email23.xml
Title
email23.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
email
Date Entered
2002-02-18
September 11 Email: Body
Dear Rita:
What a funny coincidence! I have not heard from Kovacs yet, but will look forward to it.
One of the many ways 9/11 has changed our world is that I have not followed up on many things I was working on before, like an interview with you...I haven't forgotten, though...
In more substantial ways, the United States seems much the same, although a bit tenser and, like any country who's soldiers are at war, a bit more patriotic than normal and a bit more willing to curb civil liberties. On the other hand, Americans have learned more positive things about Islam and Muslims in the past four weeks than they have in the past 40 years. One of my most favorite examples is from the University of Michigan, where hundreds of non-Muslim women wore veils for a week to demonstrate solidarity with their fellow students. Here at GMU we have hundreds, if not thousands of students from the Middle East or South Asia...I have three Palestinians in my classes alone. That means that the campus is a more tolerant place than most universities in the US...I'm told that my former employer Texas Tech has had some minor problems...fist fights, etc.
I have suffered a great deal of anxiety about my children, especially when at night I see the fighter planes circling over our home. Sometimes I have to bring them to bed to sleep with us just so I feel they are somehow safer. Just last night Susan and I made up our evacuation box...something we could throw in the car at a moment's notice and flee the area in the event of a biological attack...which our government keeps warning us to be ready for. Can you imagine? On the one hand we felt silly, but on the other, we felt as though we had to do it just in case...especially now that the government tells us to beware an attack this weekend. Susan was supposed to go to California this weekend but the trip was postponed because her friend there was ill...now we are happy that it turned out that way. Probably nothing will happen, but we live in this state of constant anticipation that is never far from the surface. As a parent, you know how much I want to just move to the mountains somewhere for a year or two and come back down once this is all over...
I hope all is well there with your family. I'm trying to figure out a way to come to CE this summer for a week or two for research, but who knows what will happen at this point? I'll stay in touch on that, and I promise to be in touch also about that interview...
All the best,
Mills
What a funny coincidence! I have not heard from Kovacs yet, but will look forward to it.
One of the many ways 9/11 has changed our world is that I have not followed up on many things I was working on before, like an interview with you...I haven't forgotten, though...
In more substantial ways, the United States seems much the same, although a bit tenser and, like any country who's soldiers are at war, a bit more patriotic than normal and a bit more willing to curb civil liberties. On the other hand, Americans have learned more positive things about Islam and Muslims in the past four weeks than they have in the past 40 years. One of my most favorite examples is from the University of Michigan, where hundreds of non-Muslim women wore veils for a week to demonstrate solidarity with their fellow students. Here at GMU we have hundreds, if not thousands of students from the Middle East or South Asia...I have three Palestinians in my classes alone. That means that the campus is a more tolerant place than most universities in the US...I'm told that my former employer Texas Tech has had some minor problems...fist fights, etc.
I have suffered a great deal of anxiety about my children, especially when at night I see the fighter planes circling over our home. Sometimes I have to bring them to bed to sleep with us just so I feel they are somehow safer. Just last night Susan and I made up our evacuation box...something we could throw in the car at a moment's notice and flee the area in the event of a biological attack...which our government keeps warning us to be ready for. Can you imagine? On the one hand we felt silly, but on the other, we felt as though we had to do it just in case...especially now that the government tells us to beware an attack this weekend. Susan was supposed to go to California this weekend but the trip was postponed because her friend there was ill...now we are happy that it turned out that way. Probably nothing will happen, but we live in this state of constant anticipation that is never far from the surface. As a parent, you know how much I want to just move to the mountains somewhere for a year or two and come back down once this is all over...
I hope all is well there with your family. I'm trying to figure out a way to come to CE this summer for a week or two for research, but who knows what will happen at this point? I'll stay in touch on that, and I promise to be in touch also about that interview...
All the best,
Mills
September 11 Email: Date
October 12, 2001
September 11 Email: Subject
ELTE
Collection
Citation
“email23.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed July 5, 2024, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/39210.