Letter Of The Day

it's been a while, but here's today's winner:

One recent evening I stood outside the Village Inn in Ankeny as people parked and got out of their cars and came out of the restaurant to view a full rainbow in the eastern sky — from horizon to horizon it spread its beauty. I hadn’t seen a rainbow like that for more than 15 years; it is a memorable experience, a community experience, a human experience that thrills me every time it happens.

As I looked around, I saw that no one was checking for citizenship papers; we were standing talking excitedly stranger to stranger, stranger to friend and friend to friend about this natural phenomenon we were experiencing.

We were men and women, people of color and Caucasians; we were challenged physically, emotionally and mentally and we were not; Republican and Democrat and folks who didn’t vote the two-party system. We were gay and straight, rich and poor, child and adult, tall and short, those who had broken laws and spent time in prison and those who had not, Protestant, Jew and Muslim. We did not all weigh the same. We had not all read “The DaVinci Code.” We spoke English, and we did not. We were American citizens and we were not.

There were no armed personnel telling us who could and who could not enjoy the rainbow; it was life at its finest in an American community.

I am begging this nation to begin responding from the heart with love and compassion, not fear and hatred, when it comes to any so-called problem we make up to divide ourselves. This pledge of allegiance was first used at the dedication of the World’s Fair grounds in Chicago on Oct. 21, 1892, the 400th anniversary of the discovery of America: “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands: one Nation indivisible, with Liberty and Justice for all.”

That is the America I want to be a part of today. I want all violent responses to human conflicts to stop today, right now, so there will still be an America in another 400 years.

— Patricia Moore, Ankeny.

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