Political protesters greeted me upon arrival at The Cell, my April volunteer assignment.  I had agreed to act as a tour guide for a VIP reception which was followed by a Q&A with Tom Ridge, former United States Secretary of Homeland Security, and former Ambassador Craig Stapleton at the Denver Art Museum.  An opportunity I accepted from my alma mater.  Until that moment, I had not suspected controversy as part of my experience.

Maybe I was having a hard time that month finding a new nonprofit to volunteer for.  Maybe my imagination needed a nudge.  But, for whatever reason, I bumped into this request for help, and since The Cell is a nonprofit organization, I reasoned it would be educational and expand my horizons.  Afterall, there would be “VIPs” there.

I showed up for training thirty minutes prior to the guests arrivals and walked through the exhibit  entitled “Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere”.  In addition to reading a lot of wall boards, the exhibit included a simulation of a terrorist attack occurring on Denver’s Sixteenth Street Mall.  The 360 degree experience bombarded the senses with everything except the real smell of blood and gunpowder.  Each tour group was herded into a small dark room, which felt like a cell, where standing guests witnessed actual, life-size film footage of the chaotic aftermath of a suicide bomber.  I stood shoulder to shoulder with medics helping the injured, and eye to eye with shocked and bloodied witnesses and victims.  And, doing my duty, I lead two groups through the destruction and chaos. VIP guests included airline pilots, law enforcement personnel and some local bureaucrats accompanied by their loved ones.

I’m still unsure of the exhibit’s value and why The Cell categorizes itself as a nonprofit organization except that I don’t think it would be a moneymaking venture.  All I can say is that I didn’t get their point.  Since April, I’ve waffled between writing this article and nixing it.  I tried to ignore it out of existence and off of my blog.  However, not all my experiences can be sunshine and divinity.  My need to write about it keeps popping up.  So here I am in early June, two more volunteer assignments separating me from April’s ignorance, and I’m just now allowing myself to put this in writing. 

For more information about the exhibit, read the following review written in 2009. 

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2265489/denver_exhibit_the_cell_anyone_anytime.html

The Center for Empowered Life and Learning = The CELL 

The name sounds noble enough.  Innocuous even.

The Cell allows children age six and up to enter the exhibit.  I’d caution you NOT take your kids through the exhibit.  They would be a) very bored and b) potentially traumatized. 

The Highlight of the Evening

As the curious volunteer I am, I wanted to see what hubbub was all about. Why the protesters?  I decided to stick around for the main event which featured Governor Ritter, Mayor Hickenlooper, former Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge and former U.S. Ambassador Craig Stapleton.  What was the big deal?

While speaking with one man another came up and whispered in his ear.  I asked what that was about.  The guy pointed out one woman wearing a head scarf and her female companion who was not wearing a head scarf.  Admittedly there were many law enforcement personnel, both uniformed and civilian clothed, present.  If something were to happen in this crowd, I certainly didn’t think that one head-scarved woman presented a problem given the security measures in place.  Frankly, this kind of disgusted me.  Profiling in action.  But then I thought, wasn’t that one of the points of the CELL exhibit?  Living and learning meant learning to be aware of your surroundings and being ever vigilant because you could, at any time, become a victim or witness to a terrorist act anywhere in the United States.  And, along that line, one of the other points of the exhibit presented American terrorists such as Ted Kaczynsky and Tim McVeigh noting they were equally as dangerous to society, a subtly lost on these guys.  It was not just that anyone can become a victim or a witness to terrorist acts, it was also that anyone among us can be a terrorist.

 While I didn’t want to debate the issue, I did ask the guy why two women were the ones that he felt so strongly about.  He looked at me incredulously, raised eyebrows, wide eyes and drop-jawed.  I didn’t mind because I was curious to hear the response.  I wanted the person to actually have to say the words out loud.  “You know those people are the only people that teach their followers to kill Christians.”  While I wasn’t armed with data and facts to counterpoint the debate I’d just invited, I commented that I felt the issue was much more complex than this and that personally, I felt no threat from someone wearing a scarf, or in other words, by a Muslim.  But these guys weren’t listening.  They were busy categorizing me as naïve and incredibly uninformed.  Soon thereafter, the main event began and we retreated to opposite corners.

While Ambassador Stapleton asked questions of Secretary Ridge, I heard one noteworthy observation which the newspaper accounts did not highlight.  Tom Ridge did say that over the years his mind has opened to the thought that US foreign aid could be use more effectively to help other nations,  He cited in particular Iran thirty years ago, where money could have been used to help create stability rather than the opposite which is the byproduct we have today.  He thought that these days, some of our hot spot areas of trouble, Iraq, Pakistan, Afganistan, etc.  may have benefitted more from some benevolence on our part and might not be as troubled internally as they are today if US foreign aid had been used differently.    This admission from him was unexpected and was perhaps why the press didn’t pick up on it.  It seemed out of character and could be passed off as an aberration. 

Aftermath

I left feeling like I wasted my time.  Feeling like I should not have been there.  Feeling bad about subjecting myself to three rounds of a terrorist attack simulation.  And I still feel bad about my participation in the event.  I don’t like to surround myself with paranoia. I really try to keep my mind open and resist making assumptions based upon appearance, accents, color of skin, etc.  Now, if I did see a person dressed for winter riding a bus and it was the middle of summer that would raise suspicion in me.  My point is behavior in the form of dress, that is illogical and stands out, would call my attention.  However, I don’t believe that a woman wearing a scarf is suspicious, just like I don’t think a woman wearing a nun’s habit is abnormal.  Expressing your religious beliefs by wearing a cross or a star around your neck, is just normal.  And being a Muslims, is also, just normal.

This event really took me out of my comfort zone.  Which I suppose is part of my reason for being a serial volunteer.  New experiences, surrounding myself with new perspectives, it’s all part of the learning and living. 

The following day, accounts of the event were printed.  Here is a sample: