Many things stand out about this day to me. I wanted to share one… I had a doctor’s appointment that morning in the big city. I watched the horror unfold on the waiting room tv…
As I left town around lunch I stopped to get gas. The line to pay stretched out the door. Many people had knocked off work early. Once inside the store I could feel that the tension in the room was through the roof. The fear and anger were palpable.
Everyone seemed to be staring at the guy behind the counter, who looked terrified. I heard someone say “How dare that Muslim sob even show his face in public”.
Only the guy behind the counter wasn’t a muslim, he was a Sikh. I spoke up loudly, “That man isn’t muslim, he’s a Sikh. Muslims have been killing his people for 500 years and his people have killed their share of muslims”.
It was if the temperature in the room dropped 1000 degrees, everybody relaxed… When it came my turn to pay the young man whispered “thank you” with a trembling voice…
Years earlier I had neighbors who were Sihks… I’m just glad I could tell the difference between the clothing of Sihks and muslims. If not the first drunk person who stopped for gas would have hurt that young man.
For some reason this memory has always stayed with me… I can still see the saucer sized eyes of that young man.