefit not only Muslims – whose standing in the community
would be justly raised – but non-Muslims, who, by learning to forgive those they had wrongly blamed,
could achieve some peace of mind. Exhibits in the fair would display the core values of Islam and other
religions, hopefully showing those entrenched in prejudice the reasonability of these other religions.
Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, of course, are often noted for their similarities when truly examined. It
might be quite effective to those who fear Islam to point out that Islam was hugely influenced by
Christianity, and that Jesus is considered a prophet in Islam. Intellectual understanding often breeds
emotional understanding and acceptance. And it would be a healing process for those who have feared
and hated Islam, to see and understand the values of others. Since September 11, many Americans
have been guilty of blaming other innocent Americans – it is a painful grief and hatred that they carry,
perhaps, within themselves from day to day. Understanding would help lift and heal this burden. It is
painful to hate and fear your own countrymen. Understanding could alleviate this fear and hatred.
Then there are those who, healed of hatred, may acutely feel the guilt for having wrongly blamed
others. But in this too, a fair – a time to show solidarity with all Americans regardless of religion or
ethnicity – would provide an opportunity for self-forgiveness. Attendance could serve as a personal
apology for wrongful hatred, a step in the right direction.
It may be doubted the blind animosity for Muslim is such a deeply ingrained prejudice that a fair
could not fix it, but only stir resentment. I do not think so. In a liberal community like State College,
many would be willing to attend a multi-cultural fair. The first year, some of the more prejudiced would
decline to attend. But the incentive of offering the proceeds of the fair to a community-chosen
donation would draw in those who love the community, regardless of their views on Islam. (“The fair,
after all, would focus on many different ethnicities and religions.”) And the showing of solidarity with
Muslim Americans by the rest of the community might eventually sway hesitant participants. Hatred for
Islam is very much a mass fear; in terror, people are swayed to follow the prejudices of the masses. But
when the masses begin to change, the superficial hatred may wear off, and even the most hesitant may
also open themselves to change, tolerance, forgiveness. Those Islam-fearers who eventually did
challenge themselves and come to the fair would be well rewarded. I have seen Christians, deeply
entrenched in love of their own religious and fear of other, blink in astonishment when they realize the
similarities between Christianity and Islam, and grudgingly but rightfully admit that “at least” Islam has
the right ideas. If just one or two Americans can undergo this experience, achieve this personal
understanding, then it is worthwhile. This is the beginning of the healing that I propose – an
acknowledgement of the righteousness of other Americans.
“But what,” it might be asked, “of those other, more immediate victims, who died in terror and
flame? Will we forget them?” Not so. Such a multi-cultural fair would appropriately honor the values of
all of the victims and heroes of the September 11 attacks. As for the men and women who died that
day, of course they would not wish to have more innocents suffer; they would wish for innocents, the
Muslim Americans, to be cleared of blame. The heroes, who rose up against the fires and ashes of a
foreign enemy, who saved victims from burning buildings and uncovered broken bodies without giving
in to grief and shock – surely they, too, desire no more innocent suffering. If such people would want
“revenge” against the attacks, surely it would be against innocents. Surely, then, it would be in the
interests of all Americans to clear those innocents among us of blame. Such a fair would say to those
who fell to and those who rose against the terrors of September 11, “Your values are not forgotten.
You, who value innocent, and love for others, are not forgotten. We will not squander your
remembrance with hating other innocents, making others suffer. We will learn from your trials to be
good, to be just, to value, over all, the innocent life.” There is no message more appropriate to send to
the traditionally recognized victims and heroes of September 11, alive or dead.
A fair that celebrated religions throughout the United States would be a cathartic experience for
all participants. President Obama has given us an opportunity to show our solidarity as Americans while
contributing to a positive cause. So let us do that. On top of donating money to an important charity of
the community’s choice, the proposed multi-cultural fair will offer a ripe opportunity to soften the
deeper wounds our nation has amassed since the horrific images and stories of September 11
bombarded us. This fair would work toward re-establishing the faltering solidarity between Muslim
Americans and non-Muslim Americans – and between members of other religions and ethnicities, so
that such a bitter backlash against American innocents can never occur again. For those who see
enemies in Muslims, let them learn to see friends, neighbors, fellow victims of a foreign attack. Let us
let go of blind hatred and learn again to be true Americans.