9-11: Asian Pacific America Recounts a Year of Struggle and Healing (Feature) Who’s Getting the Message? (in National News) Putting Our Health Center Stage (in Bay Area News) Ultimate Diversions: Kingdom Hearts (in Business) Chinese American Volleyball Tournament Comes to San Francisco (in Sports) Collateral Damage: ‘Asian Americans On War & Peace’ (in A&E) Emil Amok: Chicken-hearted Patriotism in Fremont (in Opinion)

A Changed America

A few weeks ago while out to dinner with a few friends, I brought up the fact that Congress has proclaimed Sept. 11 as Patriot Day. While I appreciate the idea of taking time on Sept. 11 — as I am sure we all will — to think for a moment of all the victims, the fact that the day is now labeled Patriot Day makes me angry. The continual overuse of nationalistic pride to commemorate what was the biggest wake up call to America’s blind-eyed international problems seems downright ridiculous. In fact, I was expressing this very sentiment at the restaurant when I noticed a couple a few tables away glaring at me and shaking their heads in disgust. It was a jarring moment that made me realize how much life in America has changed in the past year.

It was as though, suddenly, a gaping divide ran through the restaurant. The post-Sept. 11 fault line — as it were — breaking up the twining sitar music and spilling the fragrant rice from silver bowls. I figured the couple looking over at me must have been thinking “America-hating foreigner,” or “America-hating radical.” But then there I was, looking back, imaging this couple spying on their neighbors, reporting grandmother’s early morning prayers as suspicious behavior. At the moment, the distance between us seemed to be an intolerable length, one that could no longer be bridged by the fact that we were citizens of the same nation.

For my generation, those in their 20s and younger, Sept. 11 will define us. We will mature into times of war, of disappearing freedoms, and all have an awareness of vulnerability, both as individuals and as a country. I spent last Sept. 11 running around San Francisco’s deserted streets seeking out South Asian and Muslim community members who were bracing themselves for what they knew was to come. In a way, I have learned more in the past year than I did in all of school and college, and each day I learn more by working towards a global justice that I can no longer afford to be complacent about.

Weeks after the incident at the restaurant, I imagined sitting down at the same table with the couple at the restaurant and speaking through our differences. I would like to share with them the fact that South Asians were among the highest numbers of those who died in the towers or tell them stories of my uncle who is in the army, now stationed in the Middle East. I would hope that they would share with me their ideas about justice and humanity and that somewhere we would discover a common ground that would help heal this divided nation.

— Neela Banerjee