WEBVTT 00:00:01.439 --> 00:00:03.700 there's a famous sort of saying in the armed forces 00:00:03.710 --> 00:00:05.809 or in the marines that we all bleed green. 00:00:05.820 --> 00:00:07.009 You know, if you've earned that title of U 00:00:07.009 --> 00:00:08.939 . S. Marine, you're all the same right 00:00:08.949 --> 00:00:10.480 ? And you're, you're willing to die for each 00:00:10.480 --> 00:00:14.759 other. So for me it is very painful uh 00:00:14.769 --> 00:00:16.969 , when I reflect on the those years, especially 00:00:16.969 --> 00:00:20.679 the years later, uh, later now because I 00:00:20.679 --> 00:00:22.239 , I sometimes wonder now like maybe I would have 00:00:22.239 --> 00:00:24.600 stayed in longer and uh, in the Marine corps 00:00:24.600 --> 00:00:26.109 , maybe I would have retired from the Marine Corps 00:00:26.120 --> 00:00:27.920 had I hadn't, had I not gone through some 00:00:27.920 --> 00:00:31.789 of those experiences because they did greatly impact me as 00:00:31.789 --> 00:00:33.460 a human being as a person. I was a 00:00:33.460 --> 00:00:36.179 person that when you have this thing on with the 00:00:36.179 --> 00:00:38.899 blue pants and the restaurant, this looks special. 00:00:38.969 --> 00:00:41.420 People started calling me things like Taliban and Osama bin 00:00:41.420 --> 00:00:44.570 laden and terrorist. And in the beginning I I 00:00:44.570 --> 00:00:47.429 just kind of laughed it off because you know, 00:00:47.439 --> 00:00:49.109 I don't know what else to do it. It's 00:00:49.109 --> 00:00:50.820 just really weird. You know, I just just 00:00:50.820 --> 00:00:51.799 like, you know when you're in high school I 00:00:51.799 --> 00:00:53.869 guess, you know you, somebody makes a comment 00:00:53.869 --> 00:00:55.700 , you just, you just ignore it or you 00:00:55.700 --> 00:00:57.530 laugh it off and kind of go with the flow 00:00:57.759 --> 00:00:59.890 . But at some point it started getting to me 00:00:59.899 --> 00:01:03.570 because it became um, also reflective in people's attitudes 00:01:03.570 --> 00:01:04.079 . It was, it became more than just a 00:01:04.079 --> 00:01:10.099 joke. It became some people's real perception of something 00:01:10.099 --> 00:01:11.310 that I was something different or something other, you 00:01:11.310 --> 00:01:14.719 know, and something that couldn't be trusted. You 00:01:14.719 --> 00:01:18.469 know, and I felt that from certain people's behavior 00:01:18.469 --> 00:01:21.409 and attitudes toward me. Uh, so it was 00:01:21.420 --> 00:01:23.430 that was very tough. This is what Islam is 00:01:23.430 --> 00:01:26.969 actually giving recently. I was planning helping planning a 00:01:26.969 --> 00:01:32.609 trip for our sunday school Children to Niagara Falls and 00:01:32.930 --> 00:01:36.969 I'm helping with accommodation part of it. And when 00:01:36.969 --> 00:01:40.640 they said who's coming, I kept, I was 00:01:40.640 --> 00:01:44.390 like a house of worship, you know, this 00:01:44.390 --> 00:01:45.840 is this is like, this is so sad, 00:01:45.840 --> 00:01:49.579 right? Like Because I was like, maybe they'll 00:01:49.579 --> 00:01:52.140 treat me different, maybe they're like, we don't 00:01:52.140 --> 00:01:53.519 want them coming here, I don't know, you 00:01:53.519 --> 00:01:56.870 know? And this is this is 20 years after 00:01:56.870 --> 00:02:00.299 9 11 that I'm still having to feel this way 00:02:00.310 --> 00:02:02.760 . So we haven't made much progress, right? 00:02:04.239 --> 00:02:06.060 I mean, I I can't call that progress. 00:02:06.840 --> 00:02:08.349 These are the real sort of, I think everyday 00:02:08.560 --> 00:02:12.979 situations that no one talks about, but they exist 00:02:12.990 --> 00:02:14.360 , they're part of our life every day.