25 years later: the 9/11 hate crime survivor who forgave the man who shot him | rais bhuiyan (re-release)

**listener discretion is advised.

twenty-five years ago, rais bhuiyan was shot in the face, ten days after 9/11, just because he looked different. i'm re-releasing this conversation for the 25th anniversary — him telling you what happened next, in his own words.

rais came to america for the idea of it — the cowboys, the fairness, the wide-open promise of the whole thing. in the fear and anger after the attacks, people who looked like rais became targets. a man walked into his gas station, asked where he was from, and pulled the trigger. rais survived. a few other men weren't as lucky.

here's the part that doesn't leave you: rais forgave him. not quietly. he campaigned to keep his own shooter off death row, wrote him letters--forgiving him, he fought the state of texas — and lost. the execution happened anyway. rais kept going: a nonprofit, a documentary, a fight in congress to get these hate crime victims recognized by name.

this isn't just about 9/11. it's about what a person does that day, the day after. and the day after that. and the twenty-five years after — carrying trauma that could easily define you, and choosing not to let it. it's the difference between forgiveness as a feeling and forgiveness as something you decide, again and again, on purpose. rais made a choice. then he made it again. every day since. which is the only question that matters: what have our choices been, since that day?

because rais understood something before most of us do — we don't have to agree, or look alike, or worship alike, to choose not to destroy each other over it. that's not weakness. that's the harder, stronger path. and he's also figured out how to transform that pain into purpose.

listen to the whole conversation. think about what you've overcome, and what's still asking to be overcome. look at the choices you've made, and the ones we've made together. sit with someone different from you. extend the hand first. it doesn't have to be big — just make it your choice.

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