American Jedi
Twenty-five years after 9-11, one-third of all Americans were not yet born. Lived experience is becoming history, with all the idealization and distortion that can contain.
A tragic day that changed the political direction of America, is becoming a polarized memory. Some idealize the response, forgetting the spiking Islamophobia in the months that followed, even as it rises again. Meanwhile Hasan Piker, a “shock jock” who once said America deserved 9/11, is platformed by younger Democrats.
Reductionist history makes progress impossible. Push back with nuance.
How to do it:
American Jedi: The Salman Hamdani Story. This short documentary (38 minutes) is about a patriotic Muslim immigrant, a cadet with the NYPD, who saw the smoke and ran to help. In the five months it took to find his remains inside the North Building, he became an FBI suspect. After the New York Times publicized his name, longstanding neighbors turned on his family, yet today, his mother’s remaining wish is that her son’s name be added to the first responders list at the memorial. This is the complicated history of our nation: immigration, patriotism, bigotry, love, and persistence.
