Editor,
This letter is in response to the erroneous information given by Donna Andes in the March 8th, 2017 issue of the Advocate. I urge us as a community to reject bigotry of any kind, for any reason.
Tucker County (and indeed the entire region) is blessed with a wonderful way of life that has attracted many to move here, start businesses and raise families. We are neighbors with people from all backgrounds: Some are religious, some are not. We help each other when needed and like all good Americans, we try not to judge each other. The First Amendment to the Constitution prohibits our government from making laws that seek to proscribe one religion over another, freeing our neighbors to worship or not worship as they see fit. There is a critical reason why the “Framers” of this most hallowed document made this the FIRST Amendment: The issue of free worship in the faith that you choose (or choosing NO faith at all) provides the very bedrock of our government, and lies at the heart of our beliefs.
I lost good friends on September 11th. Reporter Beth Christian Broschart did a wonderful article on me and my son in the The Inter-Mountain on September 11, 2016 regarding the loss of our neighbors in suburban Maryland who were on the plane that hit the Pentagon. My ex-husband was a military officer at the Pentagon at the time, and so Islamic Fundamentalism has hit me directly with the loss of four of my dear friends. However, if these friends were to speak to me today, they would tell me not to harbor hate for Muslims and Islam simply because angry, awful people caused their deaths. The people who killed them don’t represent Arabs, Muslims, or the countries from which they hailed. Islam did not kill anyone on September 11th, 2001: Hatred did. We cannot be like those who hate us.
Here, we are good neighbors to each other. We should respect each other’s beliefs, when we agree and especially when we disagree. We should not use scare tactics and falsehoods to defame other people, especially the extreme factions of other faiths which don’t represent the entirety of these groups. The Ku Klux Klan call themselves a “Christian” group, but most Americans would say that this is not true. So too would most Muslims in the world reject Islamic extremists who use the name of God to kill anyone. I recommend that we talk about ways that we can be good neighbors here in Davis and Thomas, in Parsons and Hambleton, and even far-flung places like us over here in Eglon and Aurora. I am so proud to live here and contribute to all the good that we have. I pray that others will see that “a house divided against itself cannot stand”, and that neither our community nor our nation has room in it for hatred and bigotry of any kind if we, as neighbors, are to prosper together.
Sheila Coleman-Castells
Eglon, WV
