I have been reading the book The Rainbow Ends by Ashad G. Hawie, an immigrant from Lebanon who moved to the United States with his family in the early 1900s. The Hawie family settled in Jackson, MS, where they opened a grocery store and became successful members of the community. Ashad eventually left home and moved to Mobile, AL, where he joined the National Guard. His unit was called up for World War I, and became Company F, 167th Infantry Regiment, part of the famed 42nd “Rainbow” Division. Hawie’s unit saw action during the Muese-Argonne Offensive, and the young man distinguished himself in this action, being awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for heroism in combat. In addition, Hawie was awarded the Croix de Guerre by France and the Croce al Merito di Guerra by Italy.

Hawie told many interesting stories about his combat experiences in “The Rainbow Ends,” but it was a statement he made in the preface to the book that really stood out to me, as it seems as true today as when it was written in the early 1940s:

“American-Syrians, and there are many thousands of them in this great land of liberty, love America and its Institutions with the same loyalty and devotion that they gave to their native country and hills since the beginning of recorded history. They will not be found among those who sought its shores and are now attempting to remodel its constitution and divert the thoughts of its people into some new form of ‘ism’ that so often begins with a distorted idealism and ultimately terminates in real despotism.”

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