DAVENPORT, IOWA (March 24, 2020) — With the entire world in crisis over the COVID-19 pandemic, it is natural for people to be filled with anxiety and fear over an uncertain future. This is not the time for blaming, scapegoating, and hate.
One Human Family QCA is deeply concerned about the recent rise in the number and intensity of hate statements and acts directed against our Asian neighbors as a result of the current pandemic. One Human Family QCA is dedicated to our mission of welcoming and protecting “the life, dignity, and human rights of all people in all places in our community.” It is in keeping with that mission that we deplore any and all attacks on people of Asian ancestry as if they are personally responsible for this horrible virus that has afflicted us. We are particularly distressed that some such messages of hate are coming out of the highest places in our government, as if to grant sanction to those who act upon this hate on a local level.
In times of crisis such as we are experiencing now, all people are potential victims. A virus such as COVID-19 does not discriminate on the basis of race, religious, ethnicity, sexual orientation, identity, or gender. Despite what the promoters of conspiracy theories claim, this crisis has not been intentionally created by anyone. It is just one of those tragedies born more out of happenstance than human design. In our struggle against this virus, we have a choice: We can come together in unity and mutual support or we can tear our society apart, pointing fingers of blame, and looking out solely for ourselves with a total disregard of our fellow human beings. Now, more than ever before, if we as both individuals and a society are to survive, we need to stand together in the struggle before us. This is not a time for hate but a time love and caring for all. As Abraham Lincoln said, “We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory will swell when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.”
