EDITORIAL: A tough path to tread following terrorist attacks

Posted 3/24/16

It’s an atrocious story that’s far too familiar.

“We are at war,” French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Tuesday. “We have been subjected for the last few months in Europe to acts of war.”

While the terrorist attacks in Europe are …

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EDITORIAL: A tough path to tread following terrorist attacks

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This week, we again awoke to news of terrorist attacks.

This time, the target was Brussels. This time, at least 34 people were killed and many more wounded. And once again, Islamic State extremists claimed responsibility for the terrorist attacks.

It’s an atrocious story that’s far too familiar.

“We are at war,” French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said Tuesday. “We have been subjected for the last few months in Europe to acts of war.”

While the terrorist attacks in Europe are far from our rural agricultural community in Wyoming, our prayers and thoughts are with victims and their loved ones.

We’re reminded that as an ally, the United States must continue to fight against extremist groups who use terrorism to threaten freedom around the world.

We also hope America and our allies do not live in hatred and fear going forward.

In Wyoming, we may not know what it’s like to have our hometown viciously attacked by extremists. But we do know what it’s like for fear, racism and hysteria to grip a nation. Just look out your window at Heart Mountain.

In the shadow of the iconic mountain, remnants of a World War II internment camp remind us of innocent Americans who were imprisoned because of their race.

Thousands of Japanese Americans’ lives were uprooted as they lived behind barbed wire during World War II. The Heart Mountain Interpretive Center preserves the camp’s history. It also repeats the message: Never again.

“That’s what our job is: To make sure that what happened in the past remains in the past and that we are vigilant — not vigilantes,” said Norman Mineta, former U.S. secretary of transportation, during the center’s August 2011 opening. “Vigilant in the protection of our constitutional rights, to make sure that something like this never, ever, happens again.”

For Mineta, that message is very personal. Mineta and his family were interned at Heart Mountain during World War II. On Sept. 11, 2001, Mineta was serving in President George Bush’s cabinet when terrorists struck America.

When fears ran high in September 2001, some people talked about not letting Middle Easterners or Muslims on airplanes, and even talked about interning them, Mineta recalled. President Bush said at the time: “We don’t want to have happen today what happened to Norm in 1942.”

As the current presidential race shows, it’s once again time to repeat that message.

We’re proud of the work the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation continues to do. The Heart Mountain center will host a discussion exploring immigration and refugee policy tonight (Thursday). The Wyoming Humanities Council discussion will be aired on Wyoming PBS beginning at 7 p.m.

We understand these topics are difficult and the threats to public safety are real. America must continue to find ways to keep our country safe from terrorist attacks.

But we also must not give into the politics of fear and division, as George Takei said Tuesday. Takei, a famous actor, was interned as a child during World War II. He recently starred in the Broadway musical “Allegiance,” set at Heart Mountain.

Following the attacks in Brussels on Tuesday, Takei wrote: “Our mettle as freedom-loving people shall be sorely tested by these attacks. Whatever we do next, let it be without haste, without hatred. That is a difficult thing to ask, a very tough and narrow path to tread, but it is the only way through.”

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