In response to a hate-filled e-mail

I really question why people continue to propagate "hate speech" like that found in a recent e-mail that was forwarded to me. It was a tirade directed against our "Muslim" President Obama and all those "un-American Muslims" who live in our United States.

I found it offensive, and feel that it does no justice to the values that we all, as Americans, hold dear.

Did our fathers, uncles, grandfathers, great-grandfathers, brothers, sisters, neighbors and friends fight and die in vain? Were the values they held dear enough to stand for, fight for and die for meaningless enough to be discarded as soon as we feel that someone has the audacity to simply be different from those we are accustomed to living around and dealing with?

These accusations, insinuations and insults remind me of the hatred exhibited toward the Irish in the mid-19th century, the suspicion exhibited toward German-Americans during World War I and World War II, the treatment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. It's just as senseless as the hatred exhibited toward Blacks in the Carpetbagger-ridden South after the Civil War, the cruel intolerance and hatred perpetrated toward Catholics by the KKK in the early 20th century, and the McCarthy era treatment of artists, writers, Jewish-Americans, and certain intellectuals suspected of knowing or associating with Communist party members (at a time when belonging to such a party was still seen as perfectly acceptable activity).

Is the American Way this kind of hatred and intolerance, or have we learned from our past? Perhaps we should spend more energy examining our past, lest we become doomed to relive it.

Perhaps we should spend more time trying to understand and respect our neighbors, instead of perpetrating this hatred and mistrust.