My son-in-law, Ted Hennessy, Jr. of Belmont, Massachusetts, was killed when American Airlines flight 11 hit the World Trade Towers. He was thirty-five years old and the father of two small children, ages four and seven. That anyone could have perpetrated such a foul and cowardly deed was, at the time, beyond my comprehension. As I learned more about the matter, I realized that our own government, and commercial interests that supported our government, had precipitated this attack as much as the vicious mentalities of the attackers.
I have since devoted every waking hour to building bridges of understanding between the Muslim, Jewish and Christian communities in the United States through Peaceful Tomorrows and The Alliance for Jewish-Christian-Muslim Understanding, which I helped form a year ago.
Our country was built on a foundation of religious tolerance, and many have come to America to escape religious persecution. Unfortunately, after arriving here, many have forgotten their forebears’ reason for coming and have preached the same kind of religious bigotry that drove their ancestors to our shores.
We must remember that the enemy does not live half-way around the globe, but in our own hearts, and that only with love of our fellow man will the hatreds of the world be ended once and for all.
Wright Salisbury
Father-in-law of Ted Hennessey
Lexington, Massachusetts
