Holding Their Own: A Story of Survival Read Online Free PDF Page B

or holy wars, or even the influence of his mosque. Ali hated America because of what it had done to his father. At great risk, his father had helped the Americans in the First Gulf War by providing information about the Iraqi forces in Kuwait City to the Americans. He had despised Saddam more than the infidels. After the war, the American consulate recognized Ali’s father was at risk if he stayed in the region . . . so they granted him political asylum and eventually, US citizenship.
    Ali had been uprooted with his mother and siblings and flown to the United States . His father had researched various American cities and settled on Houston, Texas. For the first few years, everything had gone according to plan, and life was good. The State Department had assisted in a small business loan, and a new family enterprise was established. Shenfeti Medical Supply was born with a family celebration in the back of the firm’s new warehouse. It was really nothing more than a gas station that had gone out of business, but Mr. Shenfeti acted like it was a new 100,000 square foot facility.
    Mr. Shenfeti worked tirelessly and grew his business delivering bottled oxygen and othe r supplies to customers in the medical center area. It was not long before he had three trucks and enlisted his son as a driver. Despite his limited English, Mr. Shenfeti had worked hard, enrolled his children in school, and allowed his wife to become more “westernized.”
    Ali had struggled with the West in general, but especially America . He played soccer while all of the other boys were interested in basketball or American football. He was one of three Muslim children in his class and the only one who was openly in love with Allah. This did not go unnoticed by his classmates. Regardless, he and his family survived, and even flourished in Texas until 9/11.
    As Ali later told his Mullah, it was as if someone had flipped a light switch. The discrimination was not open at first, but more like an underlying current of hatred. Orders for his father’s business slowed, and longtime customers suddenly chose competitors for no known reason. Family friends no longer called or stopped by. Eventually, his father lost the business, having to sell out to a rival. Ali was retained as a driver because he knew the routes and the customers. Mr. Shenfeti became depressed and then ill. He died less than two years later of a heart attack in Houston General Hospital, one of his company’s very first customers. Ali’s hatred of all things American increased every time he made his weekly delivery to Houston General.
    Ali was unaware of the hospital’s financial problems or the announcement that morning . He pulled his delivery truck into the loading dock only to find everything locked down and a sign on the office door saying that the hospital was closed. This angered him even more as the hospital had dozens of his empty oxygen tanks, and he was responsible for exchanging them for the full ones on his truck. The hospital also used acetylene and other volatile gases for its labs and processes, and his truck was full of those as well. Barely keeping his temper in check, he shifted the truck into reverse, deciding his boss could deal with the situation later. As he tried to turn the corner on the way to his next customer, he found his path blocked by the large crowd of people gathered in front of the building.
     
     
    Big Mike ordered all available radio cars be sent to Houston General and called downtown to request help . He left the station and quickly proceeded to the hospital. By the time he and most of the officers from the area began to arrive, there were over 800 people gathered in front of the building, and the crowd had overflowed onto Fannin Street, a major traffic artery in the area. Big Mike had to pull his cruiser to the curb almost six blocks away because of stranded cars full of angry drivers. As he strode toward the building, he saw something fly through the air and