MINETA: PATIENCE IS NEW PATRIOTISM

Norman Mineta, the U.S. secretary of transportation, has seen firsthand the injustices that can follow attacks on American soil.

He and other members of his family were among the more than 120,000 Japanese-Americans held in concentration camps after Pearl Harbor, and he calls the similarities between those days and the weeks following September 11 chilling.

"This is a critical time in our nation's history," Mineta said during a Meliora Weekend symposium on "The Cost of Freedom." "One of the greatest dangers we face is that in looking for the enemy, we may strike against our own friends and neighbors."

Speaking to a full house in the Palestra, Mineta also discussed his role overseeing the nation's transportation system in the wake of September 11.

Americans will have to deal with long lines and delays for some time because of increased security, he said.

"We've been asked to get back to normalcy, but the new normalcy is different today from what we once knew," he said. "We all have to be patient. Patience is the new form of patriotism."

Mineta said his personal experience spurred him as a member of the House of Representatives to push for the passage of a 1988 executive order formerly apologizing to and providing monetary reparations to Japanese-Americans.

"The events of September 11 represent a test of the commitment to civil liberties that we won in 1988," he said. "America is being tested every day since September 11. How we respond will tell us much about ourselves as a country."

Despite the similarities, Mineta has seen a major difference between Americans' responses after Pearl Harbor and September 11. Instead of calling for the internment of Arab-Americans, for example, many people have gone out of their way to help those who feel threatened, he noted.

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