An Odd Response

As it was made clear in the last issue of the Newswire, Sept. 11th is a tragedy that the people throughout this

great nation will never forget. It was a cowardly attack done

by a group of extremist Middle Easterners known as Al-Qaeda. The central religion of this terrorist group happens to be a form of Islam. Society must understand

that Islam is a peaceful religion that does not preach the

hateful tendencies of Al-Qaeda. Discrimination against the entire Muslim population as a result of the 9/11 attacks is ignorant. The hate crimes and verbal abuse that innocent people of Islam have received since 9/11 are unfortunate

and disgusting. I do not condone or support any of this

discrimination. With all of this stated, I would like to turn your attention to something that Dorothy Day Center for Faith and Justice published on Sept. 9, 2011. This press

release was titled "Remembering 9/11." I encourage any readers to read through this release. Upon being prompted to read this I expected to hear about heroic stories

and somber remembrance of what occurred on Sept. 11, 2001. Instead, the release had nothing more than a small paragraph to acknowledge 9/11. The rest of the release called for campus to give remembrance towards the

aforementioned discrimination of Islam. The release caught me off guard. I feel sympathy for this claimed discrimination but I thought this reading was supposed

to be remembering 9/11. As I continued to read, I saw the entirety of the release mentioned nothing more about the

tragedy on 9/11. It only mentioned more information

about accepting diversity. This did not make any

sense to me. Why would the CFJ remember 9/11 this

way? I know that CFJ celebrates diversity everyday—

that seems to be its claim to fame. Yet, why does its

response shift the focus from the true meaning of

9/11? I have no problem with CFJ speaking against

discrimination, but its release bordered on irreverence to Sept. 11th. Their 9/11 statement says at the end, "The Center for Faith & Justice encourages the students, faculty

and staff of Xavier Un i v e r s i t y to urge each other towards

our shared commitment to dialogue and diversity, especially this weekend." I ask though, is that not what happened naturally on that fateful day? Americans of

all different races, origins and beliefs stood together to mourn and lend support to those in need. The CFJ means well and preaches its message of diversity everyday. Some days it just is not necessary for CFJ to put its two cents in. 9/11 was a generation shaping event and it is inappropriate

to shift the focus away from what happened. Preaching an alternative message in correspondence to that day is insensitive no matter what it may be preaching. As long as I live I will always remember that day and where I was

and I will dedicate my remembrance to it and the patriotism

that I felt with millions of other Americans. There is no need to try and use 9/11 for alternative motives, that day will forever live as a day where America stood up together and unified as a country under God indivisible and with liberty and justice for all. May "Remembering 9/11" truly be

remembering 9/11.