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Oakland Unwrapped Americans All By J. Douglas Allen-Taylor In the day or so immediately following the 1995 bombing of the Federal Building in Oaklahoma City, there was consensus among us that bombers were from the Middle East. Muslim extremists, probably. Arabs, almost certainly. In the hours after the bombing, American citizens fitting that general description were attacked in various parts of this country. And then Timothy McVeigh was arrested, and we found out that the terrorist was not an Arab at all, but a white kid from upstate New York, a Gulf War veteran. And I remember an older white woman on the news that night commenting on the McVeigh arrest, bewildered, saying that it was all so confusing. "Now I don't know who to hate." How fortunate for us, as a nation, that we don't have that problem in the World Trade Center/Pentagon attacks. Our President has identified the perpetrators. They are outsiders. They are evil. They kill our children and seek to end our way of life. We can hate them in good conscience, unconditionally. This is no time for thought, or expression of doubt, we are told. No Democrat. No Republican. No black or brown or yellow or white. Americans all. Oh, sure, there are a few pansy-asses out their dragging their feet. Intellectuals ... traitors, almost ... who want to stop and "discuss" before we do. Discuss, hell. We've talked enough. You are either with us, or you are against us. There is no middle ground. And if some-one wants to mention that we ought to take care in how we proceed because the last time we had an enemy we thought so evil -- the Soviet Union -- we trained a foreign group to fight against it, and that foreign group -- the Mujahadeen of Afghanistan -- are maybe now using that training to attack U.S. targets, and shouldn't we be careful not to create the conditions for more terror later ... well, that's just treason-talk, and we don't want to hear it. And as for the suffering we may cause on innocents ... Well, don't you see the blood dripping from our flag? We have suffered. Why shouldn't they? Barbara Lee stands up on the floor of the U.S. Congress to oppose the President's open-ended resolution of war, the only member of Congress to do so. Who are we fighting? How will the war be fought? Trust us, comes the reply. Just sign at the bottom of the blank form. Details will be filled in later. Her voice breaking with emotion, Lee says, "Let's step back for a moment and think through the implications of our action today so that it does not spiral out of control. I have agonized over this vote. As we act, let us not become the evil that we deplore." In response, she receives so many threats that she is placed under 24-hour guard. Her campaign office in downtown Oakland has to lock its doors and screen out visitors. A member of Congress is terrorized by those who say they are fighting terrorism. American citizens with any resemblence to the Middle East ... some even Sikhs from India ... are being attacked on American streets. By other American citizens. There is a giant awak-ening from its slumber, sure. Hatred of others, and the vio-lence that follows. It is as much a part of the American character as our heroism and our generos-ity. And in its unleashing, we need to have a care. Because it is a giant that turns deadliest on its own children. The evil that we deplore. On Tuesday afternoon, a week after the Trade Center attacks, a group of students unfurled a flag at the Park Avenue overpass. Most of them are black. Probably from Oakland High. They wave at the cars passing under on 580, filled with folks on their way home to San Leandro and San Lorenzo and Fremont. The folks in the cars smile and honk their horns and wave back. A Norman Rockwell scene. On this day, we are connected, Americans all. But for how long? Will those black kids be welcome in San Lorenzo next summer? The answer to that question -- more than any attack from outside our borders -- will determine who we are, and what kind of place is this great, new America. J. Douglas Allen-Taylor is an author, a journalist, and a graduate of Castlemont High School. He can be reached at www.safero.org and [email protected]. [ East Bay | Metroactive | Archives ]