Save Tule Lake: Send a letter by Oct. 10

graphic by Nathaniel Levine - Sacramento BeeThis graphic in last Monday’s Sacramento Bee says it all: “The proposed fence would encircle the Tulelake Municipal Airport next to the town of Newell,”

The Tule Lake Committee has issued an urgent call to #SaveTuleLake, where more than 24,000 Japanese Americans were imprisoned during World War II. They are appealing for voices to be heard against the construction of a three-mile-long fence that will close off an airport that sits on two-thirds of the former concentration camp site and which, if built, would permanently close off access to the barracks area where most people lived. A national civil rights site will be irreparably damaged.

Residents of Klamath Falls raise the question of whose comment should carry the most weight, pointing out that they live there and we don’t. Well, yes, but the longer view on this is that we lived there before the airport and before most local residents were born. Against our will, Tule Lake was the home to 24,000 souls, long before the airport was established in 1965.

You are asked to send letters and emails to Modoc County Road Commissioner Mitch Crosby, who is accepting public comment until 5 p.m. Oct. 10 at his office at 202 West Fourth St. According to the Bee, the campaign is working. Crosby’s office has received hundreds of emails and letters opposing the fence.

Save Tule Lake banner

The committee has shared a template letter that is reproduced below, along with these suggestions:
1. Emails and letters should be written to Modoc County:

Mr. Mitch Crosby
Modoc County Road Commissioner
202 West 4th St.,
Alturas, CA 96101
[email protected]

2. In your email, please write in the subject line: TULELAKE AIRPORT PERIMETER FENCE PROJECT

3. Sign your name and provide a physical street address.

4. Please cc your letter to the Tule Lake Committee at [email protected]. For a hard copy letter, send to: Tule Lake Committee, PO Box 170141, San Francisco CA 94117.

Mr. Mitch Crosby
Modoc County Road Commissioner
202 West 4th St.,
Alturas, CA 96101
[email protected]

Dear Mr. Mitch Crosby,

I am writing to protest the construction of a fence around the Tule Lake airport. The plan is to construct a three-mile-long, barbed-wire topped fence that is eight feet high.

It will destroy the integrity of this historic site, desecrate the memory of those who were unjustly incarcerated there, and prevent the possibility of a respectful and dignified remembrance of a civil rights tragedy which President Ronald Reagan said was “a grave wrong,” when he signed H.R. 442 on Aug. 10, 1988.

More than 24,000 people, including immigrants who were denied the right to become naturalized citizens and thousands of U.S.-born Americans, were imprisoned at the Tule Lake concentration camp between 1942 and 1946.

Babies were born here. Men and women died here. Tule Lake is a sacred site to Japanese Americans and it is a historic site for all Americans, reminding our nation of the harm that can occur to the Constitutional rights of individuals when due process is ignored.

Please respect the historical, spiritual and national meaning of this unique site in our country’s history.

Please do not build the proposed fence.

Sincerely,

_____________________________
Name

______________________________
Street Address, City, State, Zip Code

________________________________________
Date

CC:
email to: [email protected]
hard copy to: Tule Lake Committee, PO Box 170141, San Francisco CA 94117

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