Still Moments

Zighen Aym's journey from North Africa to achieve his dreams is that of many others who leave their native lands for solace and better life in America. The 9/11 events makes him discriminatorily a suspect of terrorist activities. As an engineer and freelance writer/photographer, he combines a special blend of anger and humor to tell his encounter with an Illinois State trooper and a subsequent call from the FBI. The author depicts with finesse the traumatic interrogation that followed, but naively realizes that in such a situation there are questions to answer, others to refuse to answer, and still others to ponder. Skin color kicks on Route 66 in the post 9/11 period are woven in this laconic story about ethnic profiling, cynical politics, and lucrative hypocrisy.