Dear editor:
As I passed by the large American flag on the expressway yesterday, I was once again reminded of all the sacrifices that thousands of men and women have made throughout our history to defend this great land of freedom.
Those who find such flags garish must surely forget the many dead and wounded in the continuing fight to keep our way of life viable for us and for others who want to share it.
I wonder if our good governor, along with 23 others, has forgotten the Congressional Refugee Act of 1980, which states that immigration matters belong to the federal government only. These governors, overwhelmingly GOP members, are seeking to ban refugees from Syria.
Many may have also forgotten the dark spot in our history of the institution of slavery, which for years brought Africans here for cheap labor. Although most of those became Christian, many were Muslim and some of those were brought to Arkansas. One can understand the fears of possible betrayal, but I should not think we want to return to the World War II years, a time I grew up in, when thousands of Americans of Japanese background were put in concentration camps, two of which were in Arkansas. Their lands were taken, their jobs were taken and their way of life was disrupted.
What is even less known is that the same thing happened to men and women of German descent -- in fact, more of them were deprived of their rights than those of Japanese descent. We have paid reparations to the latter but never was the issue of German-American reparations even approached by Congress. Do we want to succumb to the same fears that ruled from 1941 to 1945?
FDR made the statement that "We have nothing to fear but fear itself;" yet it was he, as president, who dictated that thousands be deprived of their rights.
Indiana's governor is now being sued for attempting the ban on Syrian refugees. Which governor will be next? Let us hope and pray that Arkansas will not experience such unnecessary cost and embarrassment. The governor has retracted himself before when congressional law was being dealt with; perhaps he will be wise enough to do so now.
John W. "Doc" Crawford
Hot Springs
Editorial on 11/29/2015