Editor,
Each year on Feb. 19, the Japanese American community remembers the anniversary of Executive Order 9066, signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1942, which led to the incarceration of 125,000 Japanese Americans during World War II, two-thirds of them U.S.-born citizens. We commemorate EO9066 as a reminder of the fragility of civil liberties in times of crisis and the importance of upholding the rights and freedoms for all in both good times and hard times.
A month ago, a Carmel teen was attacked on a public bus in Bloomington. The youth was targeted because they were deemed to be “the other” and the attacker stated that it would be one less person to blow up our country. Similar statements have been made by many a person over the years and been heard by many more. Ethnic conspiracy theories are messages of racism and hate; messages that need to be removed, replaced and not allowed to continue as the norm.
Peter Langowski, Carmel
