Four days after the attacks of Sept. 11, Balbir Singh Sodhi, an Indian, was shot outside his gas station in Mesa, Ariz., by a man who wanted to avenge the attacks of Sept. 11. Five months later, Sodhi’s family has not received any of the nearly $2 billion raised by the American Red Cross for victims of the attacks.
The Campaign for Collateral Compassion is trying to change that.
Sodhi was one of 14 victims of hate crimes across the country following the Sept. 11 attacks. The campaign, an arm of the Evanston group Neighbors for Peace, aims to convince the Red Cross that a portion of the fund should be given to families of those victims. About 10 volunteers passed out fliers to Evanston residents Thursday night at the corner of Church Street and Sherman Avenue that explained the campaign’s goal of extending financial relief.
“This is a significant way to call attention to other victims of Sept. 11,” said Gabe Huck, an Evanston resident and campaign volunteer. “These were people who were just as innocent and just a part of the world as those in the Pentagon or the World Trade Center.”
Neighbors for Peace was created Sept. 14 when a group of Evanston residents “felt the need to gather together and grieve,” Huck said. In recent weeks, the campaign has been planning ways to publicize what they say is an injustice.
“Anyone who is an innocent victim of a hate crime is equal to anyone else,” said Anya Cordell, campaign coordinator and Evanston resident. “They deserve some of the money just as much as (families of the Sept. 11 victims). The Red Cross is almost burdened trying to find people to give the money to. (The victims) have families, children who need to go to college. These people who very much need it should be part of the pool.”
The campaign is not looking for contributions, Cordell said.
“There’s already plenty of money (in the Red Cross fund),” she said. “We’re helping them decide where to put the money.”
The campaign wants people to write the Red Cross and persuade them to send part of the funds to the families of the hate-crime victims. According to a Feb. 7 article in the Wall Street Journal, the Red Cross raised so much money that volunteers have been going door-to-door in wealthy Manhattan neighborhoods, offering donations to people whose only connection to the attacks was that they live near Ground Zero.
“People who donated didn’t mean for (the money) to go for acupuncture for someone who lives in Tribeca,” Cordell said. “The families of the victims of Sept. 11 want (the families of hate-crime victims) to receive some of the money. They believe they belong in the group, too.”
Laurie Knodel said she agrees with the group’s purpose. Knodel, a nurse from Park Ridge, Ill., said she knows people who are of Middle Eastern descent who have been victimized since the attacks.
“People don’t single out beliefs,” Knodel said. “They only look at the outside, how people look. You can’t do that.”
But others said such a small number of victims compared to the overall number should not benefit from the Red Cross fund.
“I think it’s a petty cause,” Evanston resident Jesse Sutton said. “(The campaign is) going after a cause that is microscopic. There’s a lot more at stake than helping 14 families. That won’t really help any social trend.”
But the awareness of even a few people will help spread information about the campaign, Cordell said.
“I think we’ve begun to bring this to people’s awareness, which is important,” Cordell said. “If everyone knew about the cause, we’d have hundreds out here, because this is the right thing to do.”
The campaign’s next event is a town hall meeting with city officials, co-sponsored by members of the Indian community. Neighbors for Peace meets Thursday nights at 7:30 at St. Nicholas Church, 806 Ridge Ave.
