To the editor:

I am angry at Gov. Brownback and the other governors who will refuse Syrian refugees. My anger stems from when I was a child during World War II and Americans of Japanese descent were taken from their homes, lost their property and were housed in stables and, later, camps in desolate places. 

I lived in northern Colorado, and the governor of Colorado, Ralph Carr, thought this was immoral. He refused to send any Colorado citizens of Japanese descent to camps and welcomed any others who could get to Colorado. I remember the little Japanese kids coming into our classrooms. They were scared, confused and, because mostly they were coming from California and this was Colorado, they were cold. Unlike the Syrians, they at least knew the language. While people like Payne Ratner, then governor of Kansas, said no Japanese would cross his borders (where have we heard that?), Gov. Carr stood firm. But he never won another election. 

Northern Colorado benefitted. In my hometown, doctors, dentists, nursery owners, a family that has the biggest agricultural business in the county, are all of Japanese descent.

I’m sure there is a chance that extremists can sneak in, just as there was a chance that the Japanese were spies (although they never found any) and of course they should be vetted (although not to the extent that the children grow old and die while waiting), but I think in the name of what is right we have to take the chance.