Not in Our Son's Name

By Phyllis and Orlando Rodriguez
Phyllis and Orlando Rodriguez's son Greg is one of the Trade Center victims.

Copy of letter sent to NY Times:

Our son Greg is among the many missing from the World Trade Center attack. Since we first heard the news, we have shared moments of grief, comfort, hope, despair, fond memories with his wife, the two families, our friends and neighbors, his loving colleagues at Cantor Fitzgerald / Espeed, and all the grieving families that daily meet at the Pierre Hotel.

We see our hurt and anger reflected among everybody we meet. We cannot pay attention to the daily flow of news about this disaster. But we read enough of the news to sense that our government is heading in the direction of violent revenge, with the prospect of sons, daughters, parents, friends in distant lands dying, suffering, and nursing further grievances against us.

Demonstrators, including Deborah DeNicola, of Boston, bottom, sing, hold candles, and display signs calling for an end to violence during a rally in Boston's Copley Square. The rally, which was sponsored in part by the American Friends Service Committee, and which was attended by several hundred people, was meant to demand a peaceful solution in responce to the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 11. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

It is not the way to go. It will not avenge our son's death. Not in our son's name.

Our son died a victim of an inhuman ideology. Our actions should not serve the same purpose. Let us grieve. Let us reflect and pray. Let us think about a rational response that brings real peace and justice to our world.

But let us not as a nation add to the inhumanity of our times.

Dear President Bush:

Our son is one of the victims of Tuesday's attack on the World Trade Center. We read about your response in the last few days and about the resolutions from both Houses, giving you undefined power to respond to the terror attacks.

Your response to this attack does not make us feel better about our son's death. It makes us feel worse. It makes us feel that our government is using our son's memory as a justification to cause suffering for other sons and parents in other lands.

It is not the first time that a person in your position has been given unlimited power and came to regret it. This is not the time for empty gestures to make us feel better. It is not the time to act like bullies.

We urge you to think about how our governement can develop peaceful, rational solutions to terrorism, solutions that do not sink us to the inhuman level of terrorists.

Sincerely,
Phyllis and Orlando Rodriguez

Abdullah Jan, a 56-year-old refugee from Kabul and a father of six, said:
"We have nothing to do with terrorism or terrorists. We are ourselves victims of terrorism." He said he sympathizes "with the pain of the families" who lost family in the U.S. terror attacks, but said the United States should "not do anything that would increase the suffering of innocent Afghans."
-AP news