Yeahbut - the last time we acted promptly and firmly, anyone of Asian descent was promptly hauled off to an internment camp. No one needs to see that again either.

Funny you should mention that. Last Friday I attended a performance of Portland Taiko, a Japanese/American traditional drumming ensemble which is half drums and half theatre. One of their presentations was a memorial to the Japanese Americans who were deprived of their rights as Americans because of their race. There were photos from the Tule Lake, California camp projected on the stage during the spoken/played performance. These Japanese Americans bent, but did not break, when assaulted by the "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," as Shakespears put it. Do we now want to snap in the force of the bitter wind that has blown upon our shores? Do we simply "cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war," or do we take the time to fully comprehend the who and what and why of the enemy? I do hope that the US government - one for which I did not vote - has more wisdom than I gave it credit for at the polls last November, and acts in a rational manner in this catastrophe.