I really don't know what any of you handwringers expect to accomplish by worrying about racism from people who don't live near you. The Japanese are not infringing on your quality of life.
You are mixing apples and oranges. We can condemn discriminatory practices in Japan (which we do annually in the State Department's annual Human Rights Report) and be against terrorists. Do you want the US to remain silent about human rights and stop publishing human rights reports? What we hope to gain is a more peaceful and prosperous world where democracies flouish and human rights are respected.
Apartheid? You mean the evilness of having the minority population run things? Maybe we should end apartheid in America. South Africa is in much better shape now, aren't they?
The aparthied system was not about having a minority run things. It was about a formalized, institutional system of classifying people by race, which affected every aspect of the society. There are plenty of places in the world where minorities run a country. They are called dictatorships.
There is no system of aparthied in Ameica. Get real. Would you rather see South Africa remain under white minority rule and a system of apartheid? I don't think most South Africans would vote for a return to the past. They have the right of self-determination now.
I really don't know what any of you handwringers expect to accomplish by worrying about racism from people who don't live near you. The Japanese are not infringing on your quality of life.
I am not a handwringer. I believe in human rights and the extension of freedom and democracy to every person on this globe. As GWB says, these inalienable rights come from God, not Man. Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Stalin, et. al. weren't infringing on my quality of life either nor were they living next to me.
As John Donne said, "No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be dashed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
Or JFK "The world is very different now. For man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty and all forms of human life. And yet the same revolutionary beliefs for which our forebears fought are still at issue around the globe—the belief that the rights of man come not from the generosity of the state, but from the hand of God."
"We dare not forget today that we are the heirs of that first revolution. Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans—born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage—and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world."
"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty."
I agree with you more I think kabar, but one thing that bothers me in the USA is the government racial bean counting. I refused to fill out an EOC data sheet. The lady said if I refused, a race will be appointed to me *LOL* because that's what the STATE wants. I thought that was very interesting.