My Memories of New Jersey and 9/11

I am from Ridgewood, New Jersey, a commuter town in Bergen County. We’re not far from Patterson, where Donald Trump claims “thousands” of Muslims danced in the streets after 9/11. Although no one would confuse the bucolic suburbia of Ridgewood with the urban decay of Patterson or the concrete density of Jersey City — the other center of Muslim residents of New Jersey. I was in New Jersey that day. I watched the towers burn and fall from a scenic overlook in Ridgewood. And I think he’s making it up.

At the time, I had a couple of friends who lived in Jersey City, and I remember driving down to see them the week after 9/11 — it was nighttime, but you could see the glow of downtown of all the flood lights in ground zero while the firefighters worked to recover survivors — of which there were few. The glow was visible through the smoke from the still smoldering buildings. The owner of the bodega down the street from my friends’ place was a Muslim who proclaimed his love for America as he sold me a six-pack.

I did a lot of driving those first few days after 9/11. All over my area — sometimes going places, mostly just thinking and driving. I saw no celebrating in the streets — though I didn’t drive into Patterson. Mostly I saw signs looking for lost loved ones. And I saw cars parked at all our train stations — cars whose owners went to work, but didn’t come home.

There were a lot of people on the subways then who would come on and yell about the attacks signaled the coming of the end-times. They would rant about Muslims or Jews or the Book of Revelation. Mostly people would keep their eyes down, and hope the guy didn’t do anything crazy.

Later, the following year, I was working in Washington for my Congresswoman, Marge Roukema, as a lowly Staff Assistant. One of my first jobs was to help sort the mail — which was finally coming through as a yellowed, crinkled, brittle mess. It had all been so intensely irradiated to kill any anthrax spores that it stuck together in big piles. Any part of the mail that was plastic had melted. We had special gloves for when you sorted mail, and no one could sort it for too long without getting a headache.

There were several letters in those piles of mail that repeated a story similar to Trump’s. “Those Muslims celebrated on 9/11.” Most of these letters were scrawled across multiple pages. There were enough letters on this subject that I recall checking to see if there was any background to it. We could find no evidence of any dancing in the streets. Thankfully, we also couldn’t find much evidence of anti-Muslim retaliation either. New Jerseyans, like the rest of the country, seemed to come together after 9/11, not divide.

Most of the letters were written in the tone that Trump takes today — us against them. But then they would go on to blame bilderburgers, the federal reserve, and whatever other international conspiracy they could find. I remember having to try to call these folks back and listen to their unhinged rants about everything from how 9/11 was an inside job to the best way to deal with the Taliban, Osama bin Laden, and Saddam Hussein (mostly it involved nuclear weapons).

There was a lot of crazy people then. There still are. It doesn’t mean we have to listen to them, or believe them. But one of them is now running for President, and leading in the polls. He apparently thinks its ok to repeat anything you find at the bottom of a comment feed on the internet as the truth. I still think that there are enough sane voices to push out this crazy person from the Republican Party — but most of us are still just looking down and trying not to make eye contact.

Donald Trump’s lies about Muslims in New Jersey are do not dignify a response. But people are listening to him — and getting the wrong idea about New Jersey. I think Trump is attacking all New Jersey. If Governor Christie won’t defend the people of New Jersey, then we need leaders who will. Its time for this divisive rhetoric to end, and for all of us to remember that America is strongest when we work together, not when we tear each other down.