Seeing Terrorism in a Stranger’s Face

I am truly appalled by Norah Vincent and her approval of her friend’s attitude on seeing an “Arab-looking” individual on a bus that she was riding, reading a book she surmised to be in Arabic and talking on a cell phone (“Go Ahead and Make Our Day,” Commentary, Dec. 27). With these assumptions she was prepared to stab him in “the jugular” should he make a suspicious move. What would constitute a suspicious move? That would be murder, in my book!

I have many friends who are Hindu, who could appear to be Arabic, whose reading materials would seem Arabic to those who could not read them and whose connections by phone to the hospitals they serve, as doctors, are urgent. I would prefer to believe that Yankee intelligence is better than “bravado,” that self-reliance is better served by not leaping to judgment on the basis of appearance and that hate does not serve America well. Terrorism has accomplished its goal in America if it brings us to fearing our neighbor.

Patricia McIntosh

Hacienda Heights