A Disturbing Conversation.......and a Repeat of History?

I was recently with a group of women when one of them started talking about....MUSLIMS!...in an "Oh my God, the sky is falling" tone of voice. From the conversation and the way she said MUSLIMS!, it was obvious that she equated MUSLIMS! with terrorists. She related, oh the horror!, that a court in VA had upheld the right of a MUSLIM! school to teach "Jihad". Though she didn't say this exactly, the fear I sensed was that she believed that MUSLIM! schools were teaching young terrorists to take over the country.

I found her attitude really distressing and told the group, please, not all Muslims are terrorists. But what frightens me about the conversation, is that this is how prejudices take hold...in the small coffee klatches where the fear of differences can brew, where neighbors voice their contempt of a group of people they don't understand and where intolerance gels into something solid.

Most Muslims are not radicals; most Muslims are not terrorists. And though some radical extremists.....really bad guys....have perverted jihad to mean war on innocent others (in the name of God), generally, jihad is about the struggle or stiving to improve one's self and society. It's the responsibility to do the right thing.

When I was in Portland, I came across the Japanese-American Historical Plaza....Bill of Rights Memorial, which told the story of the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII. I remember how astonished I was when I first learned about these prison camps as a young adult. I was furious with my mother for not telling me about this, though why this should ever come up in conversation I can't imagine. I was likewise furious with my American history classes too, for I'd never heard of it there either. But what a dark chapter of our history....where fear trumped reason.

Here are some photos of the Japanese American Monument......a monument that moved me to tears. The arrangement is like a Japanese rock garden and the boulders include poems from some of the people who were interned in those camps. Japanese Americans were taken from their homes, put into prison camps, stipped of their property, deprived of their means of making a living and removed of their dignity. And all the while Japanese American troops were fighting for American freedom. How ironic. Grandmothers and grandfathers, young mothers and children ...all were imprisoned.


Mighty Willamette!
Beautiful friend.
I am learning
I am practicing
To say your name.

Through the car window
A glimpse of pine
Oregon mountains
My heart beats faster
Returning home




Sure, I go to school
Same as you
I am an American




The Statement of Congress.....an official apology to Japanese American citizens placed in internment camps during WWII....enacted in 1988. I sincerely and truly hope we never have to make this kind of apology ever again.