Last month, on a residential street in Parkersburg, vandals defaced
a street sign. This is our response.
Like fungus on a flower or an open sore on a child’s cheek,
some things are hurtful to witness. It is achingly painful to see
something beautiful corrupted by a random, senseless force with no
name or for no reason. Like blight on a blossom. Like a ripe, red
strawberry with a worm.
Like swastikas on a street sign.
As the despair of September 11 lifted, Americans reclaimed their
heritage from the attic of national memory, dusted it off, rinsed
off the grime of neglect and displayed it, shiny bright, in a thousand
celebrations of pride across the USA.
It is rightful pride.
We are a nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition
that all men are created equal. We have resoundingly answered yes
to the question “Can such a nation endure?” In 200 years
we have been tested on many great battlefields, at home and abroad.
Men and women of each generation have given their lives that our nation
might live. Men and women of each generation have dedicated themselves
to freedom. Men and women of each generation have resolved that this
government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not
perish from the earth.
Americans have been attacked, reviled and despised. We have been
right and we have been wrong. We have been heroes and we have been
fools. But we are Americans.
We do not pledge allegiance “with liberty and justice to some.”
The United States of America is a magnificent nation – in
the grandeur of our terrain, in the strength and generosity of our
people, in the nobility of ideals that we embrace.
It is no place for swastikas on street signs. And, there can be no
welcome, no acceptance of people who carry them in their heart.
We have witnessed the results of malice and ignorance in the name
of religion. Cries of “Kill the infidel” are no more tolerable
if they are spoken by our own people.
This country was established by men and women with religious differences
who crossed the ocean to escape being bullied, harassed and humiliated
because of it. Of all things that should be unacceptable in these
United States, allowing that to happen here should be at the top of
the list.
If you hear it, object. If you see it, protest. If you think it,
even for a moment, stop and think again. You are an American, a representative
of the greatest nation in the world; the land of the free, the home
of the brave and the light of liberty for the world. Not a one of
us is perfect. But, we are Americans. Swastikas, painted on a sign,
scribbled on a wall or etched in a mind, are a slash in the face of
the proud, free people of this great land.
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