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Grasp the Enormity

On Aug. 3, more than 400 people attended an event sponsored by 23 local Republican town committees including Chester’s. Michelle Malkin was the keynote speaker.

In 2004, Malkin wrote a book called In Defense of Internment: The Case for ‘Racial Profiling’ in World War II and the War on Terror, which argues that the U.S. should create internment camps for Arab- and Muslim-Americans.

As a child in the ‘60s, my father was a public school teacher who used live snakes to teach science. He would take me snake hunting in Savage, Minnesota. We would catch bullsnakes unharmed in a pillowcase. In addition to being a snake habitat, this land had the haunted, silent, and sinister feeling of an abandoned human habitat with crumbling foundations and chimney remnants. My dad told me it had been a Japanese-American internment camp during World War II and it was our national shame. I have since learned it was a U.S. military run “Japanese Language Camp” where Japanese- Americans, mostly from the West Coast, were interned and tasked with teaching Japanese to U.S. soldiers. It was fittingly called Camp Savage.

Reread my first two paragraphs and grasp the enormity of our conservative friends’ decision on Aug. 3 to feature Michelle Malkin. My own representatives—State Senator Art Linares, Jr. (R-33) and State Representative Bob Siegrist (R-36)—were in attendance. For me, the national shame of which my father spoke became local.

Zero empathy, zero moderation. I encourage your readers to weigh their votes carefully come November.

Karli Spinella

Chester