FAIRE: Antidote to xenophobia

Here’s one comment from a U.S. citizen who emigrated from Germany more than 30 years ago and who has an adopted son from Kazakhstan (also a U.S. citizen)! The first thing that came to mind when I read the editorial from Friday, April 12 re: online comments in regard to Lakes Middle School’s Multicultural Faire held on Saturday, April 13 was … Are you people for real?! The editorial mentioned online comments including “reverse racism, rampant liberalism and student indoctrination” in response to the announcement of the fourth Multicultural Faire at Lakes.

My second thought was that only in North Idaho would one read such negative comments about a very positive, mind-expanding, multicultural event of which there are far too few in this area.

To all you North Idaho xenophobes out there: It is time to get with the program and realize that this world — yes, including this neck of the woods, is a GLOBAL community, like it or not. Xenophobia and nationalism have no place in this day and age. If you think so, you might want to think back to the not so distant past and a dictator who espoused nationalistic thought, aka. the Nazi Regime and its “National Socialists.”

Nationalistic thinking/xenophobia (the fear of all things foreign) — BAD. Multiculturalism/global thinking — GOOD.

ELKE A. HELMUTH

Coeur d’Alene