In Rememberance

I wanted to post my remembrance spiel on the 19th, but couldn't. I heard about the Executive Order from a Japanese resident and found some information. So here it is:

[[In Remembrance

On February 19th, in 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. EO9066 started in motion the mass evacuation of people of Japanese descent all along the west coast. Within 2 months, Americans of Japanese descent were no longer free. Citizens of this country were denied their dignity, their constitutional rights, and their livelihood.

Those in the Japanese American community mark this day as a Day of Remembrance because they honor those who suffered. They mark this day to remind others that this blatant manifestation of racism should never happen again.

Please join with them and pause sometime today and remember what happened to over 120,000 people of Japanese descent. Let this entry be a force of strength and resolve in this peace testimony. And, let it strengthen your commitment to realize the dream that all people, have the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.]]

Although this remembrance is in reference to the Japanese community, I think there is an important lesson from it. The act of stripping rights from people just because of who they are happens all the time today. Many groups such as African Americans, Islamic-Americans, Arab-Amercians, gays, etc. are victimized because of pure ignorance on the victimizer's part. Those who think they aren't involved in these problems also have a responsibility to help eliminate the forms of discrimination that make groups feel like sub-citizens.

Here is a quote that sums up this nicely (which I got from Crissy years ago):
"Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless
is to side with the powerful …" ~Paulo Freire