September 09, 2008
Tuesday

I agree with Ms. Linne that Ms. O'Dell should have focused on the point in rebutting Mr. Garcia's letter - if she, like others of us could have figured out what the point was. Ms. Linne asks if Ms. O'Dell speaks more than one language. I am not sure if Ms. Linne thinks that reading or writing additional languages would help Ms. O'Dell to understand Mr. Garcia's rant or have compassion for his difficulty communicating.

While I am as white as you get, I was born in Japan and English is not quite my first language, nor was it that of my mother who was born and raised in France. My first 4 years of school had me learning Spanish, in high school and college I learned French. I learned at an early age to communicate with and assist with translation for our neighbors who were Korean, Phillipino, Japanese, Vietnamese, Cambodian, German and others. I taught English in Japan for a year and a half and helped with translations for business publications. Despite all these languages that I have had to help people with over the years I could not understand what point Mr. Garcia was trying to make. In one sentence it sounds like he is making hateful, racist remarks about Philipinos - which I think should be banned from SitNews; the next almost sounds likes he admires their work ethic, then back to hate mongering which seems to be the main thread.

It is one thing for Mr. Garcia, or anyone, to address a specific issue, in an understandable manner that can be intelligently responded to. It is a whole other thing to visciously attack another group of people because they look or act differently. In fact such attacks are called hate crimes in many states and punishable by law. We do not live in Nazi Germany where it was acceptable to spit on others because they were different. Thanks to my mother's family's work in the French Underground, I have seen photos of what such hate mongering can do and it is horrible beyond words. We like to think that can't happen again, but just look at Rwanda, Sommalia, Serbia and so many other countries when hatred is allowed to go unchecked. And on a smaller scale, look how many hate crimes are perpetrated each year in the US because no stands up to those who spew such evil and because no one stands up to them they feel justified in their hate and their actions.

My father fought in 3 wars: WWII, Korea and Viet Nam, to protect people from hate. He spent 6 months as a Prisoner of War after being shot down in Germany, got right back in a plane and flew again through 2 more wars because he so believed in the right to live without persecution. My mother lost too many cousins to count fighting the hatred of the Nazi Germans and had more than one tortured beyond belief because they chose to stand up for the rights of others.

I choose to stand with the Philipinos of this community and say hate mongering is not ok!

Marie-Jeanne Cadle
Ketchikan, AK

About: "A Proud multi-cultural American"

Received September 08, 2008 - Published September 09, 2008

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