Reflections on 9/11: Anti-Muslim backlash ushered in era of grave
threat to civil liberties and rights
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Ann Beeson, SPLC Chief Program Officer | Read the full piece here
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Friend,
Early on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, I was sitting on an airplane
at Newark Liberty International Airport, on my way to Washington,
D.C., in a long line for takeoff. Busily editing a Supreme Court brief
in a case I would argue a few weeks later, I was paying no attention
to what was happening outside the window. I vaguely recall the flight
attendant saying something about an accident at the World Trade
Center, that our flight would be delayed and we were returning to the
gate. Still in a zone of concentrated brief-writing, I was the last
person to leave the plane after the flight attendant gently touched my
shoulder. The airport was shutting down.
I stumbled out of the airport a few minutes later, unaware yet that
the world had changed forever. Driving home to Montclair, New Jersey,
I could see the World Trade Center buildings on fire and began to
panic. Our office at the American Civil Liberties Union was just a few
blocks from there, and I commuted through the World Trade Center every
day. I was overwhelmed with fear for my co-workers and my husband, who
was already at his job in the city. I couldn't reach anyone. I
didn't own a cell phone yet.
Had I not been traveling to D.C. that day, I would have arrived at the
Trade Center by train at 8:45 a.m. The first plane crashed into the
North Tower at 8:46. I learned later that my Newark flight was just a
few planes behind United Airlines Flight 93, the one that was hijacked
by the terrorists and crashed in Pennsylvania, killing everyone on
board.
Several days later, I returned to work, taking a ferry from New Jersey
because the train station was destroyed in the attack. The boat
navigated a narrow route between the World Trade Center site and New
York Harbor. I wanted to pull the Statue of Liberty in a little
closer.
Every day, the ferry would pass by ground zero. It smoldered for many
months as first responders in gas masks and protective gear continued
their rescue and recovery efforts. I would hold my breath to avoid the
smell, fighting back emotion about what I was breathing in.
That first day back, the ground around our building was still covered
in a fine layer of dust. From my office, I could hear the constant
clang of metal and see cranes on barges sort twisted debris from the
destroyed buildings. The images, sounds and smells of those days still
haunt me.
Swift and brutal backlash
There was no time to recover from the shock of the attacks. With
dreaded certainty, we knew that civil rights and civil liberties would
be gravely threatened. During a tearful all-staff meeting, I recall
the prayer of one of my Muslim colleagues, "Please God
don't let the attackers look like my brothers."
The backlash was swift and brutal. Congress passed the Patriot Act a
mere six weeks after the attacks, ushering in a wave of executive
overreach. I spent the next several years litigating cases and
advocating against a broad range of government abuses perpetrated in
the name of keeping our country safe from terrorism.
READ MORE
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