For a guy who walks around town with a wooden cross and wearing a
button advertising "Free Hugs," Joe Mandoky has done a fine job of
spreading the message of empathy, brotherly love and cross-cultural
understanding. May I suggest Mr. Mandoky carry around another symbol --
an iron wedge. Drop the other symbols that have created a smoke screen
for his real agenda -- stoking the fires of intolerance against all
ethnic communities and driving a wedge into the heart of our city.
Who can believe the outcry is rooted in patriotism? Why not stop
pretending we are talking about the flag? The real issue is the more than
a few intolerant people who are using the "Stars 'n' Strips" to take
potshots at the Armenian-American community in our city and undermine the
political gains of Glendale's Latino voters by recalling the mayor. Read
the same inscription my grandfather read upon his arrival to Ellis Island
in 1913 from the Azore Islands of Portugal, there at the base of another
American symbol, the Statue of Liberty, is Emma Lazarus' The New
Colossus, and then ask yourself who is being un-American?
I am American-born citizen of Portuguese, Italian, Mexican and Native
American ancestry and a middle school teacher of the students from the
exact communities you target. I have realized that if I do not speak out
for my "brothers and sisters, sons and daughters" when they are being
ruthlessly attacked under the thin guise of patriotism, then who will
speak out on my behalf when Mr. Mandoky turns on me? I suggest he read
the work of German-Protestant theologian Martin Niemoller who wrote the
poem, "And They Came For.." Niemoller was a German Protestant minister
who was sent to the concentration camp for speaking out against racist
rhetoric and policies of Nazi Germany. He is a Christian minister with a
message I can support.
Or maybe Mr. Mandoky is proud of his work for "justice." Powerful as
it is, the symbol of the flag can not hide his real agenda. While
unsuccessfully running for the school board, he was quoted in the
Glendale News-Press with the brilliant solution to get "rid of race and
ethnic conflict" in our schools. Requiring, had it been deemed
Constitutional, "English only for all students and staff during school
hours." With solutions like that, no wonder only one person received
fewer votes. I am sure violating people's Constitutional Rights was not
an issue for him as long as he was erasing people's native language.
Hey, we could all start becoming a little more "American" by removing
