I will always remember 9-11-2001 as the day I felt the most prejudice in my life. I was sitting at my desk at A & P (I cannot remember if it was still BellSouth or if it was AT&T) watching it happen with my coworkers. I was terrified inside. Greg was 2 years old. He was at his daycare in Clarkston, Ga. Clarkston is known for being a welcoming city of immigrants. You can drive down one street and see every ethnicity and nationality walking around. That is why I loved Clarkston and eventually brought my 1st home there.

On 9-11, I was terrified. What if something else happened…? There was a lot of speculation concerning who was responsible for the attack. As I sat at my desk, not being able to leave, I became more worried. I thought about every time I saw someone walking that looked Muslim, Middle Eastern, or from that area. I remembered that for the past few months a man had been walking around with a red and white head covering on. I remembered there was a restaurant that was frequented by Middle Eastern people in the same plaza as the daycare. I allowed my brain to convince myself that Greg was in danger just because ”those people” lived in Clarkston. It wasn’t based on facts or true reality. It was based on fear.

Over the next couple of weeks, my fear subsided. I actually started worrying about the elderly gentleman with the head-covering. I never saw a man wearing his head-covering walking the streets again for years. I prayed that he was safe and not living in fear. I started seeing the people of the restaurant on the news and they seemed like normal people worried about our country also. I believe it took a moment for that population of people to start feeling safe in their country again after 9-11.

Fear can mess with your mind if you allow it to take over your thoughts. I pray for all of the people affected by the attacks on 9-11-2001. The events of this day had far-reaching hands. It changed the way we lived in this world. I learned from my reaction to this day. I pray other people did as well. I pray that no one reading this is living with fear in their hearts & minds that was created because of the differences of people.

God bless everyone.

#rememberthepeopleof911