Editorial: "Being an American Should Mean Something"

October 25, 2001

Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

On October 25, 2001, The Milwakee Journal Sentinel featured an editorial by Leonard Pitts of the Miami Herald. The editorial discusses statements by "Mona Charen, a nationally syndicated, politically conservative columnist, [who] wrote a piece in which she argued that, while we mustn't 'persecute, insult or harass Arabs and Muslims within our borders,' we should kick them out." Pitts comments that "it's an idea so absurd in its xenophobia you can hardly take it seriously. Then you realize it's so absurd you can't afford not to...You don't save freedom by killing it. You don't defeat those who seek to destroy what you are by destroying what you are."