This essay is written by an Arab-American author who was born in the United States and is christian. Her essay takes post 9/11 look at how Americans view Arabs. Her experience is a unique one in which she finds herself writing a play about an Arab girl with a terrorist brother. It was a monologue in which the Arab girl is sympathetic to those whom her brother may harm. In the process, she is invited to present her work at a festival marking the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in New York City.
After she was invited to present, she actually had second thoughts and reservations about how she would be perceived. This led to her asking the promoters to have another actress perform her work so she didn't have to shoulder any criticism by herself. Subsequently she decided to write another work that was less sensitive but tells the story of a Palestinian girl on a plane hijacked by Arab terrorists. Upon the author's arrival at the festival, she finds that her work was rewritten without her knowledge. The event organizer's tell her it is because of time issues, but she notes that most of what has been omitted involves the direct discussions between the girl and the terrorists.
In retrospect the author relates how not only has the American society censored Palestinian views from the theater, that she participated as well by not producing any works of the Palestinian experience during her graduate studies at the Yale School of Drama. Additionally, she again censored herself by not doing her original work as asked for the 9/11 anniversary festival. By altering her work early on, did she sabotage herself with the event organizer's later? The author wonders if theatrical works involving the Palestinian experience, in essence, by seeing them more as human beings, would reshape the American thoughts and political policies toward Palestinians.
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