Even in tragedy, we’re a nation of immigrants
Photo by Los Alamos National Laboratory/Flickr (Creative Commons)
A memorial consisting of victims' names at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, honoring those who died September 11, 2001 at the site of the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
A week ago Sunday on the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, the Immigration Prof blog published a simple remembrance that has stood out among the many tributes and analyses I’ve read this month, one that’s still very much worth sharing.
Blogger and University of San Francisco law professor Bill Ong Hing published a simple list of names with this introduction: “A random sampling of names from the list of 9/11 victims reminds us that we are a nation of immigrants.”
Among the surnames of the nearly 3,000 victims who died that day in 2001 were names like Abad, Aceto, Abel, Acquaviva, Chevalier, Chiang, Chin, Chowdhury, Cisneros-Alvarez, Guzzardo, Halloran, Hafiz, Lefkowitz, Leon, Liangthanasarn, Lim, Pham, Piantieri, Pinto, Yasmin, Yee, Zakhary, Zambrana, Ziminski.
The post concludes, “May they rest in peace.”
The complete list as posted can be viewed here.
It is a haunting tribute to all of the victims, and to what this nation is.
