Unless you've been in a coma since early September, you know about what happened on September 11th, 2001. I'd way unless you were living under a rock, but I think you would have heard about it even then.

I live in Dubai, UAE. Needless to say, friends and relations were concerned about my husband and I, living in a Muslim, Arab nation. The View started as a letter meant to be mailed to friends and family. Along the way, it occured to me that I needed to mail it to my many mailing lists, and post it to discussion forums. Promptly after I did so, several people asked if they could forward the piece on.

At that point, I knew, knowing the people in question, that it would go far and wide. Did I want to do that? The answer was emphatically yes! I'd written the piece with no political agenda other than to do my bit to stamp out hate and ignorance. I firmly believe those are our two greatest enemies, no matter who "we" are. Beyond that, none of my personal political stances entered into the piece. (If you really want to know about my politics, dig around my site. If you can't figure it out, ask.) I reread it and decided I was satisfied. If the thing could help just one person see Arabs and Muslims as people and not The Enemy, it was worth it.

What happened afterwards was nothing short of remarkable. The piece went around the world and back. I got letters from English teachers in Mexico and in Israel. I got letters from people I'd never heard of. I got letters from old friends. A good friend in DC got the piece from a friend several days before she checked her email and found out I'd sent it to her in the first wave. (Thus proving that someone needs to check her email more often!) It was used in six different classrooms that I know of, including both elementary school children and education majors. A colleague at school got it from her father, who got it from a philosophy mailing list. It was posted in several online magazines. In one online site, it got higher billing than a piece by Noam Chomsky. (I personally freaked out just by having the piece on the same page as Chomsky!)

And the responses I got were overwhelmingly positive. So many messages of love and understanding to my students, which I passed on. Some from close friends. Some from complete strangers. I don't know which I'm more proud of - the one from my father telling me he was proud of me, or the two that said that this piece gave them insight, and changed the way they saw Arabs and Muslims. It worked! Two, that I know of, and that is more than worth it.

So with no futher ado, here is the original piece, as written on the 12th, and a selection of responses. This is by no means all the responses I got, but it represents the sentiments, thoughts and worries I heard from the people who responded.

The Letter
As written and sent around the net in the days following the 11th.

The Responses
Disclaimers: I've taken all the names off. If you see something you said here and would rather not have it up, let me know. I don't necessarily agree with everything everyone here has said. There's such a diversity of viewpoints represented that it would be hard to do so completely. Everything that is up here is here because I found it touching or thought provoking or both.

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