Letter Faxed to President Barack Obama
Today we call upon you to lead Americans of all ethnicities and religions in an
understanding of what makes the United States of America the greatest country on Earth:
unwavering dedication to the principles of liberty and equality under the law.
Shortly after the United States entered World War II, President Roosevelt issued Executive
Order 9066, authorizing the relocation of Americans with "Foreign Enemy Ancestry." Over
the next three years, approximately 120,000 American citizens of Japanese descent were
collected and relocated to camps throughout the western United States. It was a dark time
for American Democracy, as Constitutional rights were denied to American citizens for no
other reason than racism and xenophobia. Although the order also allowed Americans of
German and Italian descent to be relocated, the vast majority of those affected were those
of Japanese ancestry. It is a time Americans would rather forget, and sadly, it appears that
we have.
History repeats itself this very day in the form of the Homeland Security Act. Once again,
precious civil liberties have been taken from American citizens in the name of national
security. Once again, the law itself does not single out a particular ethnicity, but is
predominantly applied to a single minority group due to racial profiling. And, like Executive
Order 9066, most Americans do not speak out against the Homeland Security Act because
it is applied mostly to a group that they fear: American citizens with Arab and/or Muslim
backgrounds.
Though racial and religious diversity have traditionally been at the root of America's
greatest challenges, they are also a source of strength. We must choose to adhere to the
principles that the greatest Americans have stressed from the beginning: That all men are
created equal. If the United States is to be an example of freedom and democracy to the
world, we must begin by smashing the inequities occurring within our own nation.
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