LETTER A message that is still needed

In 1989, in reaction to Ku Klux Klan activity in Washington County, a group of citizens and ministers organized an open religious service called “Witness for America.” It was a powerful moment with a great, interracial, interfaith choir. Many people wanted to continue meeting, so the Committee for Racial Equality was formed. The group met monthly for 15 years, mainly just to talk about being black or white. We also held a yearly “Witness for America” service.
In several of the bulletins for the service, and once in an Observer-Reporter advertisement, we printed the poem “This is the Land Where Hate Should Die” by Denis McCarthy. Its message is still needed:
This is the land where hate should die –
No feuds of faith, no spleen of race,
No darkly brooding fear should try
Beneath our flag to find a place.
Lo! every people here has sent
Its sons to answer freedom’s call;
Their lifeblood is the strong cement
That builds and binds the nation’s wall.
This is the land where hate should die –
Though dear to me my faith and shrine,
I serve my country well when I
Respect beliefs that are not mine.
He little loves his land who’d cast
Upon his neighbor’s word a doubt,
Or cite the wrongs of ages past
From present rights to bar him out.
This is the land where hate should die –
This is the land where strife should cease,
Where foul, suspicious fear should fly
Before our flag of light and peace.
Then let us purge from poisoned thought
That service to the state we give,
And so be worthy as we ought
Of this great land in which we live!
Gerard H. Weiss
Washington