Coble (R-NC): "huzzah for internment camps"

[fox]

received from my sister-not-quite-in-law:

[edited to add: as thermidor correctly pointed out, far more effective than signing online petitions is contacting one's own representatives. this here is meant to be a heads-up that the issue exists; by all means, sign the petition, but better yet, head over to http://www.house.gov and http://www.senate.gov and make like a constituent. :-D]

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Many of you have probably heard about this already, but recently US Representative Howard Coble (R-NC) declared in a radio appearance that the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII was the right decision and suggested that it was done for the protection of the Japanese Americans themselves. He also maintained that a few Japanese Americans might have been intent on harming America, "just as some Arab-Americans are probably intent on doing us harm today."

It's never wise to be reactionary or jump to conclusions, so I was pleased to hear that Representatives Mike Honda (D-CA, who spent time in a Japanese internment camp with his family as a child), Robert T. Matsui (D-CA), and David Wu (D-OR) plan to meet with Coble "in order to better understand his views, and for Rep. Coble to listen to their concerns maintaining an appropriate balance of homeland security and constitutional civil rights."

However, especially in light of the recent situation with Trent Lott's comments on another painful issue, segregation, it seems wise to think carefully about this issue. It's especially important given that Coble chairs the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, and that war in the Middle East is looking more likely every day. Thus, this becomes much more than just an Asian or historical issue.

Several groups (primarily Asian American) are gathering signatures for a petition asking Coble to apologize for his remarks regarding both Japanese and Arab Americans and step down from the Subcommittee. If you would like to sign, the information is below, and the deadline is Friday, Feb. 14. It seems to me that it's mostly Asian names on the petition so far, and I have a hard time believing it's only Asians that care about this. Prove me wrong?

To read more about Coble's recent remarks:
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Lawmakers-Remarks.html
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Congressman-Prison-Camps.html
(the news site of your choice can provide more info)

To sign the petition:
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/coble03/petition.html

Anyway, read, learn, understand, and form an opinon. Thanks for listening!

To: Rep. Howard Coble
We the undersigned are writing to express our outrage at your comments earlier this week during a radio call-in program in North Carolina where you explicitly endorsed President Roosevelt's decision to incarcerate the Japanese American community as being necessary to their safety and that of the country and implicitly impugned the Arab American community as being a threat to national security. We find your remarks to be reprehensive and inflammatory.

As you well know, in 1988, the majority of your colleagues disagreed with you when Congress passed the Civil Liberties Act, by which the United States government recognized the injustice inflicted on the Japanese American community and apologized for their error of sixty years ago. A failure of political leadership based on war hysteria and racial stereotypes were the underlying reasons for the internment, not the protection of the Japanese American community as you contend. History has taught us that the internment was a grave mistake, and comments such as your only serve to perpetuate misinformation and the dangerous belief that racial profiling and ethnic scapegoating are acceptable practices.

By your words, you have displayed not only an endorsement of the government's past mistakes, but also a bias toward repeating them in the future. In doing so, you have irreversibly damaged the trust that the American people and the House of Representatives have placed in you and eliminated any expectation that you would carry out your duties with a respect for the Constitution and for the civil rights of our people, especially given your leadership position on a subcommittee whose charter is not only to protect citizens from criminals and terrorists, but also to protect the innocent from unfair persecution. The support of such gross civil rights violations by any lawmaker is unacceptable, and it is intolerable that a man who does not support the rights guaranteed by the Constitution would chair the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security.

In the current atmosphere of heightened security needs, the American people deserve a man who makes clear and well-reasoned decisions, not assumptions based on ethnic stereotypes.

We therefore call upon you to demonstrate leadership by apologizing and stepping aside as the chair of the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security.

Sincerely,

Asian American Institute
Asian American Legal Defense And Education Fund (AALDEF)
Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO
Indian American Center For Political Awareness
Japanese American Citizens League
Korean American Resource & Cultural Center
National Asian Women's Health Organization
National Coalition For Asian Pacific American Community Development (National CAPACD)
National Federation Of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA)
National Korean American Service & Education Consortium
Organization Of Chinese Americans
South Asian American Leaders For Tomorrow (SAALT)
Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC)

AND

Sincerely,
The Undersigned http://www.PetitionOnline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?coble03