Regarding T. Mamoru Hanami's Nov. 6 letter, "The right to express oneself": Perhaps Hanami is unaware of the long and sordid history of lynching in America. Literally hundreds, if not thousands, of African-Americans were brutally beaten, hanged and burned during the post-Civil War Era in the United States. These acts of barbarism persisted even up to the 1960s.
If he is unaware of these facts, we might forgive him for his naive statement that hanging an effigy of a black politician is acceptable as "my right as a U.S. citizen." The hanging of an effigy of any human being -- be it Barack Obama, Sarah Palin or even Guy Fawkes -- is not only a morally repugnant act; it is an act done out of pure hatred and ought to be illegal.
I agree that all citizens of the world ought to have the right to express opinions, but we do not have the right to terrorize or make another person fear for his or her life. Those who disagree with the opinions of another can freely express their thoughts using a far more sophisticated and modern piece of technology worthy of the 21st century in which we all live: the Internet.
Leave effigies back in the era of hate and in the history books as a reminder of who we once were, not as who we ought to be.
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