Renew Our Commitment to Justice & Dignity: Remember September 11

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On September 11, 2012, as the nation reflects on 11 years since the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., let’s also remember how we started. In those days following 9/11, a small group of activists dared to declare Washington State a ‘Hate Free Zone.’ They were responding to crimes and assaults against people of color – especially Sikhs and Muslims – who were identifiable by their dress, their religion, and their difference.

Hate Free Zone’s founding director Pramila Jayapal and a growing movement for immigrant and human rights in Washington state, through advocacy and organizing, envisioned a peaceful world where every person’s rights and dignity are respected, where communities appreciate differences and stand together for justice and equality, and where each person contributes to the common good.

I was in Washington, D.C. when the terrorist attacks took place on September 11, 2001. I recall the news reports about planes flying into the World Trade Center, confusion over what was happening, reports that there was a fire raging at the Pentagon within sight of my office at the Center for Community Change.  

That day the United States experienced a kind of collective shock. I remember walking home in silence to find comfort with friends and loved ones through a city that had been shut down. That evening I wandered down to the Capitol building and walked in a surreal fog through its halls to observe statements being made by elected officials in the House of Representatives. I joined a spontaneous gathering of hundreds at a reflecting pool near the U.S. Capitol where folks held candles in remembrance of the dead and sang patriotic songs hoping to hold on to this sense of unity in the face of a collective loss.

For the next two weeks there were armored vehicles with gun turrets at every major intersection along K Street in Washington, D.C. To me the show of military force on the streets of D.C. symbolized a shift toward fear. As a student of history, and an Asian American, the Japanese Internment during World War II loomed in my memory, and I wondered if we were doomed to repeat the bleaker moments of our history.

The day before 9/11, I had greeted dozens of immigrant activists and grassroots leaders that had come to D.C. to lobby their Members of Congress on Comprehensive Immigration Reform. But after 9/11 it was clear that the window to pass immigration laws and laws to end racial profiling had closed for the time being. Instead, Congress began debating the so-called Patriot Act authorizing significant new federal surveillance authority over its own citizens, federal agencies began to build lists of U.S. Citizens and immigrants of Arab descent, and Congress authorized war on Afghanistan and global terrorism.

Eleven years later, the government’s attention remains fixed on aggressive enforcement of our broken immigration laws, and the fight for civil rights and human dignity continues to be pitted against fear of terrorism and a culture of excessive surveillance and force within law enforcement.

But our nation’s tradition of resistance against oppression is more resilient than ever, and OneAmerica (formerly Hate Free Zone) is a tribute to that struggle. For more than a decade, OneAmerica has courageously worked at the front lines of immigrant rights and civil liberties, shaping policy in Washington State and contributing leadership, innovation and hope in every major battle for immigrants rights at the federal level. Our legacy is one of determined leadership grounded in our values: justice, courage, respect, collaboration and accountability.

This summer, there was another racially and ethnically motivated attack on a Sikh community in Wisconsin. In response, political leaders of every stripe condemned the attack, and here in Washington State thousands gathered in interfaith prayer and support of the Sikh community, including members of OneAmerica. This more recent set of events underscores that our vision matters more than ever.

So let’s reflect on our history and our vision and renew our commitment to the struggle for justice and dignity.

It was Martin Luther King, Jr. who said that the arc of history bends toward justice. I’ve always been inspired by this vision, yet I know that justice only comes when people organize to demand it.