I need to speak out about something. I had a feeling as soon as everything happened that there would be an increase in xenophobia and paranoia. I understand that people are frightened and angry and that the safe and secure feelings that go with the word “home” have been destroyed for many. Especially for most who reside in the northeast. But it’s not a good enough reason to hate. I heard, this weekend, coming from the mouths of those I consider my friends, words of anger, bitterness, and hate that stunned me.

Wiping out the innocent with the guilty will solve little. Shutting our borders will solve even less, and in some parts of the country, will do much more harm than good. (Without migrant farm workers, many of them undocumented, I don’t think you’d be seeing much produce in your local grocery store.) And I cannot stress this enough:

The guy at the 7-11/Quickie Mart is not your enemy. The guy pumping gas over on the corner is not your enemy. They have done NOTHING to you. Every race, color, and creed has it’s scumbags. If you condemn your innocent neighbors for the actions of madmen, you are little better than the lunatics who would murder innocent civilians (in America and elsewhere) just to make a point.

About 40 years ago we, as a country, rounded up everyone of Japanese descent and put them in CONCENTRATION CAMPS. It happened. If we are not very careful, it will happen again. I will not stand by and watch innocent men and women keep to their homes out of fear because of their race, religon, or nation of origin. This does not make me un-patriotic. These are the founding prinicples of our country: that no one should live in fear because of their religon or ethnicity.

And on the subject of founding principles - for all of you who might have seen some visitor/tourist/recent immagrant cheering at the attack. First, I want to say that anyone who would take vicious pleasure in the death and suffering of so many is a waste of skin that I don’t even want to share breathing space with. But - I want you to think for a moment. I want you to think about free speech and what it means. Because the moment we make these freedoms conditional, “they” have won. It pains me to say it, but those bastards had every bit as much right to cheer as we did to sob. Because this is America.

I will continue to support the relief and war efforts (’cause everybody’s calling it a war now) in any way I can - but I’m not going to stop questioning and thinking either. I am seeing of late increased, widespread social peer pressure to conform. I see people getting long looks if they do not have a flag or a pin on their person. I’ll tell you this right now - I can serve my country much better by *thinking* than by wearing a piece of cloth. The flag gives us hope and brings us together, but it is by the use of our minds and hearts that we will get through this.