We cannot help but draw parallels to another horrific moment when our nation lost its moral compass in a frenzy over imagined enemies. The Japanese-American internment camps during World War II is a stain that forever marks a low point in this near quarter of a millennium experiment in democracy.
We have, month after month and year after year, acted as if those asking for our compassion are committing heinous wrongs. We have been somnambulating, awakening only now to the tragedies we have allowed to occur on our watch. This speaks ill not merely of our leaders but of us all.
Shame on us. It didn't have to come to this. History will long remember.
2 comments:
Americans are supposed to become more enlightened with each generation. What the hell is happening?--RE
I genuinely admire and enjoy your daily essays on our troubled times -- sure wish I could come within a country mile of possessing your genius. This one provokes me a bit though. I think you suffer without full cause. I lived all through World War Two and remember the times pretty well. I think a point is missed here. We did not incarcerate those of German heritage, or those of Italian ancestry, only the Japanese. Why? Because the threat was real. They had planned for so long and so thoroughly it was unthinkable that they had not established and dispersed an intricate network of spies throughout our country (after all, Yamamoto was a Harvard man). If you have been to Pearl Harbor and have seen the photo of Hirohito standing knee deep, trousers rolled up and holding a umbrella, in an exact miniature replica of Pearl Harbor you have had your skin crawl. The Japanese had done their homework. Their threat was very real, and very sinister. I personally believe it had to be done. Sad, but then the whole terrible business was sad.
G
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