Speech to NAACP Convention, June 2002
Those who died on Sept. 11 were a diverse group. One of those who escaped from the World Trade Center said, "If you'd seen what it was like in that stairway, you'd be proud. There was no gender, no race, no religion. It was everyone helping each other." But back in America's streets, there is gender. There is race. There is religion.
Since the attacks, people who look like Arabs or Muslims have been harassed, assaulted, even killed. On the Saturday following that terrible Tuesday, in Mesa, Ariz., a gunman shot to death a Sikh owner of a gas station, fired on a Lebanese clerk at work and an Afghan family at home.
Just as we know a lot about discrimination, we know a lot about terrorism, too. Slavery was terrorism. Segregation was terrorism. The bombing of four little girls in Birmingham was terrorism. And we know that the surest defense against terrorism is affirmation of America's basic values.
We must understand that when wars are fought to save democracy, the first casualty is usually democracy itself...
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