Creator of Life and Liberty,
Yesterday was a day known to Japanese Americans as a Day of Remembrance, a day marking a dark time for our Nation, and for our State. It is the day when the Constitutional rights of American citizens of Japanese descent were taken away with the stroke of a pen. A day when the dream of our Nation’s founders highest ideals, of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness were unjustly stripped away from more than 120,000 U.S. citizens.
Let us remember the courage, the strength, and the faith of those many Americans who through the darkness continued to have allegiance to their country. Let us honor the contributions that they, their children, their grandchildren, and their great-grandchildren have made, and continue to make, to our Nation, and to our State.
As California native son, George Takei, once said, it is important for a nation to certainly know about its glorious achievements but also to know where its ideals failed, in order to keep that from happening again.
May the memory of that dark time inspire us to safeguard our democracy, to cherish our rights, to never take for granted our freedom, and to always speak out against injustice. May this be God’s will.--AMEN.
