I, like a lot of us, am disturbed by the whole global state-of-affairs,
especially terrorism. I am also disturbed by how well intended
“pass-it-on” letters can fuel the polarization of views in our nation
and fan the flames of intolerance and mob hysteria. It’s all driven by
fear of course, and as Roosevelt said, “The only thing we need to fear
is fear itself”. How true today.
The “this-is-worth-reading” item that triggered this response was a
letter-to-the-editor by an airline pilot who was basically justifying
racial profiling and saying that it was up to the Arab-American community to
prove their allegiance and that it’s not our fault that ‘they all look
alike’ and so forth and so on.
Here was the response that I passed on….
American Citizens live under the same constitution I do and are
innocent until proven guilty, do not have to prove anything to anyone
and have the right to believe in whatever God they choose. We fought a
couple of world wars so that a free people wouldn’t have to prove their
allegiance or be intimidated by ‘brown shirts’ into conformity. They
are entitled to the same treatment under the law as anyone else and
while racial profiling may be expedient and even necessary from time to
time, it is never justified anymore than making Jews wear yellow stars
was justified in Nazi Germany.
I am as committed and loyal an American as anyone and I will die for my
country if necessary, but I will not sacrifice my values or our civil
rights as a free people or the vision of our Founding Fathers because
some crazy zealots killed a few thousand of my fellow countrymen—no
matter how heinous the crime. Millions die unjustly and tragically
every single day. Their families cry and suffer, just as do ours. They
get over it and so should we. We don’t profile Italians because the
Mafia squeezes the life out of thousands through gambling, drugs and
prostitution. We don’t profile Latinos because coke from Columbia and
Mexico kills or destroys countless American lives. What is the
difference?
It is true that we face a continuing threat. The actions of any
terrorist must be prevented and punished to the full extent of our
capacity to do so, whether the terrorist is an Arab or someone
belonging to the White Brotherhood militia. But when we start
compromising our own values out of fear or frustration, then they win
without having to do anything. The conventional wisdom that ‘two wrongs
don’t make a right’ is very much a question we should remember when we
consider what we will and will not tolerate in fighting this scourge.
If this AA pilot really wants to "walk down the street, blind to race"
then it is incumbent on him to walk his talk. If he has trouble
discriminating between good guys and bad guys, then he is in the same
boat as the rest of us whether we are talking about terrorists or
serial killers or corporate thieves that just steal the pensions and
future from hundreds of thousands of Americans. If there are bad guys
hiding behind an ethnic shield, then what about the thousands that have
been fingered and interrogated through cooperation with the
Arab-American community?
To our shame, too many of us stood by while Joseph McCarthy and his
gang indicted thousands of good and loyal Americans as guilty by
association and fanned the flames of post-war fears to create paranoia
throughout our society and encourage neighbors and friends and even
families to turn against each other. And let us not forget the tens of
thousands of equally loyal Japanese Americans who were incarcerated and
robbed of their property during the Second World War. Tactics charging
“You’re with us or against us” have been the rallying cry of every mob
lynching, tyrant and totalitarian regime in modern times. Most, if not
all, evil in the world has been perpetrated in the name of ‘good’.
That’s what’s going on with these kinds of righteous protests aimed at
objectifying our fellow citizens who happen to be of Arab decent or
practice the Muslim religion.
That is my point of view. The pilot is entitled to his view as well
because he is an American and that is his right. Let’s hope that a
bunch of crazy airline employees never do what the terrorists did or
we’ll end up persecuting them as well, and he may lose those rights
he’s so worried about protecting."