COLUMN: America didn’t deserve this
The last 12 hours have been a little frustrating.
I’ve been on the verge of an incredible story – one that would make 95 percent of you speechless.
The problem, however, is that no one will go on the record and tell me what happened. No one wants to get involved.
I’ve heard this story from a number of different sources, and there are enough elements that hold true in each version that some of it had to have happened. I just can’t find someone who was in the class when the events unfolded that is willing to talk to the press.
That’s what it boils down to. No one is willing to talk to the press. The people who saw it first-hand are obviously willing to talk to friends and neighbors, because this story is burning across the grapevine like wildfire. But every time I’ve tracked the story back to a student that was actually in the class, he or she declined to comment because they “didn’t want to get involved.”
I can’t say as I blame them. I understand people don’t trust the media; they have no reason to, really. But this story needs to be told, because it’s incredible to me that there are people in America that hate us so much.
I guess I better tell you what I do know for certain before you get mad at me for teasing you with the details. Here’s what I’m 90 percent sure of – and keep in mind, I’ve heard this from several different sources on several different grapevines.
A week ago, while a class on campus was discussing the terrorists’ activities that took place on Sept. 11, one student from a different country made a comment along the lines of: Americans are so arrogant that they deserve everything they got on Tuesday.
The details of what happened next are sketchy to say the least. One person told me the professor had to run up the stairs and separate people. Another person told me that while a heated shouting match ensued, push never came to shove.
So what business do I have running this story if I don’t even know what happened?
Well, it’s a good question. I’m not into gossip journalism. I don’t like spreading rumors because there’s nothing good that can come from it. It’s simply abusing the powers of the press, and it can be a very dangerous thing.
However, the general rule I’ve used throughout my journalism career (all five years of it) is that three sources give the story credibility. The details I gave in the preceding paragraphs have come from three different sources, and the comment the student made was the same in each version: Americans deserved what they got on Sept. 11 because they’re so arrogant.
It’s just hard for me to believe that there are people in this country – not just outside our boarders and in far away places, but right here inside our country, on our very campus – that hate the United States so much that they would say the tragedies that rocked this great nation were deserved.
No nation deserves to have their way of life altered as ours was. No one deserves to have their families and loved ones robbed from them. No one, that is, save the terrorists behind these horrific acts.
The question I have for the student who had the arrogance/ignorance to say we got our comeuppance is, “OK, What are you doing here? If this is such an evil, horrible country, then why are you here? And how long would you last in your homeland if you said that about your own country?”
It just dumbfounds me that there are people here who feel this way, and that’s why I want to know just how much of this story is true. That’s why I wrote about it, despite not knowing all the details. I’m hoping someone – anyone – who was in the class will e-mail me and let me know exactly what happened.
I certainly don’t think this attitude is representative of most of the non-U.S. residents we have on campus or in this country. However, the idea that it is representative of just a handful of people is disturbing to say the least.
Very, very disturbing. Maybe that’s why I can’t get anyone to talk about it.