Dear Editor,
As everyone knows, the U.S. is currently at war, against Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, or the Triple Alliance. There are many negative feelings towards those countries, after the sinking of the Lusitania and loss of American lives. This is understandable. We are at war, and they are our enemy. However, Americans here on the home front have started to conduct themselves poorly in the face of their fellow Americans who have emigrated from these countries, especially those from Germany.
Since the World War began, people are becoming extremely ruthless towards fellow Americans, and it needs to stop. Despite the fact that some Americans have been living in the U.S. for generations, the wrong last name is now making them targets. People are conducting themselves in an atrocious manner and it can’t go on. They are attacking innocent people, for the crime of having the wrong ancestors. Even if they come from the countries of the Triple Alliance, that doesn’t mean that Americans have a right to discriminate against them. The circumstances of these people leaving their former countries are not known. The immigrants might have even more of a cause to hate their former countries, and they do not deserve to be punished. They are losing their jobs, getting flogged, being tar and feathered, all for the horrible crime of having the wrong last name or the wrong place of birth.
This is not just a group of radicals, either. The government is allowing people to get away with it. Now, I am just as against this war and against our enemies as the next American. I am not saying that we should not support our troops, and fight to do everything we can to bring our boys back home and end this war. But I am also against violence against our own people, and these immigrants are our people now. We Americans need to realize this, and accept them, or we will end up with even more enemies, much closer to home.
Sincerely,
Concerned American
Dear Editor,
I am writing this to express my discontent with last week’s article on the Boxer Rebellion. You stated that the American missionaries in China have had a positive influence on China’s culture, and that the Boxers were unjustly killing the missionaries. I have to disagree with this absurd statement. As a second hand Chinese immigrant, I understand that Chinese culture and ancient tradition is a highly valued aspect of society in China. Your perfect little missionaries were not only completely disregarding this fact, but were deliberately taking away certain aspects of Chinese culture. After a crime like that, who wouldn’t react violently?
If you actually took a few minutes of your precious time to see the truth about the missionaries work in China, you might understand that the results are far from positive. Missionaries discourage the Chinese from participating in local festivals and from worshiping ancestors. In addition, western missionaries forbid Chinese supporters from following Confucianism. Basically, the missionaries are sending out the message that the Chinese religion is wrong, and that in order to be “saved” they must follow Christianity. Do you see anything wrong with this? How do you feel you would react if someone came up to you and tried to forbid you from believing in what you see as the truth? If America actually values freedom and equality as it claims it does, we should not be invading other countries without their consent and forcing ideas onto them. Lastly, don’t publish an idea as the truth unless you know it as a fact. You frequently referred to the missionaries as these perfect saints who did nothing but bring good things into China. This is ridiculous. Many missionaries lured in Chinese Christians to the church with money. A majority of these recruits only joined to make a living and turned out to be very violent and abusive. In effect, many Chinese saw the Church as the source of the violence from the Chinese Christians. But who can blame them? Next time, do your research.
Sincerely,
John Kim
Dear Editor,
It’s written in our constitution that there needs to be a consent from the governed for a country to work, if this is what we believe in, then what are we treating the Filipinos in the Philippines? It’s ahoy debate right now whether we should take over the country as our very own colony, aren’t we going against what we believe in if we do such a thing? The just wanted their own freedom and we promised it to them and as Americans we tend to keep our promises. It isn’t fair to let Cuba be free and we promised it to them too but we also made one to Emilio Aguinaldo and his fellow Filipinos, aren’t we just being biased? What does Cuba have that that Filipinos don’t? They’re both struggling countries in my eyes that need our help and encouragement and not our total control and domination. We would be considered hypocrites to say that we would annex a country that doesn’t want to be annexed, we live in a country where there’s a social contract and it wouldn’t be right for us to just take the freedom of the Filipinos that they’ve been thirst and hungered for.
Sincerely,
Apolinario Aguinaldo
-Daily Comet -
