Fighting The Bigots, Fighting The Racists

A friend of mine used to work for the Arab American Institute. Hard as it is to be a person of Arab descent in post-9/11 America, her life was made much harder by a charming fellow named W. Patrick Syring. Syring, a former Foreign Service officer stationed in the Arab world, would call and e-mail AAI staffers — including my friend — and say things like "the only good Arab is a dead Arab." See, neocons? State Department officials can be just as racist as you.

Anyhow, on Friday, Syming was sentenced to a year in prison. Good.