Editor,
After reading and hearing article after article both in Daily Lobo, on the Internet, radio and TV, I have come to one conclusion.
There is a huge amount of hypocritical ignorance within this country about our civil rights and liberties.
Our constitutional rights give us the ability to be respectful of one another in this time of crisis as in any other time of relative peace.
How many of us truly know and work to insure our rights as Americans, not just for the self, but for strangers to you. Using the terms "anti-American," "terrorist" or any other slur against someone else is free speech.
However, it does enter the vein of ignorance of others' freedoms to worship as they please, dress as they wish and speak their minds.
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Each of us have our own views about what is happening right now in our nation and across the world based upon information that we have sought out or have been handed to us by the press, friends and family.
Each view is unique unto itself and should be respected, regardless of whether it meshes with our own or not. So, the next time you see someone wearing a burqa, veil, turban, robes or expressing a point of view that does not instantly agree with your own, remember that they have rights guaranteed to them under our Constitution as well.
Additionally, before you start calling someone a "peacenik," "hippie" or "anti-American," you are exercising your First Amendment right to do so, but you are also exposing your own ignorance and disrespect of the person you are addressing and harassing.
The "United" in United States of America means more than some geographic boundaries stitching us all together. It means people from all walks of life. We are all Americans, and we are all targets of hatred for numerable reasons right now from outside of our borders.
Let's put an end to it from within. Respect one another, learn about each other, celebrate your differences and rejoice that we live in a land such as ours.
Guard your freedoms jealously; guard other's freedoms zealously. That is the patriotism our military is doing for us. Let us do it for one another here at home.
Deryl Loone
UNM student
