Kirk letter recalls racism of the past

Recently, I received a message from one of my U.S. senators, Republican Mark Kirk, titled: "Keeping Americans safe from ISIS."

In the letter Kirk calls for President Obama to deny entry to any Syrian refugee despite extensive screening by the U.S. State Department and the fact that the Syrian refugee scare is based on a fake passport found in Paris, France, as widely reported in international media.

His message reminds me of one of the most reprehensible periods of American history when racism ran amok, resulting in imprisonment of thousands of Japanese-Americans based on false accusations, innuendo and pure hate. The Pearl Harbor attack by Japan in 1941 was used as justification for the action, in a long history of institutional racism as represented by Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, among others.

As I visited with Syrian refugees in the course of my reporting from the Middle East in 2013, I find the argumentation presented in the letter not only ridiculous but vile in its dishonesty and attempt to stoke racial hatred for obvious political benefit.

Derek Monroe

Round Lake Beach