An open letter to American Muslims:
In April 1944, a Cpl. Rupert Trimmingham wrote the editor of Yank, a U.S. Army magazine, about what happened when he and eight fellow soldiers, traveling by train, had an overnight layover in a small Louisiana town. They went to get coffee, but no restaurant would serve African-American soldiers except the one at the depot. And it required that they go into the kitchen.
“But that’s not all,” wrote Trimmingham. That morning at 11:30, “about two dozen German prisoners of war, with two American guards, came to the station. They entered the lunchroom, sat at the tables, had their meals served, talked, smoked, in fact, had quite a swell time. I stood on the outside looking on, and I could not help but ask myself these questions: Are these men sworn enemies of this country? … Are we not American soldiers, sworn to fight for and die if need be for this country? Then why are they treated better than we are? Why are we pushed around like cattle? … Why does the Government allow such things to go on?”
I invoke Trimmingham’s letter because it embodies a dilemma with which I suspect you are too familiar: The question of how — and whether — to love a country that often fails to love you back.
That quandary is thrown into sharp focus by last week’s terror attack in Belgium and the wearisomely predictable response from the political right.
