Fear In Today’s America

Asali was driving to work one morning.  He had a regular job in a regular building and he was a regular man.  Since he had brought his family to the states, he was thankful and he worked hard.  His family had been lucky enough to get out of Syria. He no longer had to worry about bombs and starvation. His children were safe and warm and fed. His wife was happy and they were a family of love and togetherness. Life was good. He had his caramel frappuccino in his left hand and the steering wheel in his right.  As he pulled up to work and parked his car he spotted three men standing suspiciously in an alleyway with their hoods up, making it hard to identify their faces. They all had black sweatshirts and black pants. One had his phone in his right hand and looked like he was texting someone. The second man was smoking a cigarette and dropped it on the ground and stomped on it putting it out.  You could still see a little bit of smoke rising from the flattened cigarette. The third man had a white styrofoam cup and was drinking something out of it. Asali assumed it was some alcoholic beverage and sighed. With the increase in hate crimes he had become cautious, but Asali didn’t think twice about the men and began walking to his office building. He suddenly heard footsteps behind him getting closer and faster.  He felt a twinge of fear. He turned quick and saw all three men darting toward him. “Hey!” one of the men yelled. He immediately turned back around and bolted to the buildings front doors and slammed them shut behind him. He waited, his heart pounding, breathing hard. “Could this be a hate crime? Could this be happening to me?” he thought to himself. His life flashed before his eyes, thinking about his children without a father, and his wife all alone. Had he brought them all this way to leave them alone in a new country? No one came to the door for a few seconds.  He listened and heard nothing outside. Asali waited a little longer, trying to calm his nerves, cracked open the door, and peeked out to see if they were still there. They were, standing together talking and looking around. One of them saw him and said “Hey, there he is!” Asali could see their faces now and he saw that they looked concerned, not menacing. One of them held something up and asked “Is this yours?” It was Asalis wallet.

He thanked the men and they went on their way.  Asali considered what had just happened. These men were trying to help him and he thought the worst of them.  He shook his head. He had just profiled those boys in the way he thought they had profiled him. He felt ashamed and hypocritical. Reading about all the hate crimes this past year had eroded his trust. He vowed to make some kind of amends.

That night as he tucked his children in bed, he told them a story.  It was about a man who, in these troubled times, lost his trust and faith in the goodness of people. He turned the story of what had happened to him that morning into a parable. He told his children that the man vowed to do one good deed a day to restore his faith in others and others faith in him. Then he kissed them and said goodnight.

As he spoke later of the days events to his wife, she promised him that she knew in her heart that he was a good man.  Fear can change people and bring out the worst in them. “But”, she said, “those moments don’t define a man.” Asali went to bed that night thankful for everything he had, and with a new sense of purpose to do good in the world.