I AM MUSLIM TOO

Nothing causes me to feel more vulnerable than feeling like I am having a setback due to my neck injury.

The pain in my palms, the numbness in my fingers, the tingling down my arms. Even in the arches of my feet.

I was in an accident. I was riding my bicycle on a bright and beautiful day. I was wearing a whistle, and a bright neon yellow cycling jacket. The man who hit me with his large SUV told the police officer, “I didn’t see her. I was just in a hurry.”

I’m one of the lucky ones. But my life was radically changed the moment I couldn’t pedal fast enough to get out of the way, knowing exactly what was coming. 

The cervical spine was one of the final injuries to manifest. It is the one that causes me to feel the most vulnerable. It causes me to feel the most grief. And it shakes me into unknown territories.

Trauma was opened. And it has been held. The country is now stirring. My body is now revisiting these frozen places.

One of the first most heinous insults to come my way after my collar came off, upon seeing the gash across my neck, was being asked the following:

“Were you slashed by Muslims?”

My response was this: “I won’t even dignify that with a response. Enjoy your day.”

To my Muslim sisters and brothers, mothers and fathers, children, and grandparents,

YOU ARE SEEN. YOU ARE KNOWN. YOU ARE LOVED.

I am your neighbor. We are the same. I grieve for how you are hurting now.

I write this for ALL of us who hurt now. I don’t know the resolution for my body’s pain and distress in all of its new reorganizing manifestations. But I do feel afraid. This particular part of the body causes me to feel extremely vulnerable. Anyone who has injury here may understand.

I cannot help but wonder if the fear-driven administration’s tactics are working.

I can turn this post in that direction, but instead, what I want to do is say this: I am hurting and I know I am not the only one. What I know I want to do is to keep finding ways to help each other. No matter what.

Everything that happens to you happens to me and I won’t sit idly by and allow that.

For today and every day, THIS JEW IS MUSLIM TOO. #IAMMUSLIMTOO

FROM LOVE.

#IAmMuslimToo #resist #resistance #NotOneMore #NoMuslimBan #HereToStay #WeThePeople #thisiswhatdemocracylookslike

 2.28.18 

Jill Bacharach