Watson Coleman: “over 200 year ago, it was written: The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which…”

“over 200 year ago, it was written: The condition upon which God hath given liberty to man is eternal vigilance; which condition if he break, servitude is at once the consequence of his crime and the punishment of his guilt. Mr. Jefferson came up with the short version: Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. The message is clear and it is urgent. We need to be constantly on the look out for hatred of any kind. And like the spouting of a dangerous weed, we need to deal with it when it is small and before it grows. That is why a number of us have taken the floor to call attention to a disturbing rise in incidents of anti-Semitism. This is not a fringe expression of free speech. It is the leading edge of danger that has appeared all too often in the last 2,000 years of human history. One of the ironies of this subject lies in the word ``anti-Semitic.'' In common usage it means prejudice or bigotry against Jews. But when you look up the root word ``Semite,'' you see it refers to members of the Jewish and Arab peoples. Strictly speaking to be ``anti-Semitic'' could mean expressing hatred of Arabs. That illustrates an important point. A statement of hatred against any group of people should be abhorred by freedom loving people from every group.”