Human = Human, =/= American, =/= Indian

My friend's topic on terrorism (9/11: An Indian perspective) made me respond in the following manner. Here is the opening post to this topic. My friend (http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=38223781391) says....
"9/11 was horrific. Innocent live were lost - of all religion, of all nationalities. Estimated death toll was over 6,000. We still have horrifying pictures of it impressed in our minds. It was undoubtedly very traumatic. And no way can it be justified.

More importantly however, it happened in American soil.I hear this all the time "This was an attack on the World", "This was not about America, it's against the free world!" or even get asked all the time, "Was that not a big deal in India for you guys?" "We were devastated! Weren't you??" "I still remember what I was doing at that second, dont you?" "Shruti how are you so passive about this!" When I dont really know how to respond to all of these, I get told "Well you hate America ..."

It would be pretty frustrating when someone tells me "You hate America." This is actually disrespectful since even though I live here and consider myself as American as anybody else, the connotation behind the above statement completely voids me being American and my respect for America as a country.

I understand the fragility of the situation. I am a brown person, I was not here when the terror took place. Anyone who was here in person understands the emotion much more than me. So when I don't exhibit as much distress and emotion as the person who was actually here whenever the issue is brought up, there is a possibility that I will be accussed of not being sympathetic enough, since "I don't know!." That's ok, but calling me a hater means you are accusing me of being morally wrong. This is unacceptable.

I guess there is nothing I can do about it but hope and try to explain to him/her that I understand that innocent and helpless people were made victims of a group that is collectively weak, unintelligent and ignorant. I would also make it known to him/her that whenever I see something like this on tv, it infuriates me to my limit regardless of caste, creed, religion or geography of the victim. There is nothing else I can do to explain my emotion against terrorism. But calling me un-American by assuming I don't care about lives lost in America as much as I would care about lives lost in India is just plain disrespectful. I respect this country as my own and I have no reason to have a bias for either.

It is true that I am connected with India to a deeper extent emotionally since my childhood and most of my life was spent there. But this does not mean I am immoral. Moral values of a good citizen usually stay the same in most societies.