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From: Aliza Becker <azbecker@mindspring.com>
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Subject: [NIFL-ESL:6484] FW: A Nation of Immigrants Rebuilds
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------ Forwarded Message
From: "Mbelanger" <mbelanger@immigrationforum.org>
Date: Tue, 2 Oct 2001 18:29:07 -0400
To: <mbelanger@immigrationforum.org>
Subject: A Nation of Immigrants Rebuilds
National Immigration Forum
Date: October 2, 2001
To: Forum Associates and interested advocates
From: Maurice Belanger
Re: More Excerpts from Stories Relating to the Aftermath of the
Events of September 11
----------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
1. Statements from Senate Unity Press Conference, September
26, 2001
2. "An Extended Family Lost," Newsday, September 30, 2001
3. "'We are friends, we are not enemy'," Omaha
World-Herald, September 30, 2001
4. "Groups Display Support for U.S.," The State (Columbia,
SC), October 1, 2001
5. "A Local Refugee's Story", Detroit News, September 28,
2001
6. "Displaced workers say they are blessed, worried,"
Boston Globe, September 27, 2001
7. "Immigrants discuss fears, patriotism," Courrier-Times,
September 27, 2001
8. "Veterans of Internment Camps Speak Out Against
Harassment of Arab-Americans," Associated Press, September 26, 2001
9. "Excerpted from Chinese Daily," September 20, 2001
----------------------------------------------------
Senate Unity Press Conference, September 26, 2001
Senator Tom Daschle (D-SD)
"Behind me, you see leaders from the rich mosaic that is
America--Democrats and Republicans, Muslims, Arabs, Jews, Christians,
Sikhs, Catholics, Indians, Hispanics, African-Americans. This is the
America the agents of terror have struck, the America that finds
strength in our diversity, the America where people of all faiths and
backgrounds have equal inalienable rights, the America where people of
all faiths, from all over the world, live together as one nation with
one destiny. That is the America that terrorists seek to destroy, but
we will not allow it.
"Our enemies should know, we will make whatever sacrifices are needed to
punish those who attacked our nation and prevent future attacks, and in
doing so, we will not sacrifice the ideals that built this nation.
Martin Luther King taught us that the ultimate measure of a man is not
where he stands in moments of comfort but where he stands in times of
challenge and controversy. The same is true of a society. It's
relatively easy to live together when all is going well. The challenge
is to remain unified even in our darker hours."
Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA)
"We are the model for the world of how people of all backgrounds, of all
faiths can live together in harmony. And yes, we've had examples over
the last couple of weeks of intolerance and of crimes against those who
are Muslims or Arabs or whatever the case may be, but we've also seen
numerous examples, untold examples of people reaching out with acts of
kindness toward people who are Arab or Muslim in this time. . . .
"We are the most tolerant nation in the world; that's why people from
all backgrounds come to this country, and we should be proud of that.
We should celebrate that."
Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-MD)
"[I]t's always been my belief that America was a mosaic and that in
that mosaic, every nationality and every ethnic group was important.
And if any one of the pieces of the mosaic was hurt, damaged, the whole
mosaic suffered.
"So we need to be united. And what is the social glue that holds the
mosaic together? Our Constitution, our Bill of Rights and our values
that every American has value, and we need to value each and every
American."
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX)
"I think coming together today as we have with Muslims and Jews and
Catholics and Protestants of all varieties shows that the terrorists
didn't understand America. . . . They did not understand what made
America the greatest nation on earth. What made America the greatest
nation on earth is people of different backgrounds, from different
countries, of different beliefs, coming together as equals, not an
aristocracy, but in a meritocracy, coming together as equals, working
together for the common good. And we come together for the common good
by discussing our differences, by tolerating other beliefs and religions
and making us stronger because we understand other people."
============================
Excerpted from
AMERICA'S ORDEAL / An Extended Family Lost / Co-workers remember missing
Windows on the World employees as unusually close and in love with their
jobs
09/30/2001
Newsday
Jesus Cabezas wouldn't quit.
His family told him to sell the house in Brooklyn, buy a place in Jersey
or Staten Island, and learn to relax.
Cabezas said no thanks.
He loved his job as a line cook at Windows on the World, and found New
York as electrifying as he did when he arrived from Ecuador 33 years
ago.
"I'm a city boy," he told his wife, Victoria, and four adult daughters.
He wasn't going anywhere except off to work.
When terrorists plowed two commercial jets into the twin towers of the
World Trade Center on Sept. 11, Cabezas, 66, was busy on a breakfast
shift. It was his last.
Cabezas is among 79 employees of Windows on the World missing in the
Trade Center disaster. Many were white-collar workers and management
personnel. Forty-five were unionized food service workers. All are
mourned by survivors who say the staff was special - unusually close and
compatible.
"I lost my family," said Jules Roinnel, manager of the World Trade
Center Club at Windows on the World.
For those who dined and worked there, Windows on the World was a magical
place, a restaurant with a celestial view and a staff from around the
globe - including India, Bangladesh, Mexico, Morocco, Poland, Ghana,
Taiwan, Philippines, Hong Kong, Dominican Republic, Peru, Ecuador and
Cuba, to mention a few. There was a feeling at Windows that the
international staff was a small world of its own.
"We hired on merit," said David Emil, the outgoing owner who shook hands
with everyone, and often ate in the company cafeteria on the 106th
floor. "It was a place where people who were hardworking could get a
job."
People like Jose Nunez.
His wife, Myriam, said Nunez, 42, felt as though he belonged at Windows
on the World. More than once he had told her that it didn't matter that
he was a food runner. "If a person loves what he does, it's the best job
in the world," she said this week. "And Jose loved working in the
Twins."
Shabbir Ahmed did, too. A native of Bangladesh, Ahmed, 45, had been at
Windows since 1983, and his enthusiasm was legendary, his brother, Abdul
Mosobbir, recalled last week. "He used to do other people's work,"
everything from folding napkins to setting up the room. "Go away," he'd
tell co-workers. "I'm going to do this."
Sometimes, Ahmed, who was married and had three children, ages 12 to 19,
would talk about returning to Bangladesh. But he had responsibilities,
Ahmed told his brother. And he had a good job.
It was a theme mentioned often in interviews with survivors and
relatives of those who worked at Windows on the World. . . .
That is what life has become for Baraheen Ashrafi, whose husband,
Mohammad Chowdhury, 39, was a banquet waiter at Windows on the World.
On Sept. 11, Ashrafi, who, like many Muslim women, does not use the last
name of her husband, was supposed to go to the hospital for a Caesarean
section. Her husband planned to accompany her, but first had to work the
morning shift. British financial firm Risk Waters Group LTD was having a
daylong meeting that started with breakfast. There would be 70 guests
and 16 employees.
When Ashrafi went to Flushing Hospital Medical Center two days later,
her brother was at her side. "It was very devastating," said Suleman
Chowdhury, whose name is similar to that of his brother-in- law. "She
was falling apart."
Ashrafi had a healthy boy who she named Farqad - "brilliant star." At
home was a 6-year-old daughter, Fahina. For Ashrafi and her children,
the future is unclear.
"How long will they be able to stay in this house?" asked Chowdhury,
referring to his sister's three-bedroom apartment in Woodside. "Who will
be the guardian?"
Newly formed charities will try to ease the economic burden of survivors
and families.
Emil, Lomonaco and other New York restaurant executives have established
the Windows of Hope Family Relief Fund. And the Judson Memorial Church
in Greenwich Village has launched the Hotel Employees and Restaurant
Employees (HERE) New York Assistance Fund, specifically to aid Windows
on the World union workers.
On Oct. 11, many restaurants across the country - and some overseas -
will donate 10 percent of their gross to relief efforts. Small operators
far from New York are helping too. Keith Nordling is one. On Oct. 9,
Nordling will give the proceeds from his two restaurants in the San
Diego area to an emergency fund for food service workers.
Nordling said he decided to make the gift after seeing Jesus Cabezas'
photo on the Internet. The owner said he has an employee named Jesus -
Jesus Nambio - working for him.
"It just hit me," Nordling said.
Financial gifts are essential, but, as Chowdhury says, nothing makes up
for the absence of a parent.
In the Parkchester section of the Bronx, Myriam Nunez wonders what she
can say to her daughters, Mirelys, 10, Marlenys, 8, and Melissa, 4,
about their father, Jose.
"Mirelys is angry with God and wants to know why he killed her father,"
she says. "Marlenys wants to visit the rubble to see if she can find
him."
Blanca Bowers of Midland Park, N.J., daughter of Jesus Cabezas, said her
son, David, 8, was expecting his grandfather to attend a soccer game on
the weekend after the Trade Center attack. "Don't worry, Chico, I'll be
there," Cabezas had said.
Now her kids ask about their beloved "Papi."
"If I pray will Papi come home?" asked 4-year-old John. Too young to
miss her grandfather is 10-month-old Margaret Bowers. "As a parent, you
don't know what to tell your child," Blanca Bowers said.
Adult children suffer, too.
Joe Francis worked as a waiter in a private dining room for members of
the World Trade Center Club. His mother, Lucille, 63, was a housekeeper
at Windows on the World. On the day of the attack, she got to work at 9
a.m. Her son was scheduled to begin at 10:30. Tower One was hit at 8:48
a.m.
Joe Francis never heard from his mother again.
He misses her.
She came to the United States from Barbados in 1986 to attend his
wedding. She stayed, became a citizen, rented an apartment on Albany
Avenue in Brooklyn. Joe Francis said it is hard to imagine her not being
able to spend time with his sons, Jonathan, 6, and Anthony, 10, who
called his mother "Gran-Gran."
"She did so much for me that I used to take for granted," Francis said.
"Whenever my sons and I came back from Gran-Gran, I always felt like I
had gone shopping."
Though little can comfort families in such sorrowful circumstances, many
survivors said it was helpful to recall that their loved ones were
employed by a company that appreciated an honest effort and where, most
days, work could be fun.
Even the accounting department at Windows was an upbeat place.
Bookkeepers didn't have much to do with the glamorous end of the
operation, but the atmosphere was convivial and the mix of people
pleasant.
One group of friends would start the day listening to WHQT/97.1 FM and
its hip-hop radio team of Star and Buc Wild. They met for dinner. They
established a little savings plan, with each putting $30 a week into the
pot. They considered themselves an extended family.
Sadie Ette was a card, always making the others laugh. "She had a joke,
a smart comment about everything," said Omar Black, 30, a colleague from
Coney Island.
There was Veronique "Ronnie" Bowers, 28, from Crown Heights, so obsessed
with shoes that she wanted to launch her own footwear magazine. She
loved high heels even though they hurt her feet.
Annette Dataram, a sales auditor, was part of the group too, Black said,
a smart person, kind of innocent, thinking about getting married.
The best thing about the accounting department, Black noted, may have
been Howard Kane, the comptroller.
"He didn't care what you've done in the past," Black recalled. "All he
cared about was what you wanted to do and whether you could do the
work."
Ette, Bowers, Dataram and Kane are missing in the Trade Center disaster.
Black was spared because he stopped in downtown Brooklyn to take care of
personal business. Jennifer Gill, 29, of East Flatbush would have been
there, too, but felt sick that morning.
Watching TV coverage of the blazing buildings, Gill tried to reach her
pals but got no answer. "I was just hoping that they were all going down
the stairs trying to get out of the building," she said last week.
Some phone calls got through.
Mary Maciejewski had just arrived at her job in the collections
department of McGraw Hill on Water Street in the financial district,
when a co-worker told her the Trade Center had been hit.
It was horrifying news. Maciejewski's husband, Jan, 37, a waiter, was
back at Windows on the World after a three-week break.
She fiddled with her phone, trying to cancel the messaging function so
her husband could get through.
"As soon as I put the receiver down it rang, and it was him," she said.
"He told me that there was a problem in the building and there was a lot
of smoke."
Mary Maciejewski told her husband to soak a napkin or a table cloth and
put it over his mouth. He told her there was no water. He'd try to get
some from a vase.
McGraw Hill began ordering employees out of the Water Street Building.
Maciejewski explained the situation to her husband.
"He told me he loved me," she said. "I told him I loved him." Outside,
Maciejewski and a friend tried to reach her husband on his cell phone.
"We never got him back," she said.
Maciejewski said her husband came to the United States from Poland in
1990 and they married six years later. He worked a second job installing
computer software so they could get ahead. "We're going to save our
money and buy a house in New Jersey," he told his wife, who is 41. "A
baby, a house, a dog," she said. "That was Jan's dream."
Victoria Cabezas also got a phone call. Two days after the plane hit
Tower One, a friend of her husband, Jesus, called another pal, a cook at
Windows on the World who was off that day. The friend said he and Jesus
were together on the 86th floor.
"He told them there was a lot of smoke and that they were trapped and
had nowhere to go," said Blanca Bowers, daughter of Jesus and Victoria
Cabezas. Later, the other cook, known to the family only as Juan, called
Victoria Cabezas to tell her of the conversation.
"He heard a noise, a lot of people screaming and that was it," Bowers
said. "The cook told my mother that the line went dead." Still, Victoria
Cabezas hoped her husband was alive. Now, it is difficult to believe.
"She's not doing well," Bowers said.
Because so many of the workers were immigrants, their stories may be
particularly poignant. They were solid folks who had come from afar to
seek better lives. They believed they could overcome hardship with
energy and zeal, and in most cases, they seemed to be succeeding.
Jupiter Yambem left India in 1980 to study at SUNY New Paltz. He waited
tables to help pay tuition and got hooked on the restaurant business.
Yambem made food service a career. He went to work for World Yacht
Cruises, the Rainbow Room at Rockefeller Center, and, finally, Windows
on the World.
As banquet manager, Yambem, 41, had responsibility for an operation that
sometimes fed thousands. He lived in upstate Beacon with his wife,
Nancy, and their 5-year-old son Santi. Yambem left early and came home
late.
During the holiday season, it seemed like he was at work all the time.
But after Christmas, Nancy Yambem said, there was a spectacular party at
Windows on the World for all employees - with food of many nations,
music, an open bar. It was the kind of gesture that made Yambem feel
committed to the job, his co-workers and the bosses.
"He considered them his family," said Nancy Yambem.
Jesus Cabezas was a striver, too.
He left Ecuador in 1968 and landed a job in South Brooklyn at a local
Italian place called Felix's.
He started as a dishwasher but soon showed the bosses that he could do
more. Cabezas had worked at a relative's restaurant in Ecuador. Before
long, he was cooking pasta and twirling pizzas. At some point, he became
the main man in Felix's kitchen.
The restaurant treated him well. One of the owners helped him buy a
house on St. Nicholas Avenue in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn. When
Felix's was closing, Cabezas thought about buying it. But his wife was
not enthusiastic. So he found other restaurant jobs.
Eight years ago, he started at the World Trade Center. Even an operation
for colon cancer four years earlier couldn't slow him down.
Nothing could stop her father, Blanca Bowers said. "My dad thought he
would be around forever." . . . .
========================
'We are friends, we are not enemy'
Rick Ruggles
09/30/2001
Omaha World-Herald
(Copyright 2001 Omaha World-Herald Company)
Sudanese immigrants know a lot more than they care to about terrorism,
hatred and violence.
That's why they fled their homeland and came to the United States.
So it is particularly galling for them to be vaguely linked to the Sept.
11 terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C.
"We don't have a connection with any of these things," said Kuoth Bayak,
president of the Southern Sudan Community Association in Omaha. "We are
friends, we are not enemy."
Sudanese immigrants in Omaha held a service Saturday for the victims of
the terrorist attacks. They met at Calvary Baptist Church, 3903 Cuming
St., to sing, pray and talk about the tragedy.
Osama bin Laden, who is considered responsible for the terrorist
attacks, lived in Sudan for several years.
United States forces two years ago attacked targets in Afghanistan and
Sudan with cruise missiles. The attacks were intended to slow terrorist
activity by bin Laden for the bombings of two U.S. Embassies in Africa.
In Sudan, the American forces destroyed a chemical plant that allegedly
produced ingredients for bin Laden's nerve-gas program. Later, a
commission headed by the chairman of Boston University's chemistry
department found no trace of any compound related to nerve gas at the
site.
Bayak said that about a week ago, an Omaha apartment building where some
Sudanese immigrants live was spray-painted with hateful and threatening
messages. The building is near 51st Street and Sorensen Parkway.
Bayak said some Sudanese have been attacked elsewhere in the United
States since Sept. 11.
Sudanese immigrants in Omaha say their war-battered nation is divided in
many ways, one of which is by religion. Christians in the southern
portion of the country have been persecuted by Muslims in the northern
part, they say. Bayak said most of the immigrants here are Christians.
Omaha's Sudanese community has grown to an estimated 4,000, up from less
than 100 five years ago.
Bern Yuot, a pastor for South Sudanese Seventh-day Adventists in Omaha,
said two of his friends were hanged by Sudanese terrorists in a Kenyan
refugee camp nine years ago.
"I thought I came to a land that was unreachable," Yuot said of the
United States. Now, he said, terrorism is here.
"It's horrible," he said. "It's terrible."
The sanctuary began to fill Saturday afternoon. Bayak wore a white shirt
and a blue tie with red-and-white stripes. He held a Bible in the
Sudanese Nuer language and a songbook from which he led the gathering in
Nuer-language hymns.
They prayed for the victims and for themselves, strangers in a
complicated nation. They offered sympathy, saying they understood
terrorist violence all too well.
They also offered a simple message, expressed by Bayak from the pulpit.
"We are here to say, 'We love you, United States,'" he said.
========================
Excerpted from
GROUPS DISPLAY SUPPORT FOR U.S.
By GINA SMITH
10/01/2001
The State (Columbia, SC)
(c) Copyright 2001, The State. All Rights Reserved.
They came to South Carolina from foreign lands to study at its
universities, to secure better jobs, to worship as they pleased.
And Sunday, they came to the State House to pay homage to their adopted
country and state and to condemn the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.
"We came to this country looking for the American dream in the land of
the free," said Irma Santana of El Salvador, one of several speakers who
addressed the crowd of about 200. "We as Hispanics, Latinos and South
Carolinians stand firm and united against terrorism... God bless the
USA."
The rally, organized by the International Friendship Ministries and
other groups, was a chance to unite the international communities of
Columbia. "We're the land of the immigrants ," said Raj Aluri, president
of the Friendship Ministries who moved to Columbia 25 years ago from
India. "And what makes this country is great is we've never stopped
being the land of the immigrants . It started with the Mayflower and
even today millions come here."
Seventy-nine flags waved behind the speakers, representing the 79
nations who lost citizens during the terrorist attacks on the World
Trade Center and the Pentagon. The flags of Argentina, Honduras, Peru,
Zimbabwe and others waved with the American flag standing in front of
the rest.
Standing near a bronzed statue of George Washington, rally participants
sang "Amazing Grace" in Chinese and "My Country Tis of Thee" in Spanish.
As men in suits and women in lachas, a traditional garb of women in
India, sang "God Bless America," another group on the south side of the
State House paid tribute to Sept. 11's victims and rescue workers in a
very different way.
At about 4 p.m., about 50 runners completed a 36-mile run from Camden to
the State House steps.
The group had spent the past six and a half hours taking part in a
memorial run.
"It's important to do something to show our support for the people in
New York and Washington," said John Zemp of Camden, shortly after the
run. "You have to do something positive."
. . . . It's the diversity of races, of religions, of expressions that
are America's greatest attributes, said Abu Bakar Al-Hamid of Yemen, one
of the speakers at the international rally.
"That's what I like best about America," he said. "It gives you a taste
of life." . . . .
=============================
Detroit News
September 28, 2001
A Local Refugee's Story
Reported by Gordon Loesch
Web produced by Christiana Ciolac
The Arab-American leaders are stepping up to calm their community since
many Arab-Americans came to the U.S. to escape the atrocity of their
homeland and are falling victim to threats and harassment since the
terrorist attacks.
"I was jailed and imprisoned in 1978," a man said.
He has lived here for 10 years. He came from Iraq where he was an
engineer, an university professor. After enduring two years of prison
and torture, he was forced to move his family to America.
He is among 3,000 to 7,000 refugees who come to Michigan every year from
the Middle East, many the victims of torture.
"Torture has been a regular form of govern if you will, where
governments use terror to create a culture based on fear," Douglas
Johnson said.
Johnson is a specialist who works with tortured refugees. He and others
spoke to professionals in the Dearborn area Friday.
"We want people to have a sense of who these immigrants are and what
their aspirations are and what they really want, which is what every
American wants -- freedom, opportunity and a place in the world," he
said.
Johnson says the tortured refugees are now suffering from the very
conditions they were trying to escape from, in particular the
discrimination now coming in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks.
"We have a right to come to America as others came to America, as Irish,
as German, as Italian, and they have a right to work here and they have
a right to build their lives. They have a right to help in building this
country," the man said.
==========================
Displaced workers say they are blessed, worried
By Tatsha Robertson, Globe Staff, 9/27/2001
NEW YORK - Six years ago, Naxija Gashi of Kosovo found the American
dream on the 98th floor of the World Trade Center. She polished floors
and tidied up for parties and conferences she never attended. The work
enabled her to send her teenage sons to private school and buy a house
for relatives in Kosovo.
On Sept. 11, she escaped with her life, but lost her livelihood.
Desperate to keep her family afloat and familiar with the stench of
death in her homeland, she accepts odd jobs that other displaced workers
can't bring themselves to do: In nearby buildings she sweeps mounds of
dust that came from the collapsed towers in which her co-workers died.
''There is a death feeling,'' she said of the work. ''I know some of the
dust comes from the bodies ... but I have no choice. I have two sons.''
One of the sad consequences of the terrorist attacks is that thousands
of unskilled and low-wage workers like Gashi, 40, have lost their jobs.
A few find odd jobs at reduced pay, but most must cope with unemployment
in one of the world's most expensive cities.
''Many of the workers were not high-finance folks, but working-class
people like census takers and restaurant workers,'' said Heather
Boushey, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute in Washington.
''This has had a devastating effect on the low-wage and moderate-income
workers in New York.''
Among the workers who kept the financial district going by running
elevators, cleaning hotel rooms, and scrubbing windows, unemployment is
rising to epic proportions, specialists say. The joblessness illustrates
how the lifeline for thousands of low-paying jobs and small businesses
surrounding the towers was connected to the survival of the World Trade
Center. When the Twin Towers crumbled, so did the lifestyles of many.
''I never in my life thought I would need food stamps,'' said Everton
Brown, 43, who worked as a porter in North Tower for 21 years.
US Department of Labor officials say they will not have a final count of
New York's unemployed and displaced workers for another month, but the
numbers already available are staggering.
Union officials say that 3,000 hotel workers and 2,000 office cleaners,
elevator workers, security personnel, and theatrical employees are
jobless as a result of the attacks. Another 1,500 restaurant employees
are looking for jobs. News reports estimate that 100,000 workers were
displaced when the two jetliners crashed into the Twin Towers.
''We have layoffs all over the city,'' said John Turchiano, spokesman
for the New York Hotel Trades Council.
With service workers' salaries averaging $17 an hour, few have any kind
of savings, said Mike Fishman, president of the New York local of the
Service Employees International Union. Nearly half of the union's
members are immigrants; they are from 60 different countries.
Among those feeling the aftereffects are small vendors, shoe shiners,
shopkeepers, and bar owners who depended heavily on the foot traffic at
the World Trade Center, where the workplace population numbered 50,000.
Not far from the site of the attacks, in a popular bar in Tribeca, only
one customer sat at the bar on a recent late afternoon, reading a book.
''You had stockbrokers coming for happy hour, but now it's bare. It's
scary,'' said Justin Walter, co-owner of Anotheroom. ''People are just
still bugged. They don't know Tribeca is open. Landlords are just going
to have to be forgiving.''
Many in the financial businesses on Wall Street have been relocated to
temporary office space across the Hudson River, but other low-wage
workers are searching for jobs.
So far, unions have been the saving grace for workers. Some unions have
joined forces and donated millions of dollars to its members. Family
medical insurance has been extended for six months to one year, said
Turchiano.
Fishman said his union has entered into an agreement with contractors to
give preferential hiring to the victims of the attack when jobs become
available.
''Still, people don't know what type of work they'll be doing,'' he
said.
Gabriel Torres, 29, who was one of about 600 security guards who worked
in the World Trade Center complex, injured his leg as he tried to rescue
workers in the towers. He said that when his leg heals he will go
looking for work. He figures that there will be plenty of night cleanup
jobs rather than spots for security guards.
Brown received a call from a union official the other day who said there
might be work cleaning dust from nearby buildings. Some of his
co-workers couldn't deal with that and others just couldn't handle all
the dust. ''But I will try it,'' Brown said.
Brown wants to get back to his normal life, as Mayor Rudolph Giuliani
keeps suggesting, but it's not an easy thing for him to do since his
livelihood crumbled along with the signature towers.
For two decades, Brown stocked pantries, picked up trash, and cleaned
offices in the Twin Towers. He made enough to care for three daughters
and a wife, as well as afford a Brooklyn apartment that looked out on
the towers.
''When family from Jamaica would come,'' said Brown, a native of the
Caribbean island, ''I'd point to the buildings and say that is where I
work. Then I would take them up to see the restaurant - Windows on the
World.''
Brown was coming out of the subway when he saw the devastation. Gashi,
who was normally on the 98th floor at 9 a.m., was waiting for her
supervisor in the lobby that day and was able to escape. They say they
are blessed to be alive and they understand that permanent work will
eventually come.
But right now, Gashi knows she has to move on somehow. She told her sons
that they might have to go to public schools. She also made a difficult
decision about relatives back in Kosovo.
''I saved every penny,'' she said. ''I bought nothing for me. I sent it
to them but now I can't help them. I lost my jobs, and I have two kids
to think about.''
This story ran on page A4 of the Boston Globe on 9/27/2001.
C Copyright 2001 Globe Newspaper Company.
============================
LANGHORNE
Immigrants discuss fears, patriotism
Some are no strangers to living with terrorism.
By DIANE VILLANO
Courier Times
>From Uzbekistan, Korea, Japan, Ukraine, Colombia and Peru, 11 immigrants
came together Tuesday to improve their English during the Welcoming the
Stranger Intermediate English class held at the Langhorne Presbyterian
Church. They also voiced their views on the recent terrorist attacks.
Though three paper doves, symbols of peace, hung from the ceiling in the
room where they met, many of the immigrants are no strangers to living
with terrorism.
"Some are frightened. They came here to get away from things like [the
attacks on America]," said the Rev. Lorelei Bach, a volunteer with the
program who is pastor of the Neshaminy United Methodist Church in
Hulmeville.
Eighteen months ago, Maria came to the United States seeking political
asylum from Colombia because it was becoming too dangerous for her and
her husband to live there. He was a pilot working with government
officials trying to catch drug dealers.
"I come in this country. I leave my house, my family, my friends," the
Warrington resident said with tears in her eyes.
Although safe from the reach of the guerrillas, the future is uncertain
for Maria and her husband, a crop-duster, since those flights have been
restricted due to fears of possible chemical or biological terrorism.
"I can't go back. The guerrillas would take me," she said, grabbing at
her wrist.
Vitoliy came to the United States 3 1/2 years ago to escape the
terrorism in Uzbekistan. His wife still has relatives in the country
north of Afghanistan. The 66-year-old former urologist offered his
knowledge of the Uzbek language when a call went out for volunteers.
Although he hasn't been needed as a translator, "If I need to, I'm ready
to help America and America's people," he said.
Even after the attacks on the United States, the Bensalem resident does
not fear for the future.
"[It is a] big wound for Americans. It needs some time. [The country is]
so very strong economically and spiritually. I feel very positively,"
Vitoliy said.
Not everyone shares his sentiments.
"I'm depressed," said Leon, who came to the states from Ukraine five
years ago with his wife, Yelena, after being warned by the KGB "to be
quiet because you must think of your family and career."
Leon was a civil pilot for Aeroflot. He was also the first pilot to fly
over Chernobyl in central Ukraine, helping some newspapers on the day a
reactor at the nuclear plant exploded, he said.
The Bensalem resident can't understand why American airliners didn't
have protection.
"In the former republics [of the USSR], we had armed men on board who
would sit in the back of the plane," Leon said.
"My concern is that the immigrants I work with and who live in the area
aren't targeted for retaliation," said the Rev. Sturgis Poorman, program
director.
According to Poorman, one Asian couple from India had their car
vandalized but all are still coming out to their ESL, citizenship and
computer classes.
Always an advocate for immigrants, the Presbyterian pastor for 30 years
discovered his love for working with people from different parts of the
world when he served as a pastor in Zimbabwe for three years. Before his
appointment as director to the project, he served 12 years as the pastor
of a Presbyterian church in Phoenixville.
The Welcoming the Stranger Program began in February 1999 in response to
the growing immigrant population in Bucks, which according to the
program's sponsors, has increased by more than 40,000 in the past 10
years.
Sponsored by the Lower Bucks Center for Church and Community, the
consortium of 40 Roman Catholic and Protestant churches offers English
as a second language, computer skills and citizenship preparation
classes to the immigrants.
The program has served approximately 370 immigrants, from Asia, East
Asia, West Africa, Korea, Japan and Vietnam, as well as immigrants from
India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iraq, Ghana, Liberia, Guinea, Mexico and
Salvador.
For more information about Welcoming the Stranger, call 1-800-641-8889.
Thursday, September 27, 2001
==================
Veterans of Internment Camps Speak Out Against Harassment of
Arab-Americans
>From The Associated Press
Published: Sep 26, 2001
WASHINGTON - The hurt has subsided, but there still is anger in Rep.
Michael Honda's voice when he says his family was singled out because
``we looked like the enemy.''
Honda, D-Calif., was talking about the detention of Japanese-Americans
during World War II. But he said he could just as easily have been
describing the experience of people of Middle Eastern descent in the two
weeks since the terrorist attacks.
Arab-Americans have been stopped by police, forced to leave airplanes
and, in some cases, subjected to violence.
Honda, a freshman, and fellow Rep. Robert Matsui, D-Calif., in his 12th
term, say they feel a special duty to speak out against harassment of
Arab-Americans following the terrorist attacks because of their
families' experiences during World War II.
``We have a particular responsibility based upon a unique experience,''
said Honda, 60, who was moved with his parents from California's Central
Valley to a compound in Amache, Colo., ringed with barbed wire and armed
guards.
Matsui said he shuddered when he heard the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks
compared to Pearl Harbor. It's not that he found the analogy inapt.
Rather, he said, it was a reminder of what can happen to civil liberties
in times of crisis.
``In the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, no one spoke out,'' Matsui said.
The two congressmen were infants when their parents were forced from
their homes and into internment camps in what the government has since
acknowledged was a bigoted effort borne of war hysteria.
The Supreme Court, in a wartime ruling that never has been overturned,
upheld the forced relocation of 120,000 Japanese-Americans. But in the
late 1980s, Congress apologized and set aside about $20,000 for each of
the internees or their heirs. Matsui and Transportation Secretary Norman
Mineta, then a member of Congress who also was held in a camp as a
child, led the drive.
Matsui's American-born parents were in their early 20s when they were
moved from Sacramento to an internment camp at Tule Lake, Calif., which
held nearly 19,000 people at its peak. No one in the Matsui household
spoke of the experience for nearly 40 years.
``It wasn't until my mother was on her death bed in 1984 that she said
she had nightmares about the camps,'' Matsui, 60, recalled in an
interview. ``She'd wake up and think she was still in them.''
That silence is one reason why Honda and Matsui said they feel obligated
to call attention to reported instances of apparent racial profiling,
the practice of singling out people based on their appearance.
They also said they are watching closely the Bush administration's
proposal for more anti-terrorism measures, including one to hold
immigrants suspected of terrorism indefinitely. ``Under the Constitution
of the United States, we have an obligation to give people due
process,'' Matsui said.
Both said they have been pleased by the denunciation by President Bush
and other government officials of threats and attacks against
Arab-Americans and Muslims.
One discordant note was the comment last week by Rep. John Cooksey,
R-La., who used derogatory language to call for the questioning of all
turban-wearing airline passengers. Cooksey has since apologized.
Honda said such language is ``irresponsible.'' And he worries that the
nation may not have seen the worst of harassment of Arab-Americans.
``There's no guarantee there's not going to be a second (terrorist)
event,'' Honda said. ``What's going to be the emotional and public
outrage and where will it be directed?''
===================
Excerpted from Chinese Daily, 09/20/2001 (translation by Charlie Sie)
Right after the first American Airlines plane hit the World Trade
Center, Zhe Zeng, who works at Bank of New York on Wall Street, called
his mother and said "I'm OK. It's chaotic outside. I'm going to help
other people," and hung up the phone. Zhe has not been heard from
since. A few days later, one of his friends saw Zhe in the Fox News TV
coverage of the rescue efforts around WTC just before the buildings
collapsed.
Zhe is 29 years old and got his MBA from the University of Rochester.
Zhe came from Quanzhou (China) to New York with his parents when he was
15 years old. He was a trained and certified rescue worker. While at
Stuyvesant High in lower Manhattan, he was a honor student and was
always willing to help the other students, especially in math. He is so
well liked that the landlord where his family lived even lowered the
rent in order to lighten his family's burden.
Zhe's mother, a former school teacher in China, said "Since we have
immigrated to America, we have to think of this land as our country. I
always taught young people to serve their society and its people. I may
have lost Zhe, but I'm very proud of what he did. I hope mainstream
America will understand that there are Chinese Americans who are willing
to sacrifice themselves in order to help others. Now I only want to
find out what happened to Zhe. I pray that there will not be war,
because more innocent people will be killed."
===============================
Stories Compiled by Forum Staff
===============================
Maurice Belanger
Senior Policy Associate
National Immigration Forum
mbelanger@immigrationforum.org
http://www.immigrationforum.org
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