I emigrated from Argentina to the United States 20 years ago. I have been a U.S. citizen for more than 10 years. I am a certified public accountant, with an MBA, and currently pursuing a law degree in California.

About six years ago, I decided to make Bangor my home town. I bought a handsome house with an associate with the intent of eventually raising a family here. It is located in an attractive part of town with very fine next-door neighbors. I could not ask for more.

Unfortunately, while in California recently,, the caretakers of my Bangor home notified me that somebody had kicked in the front door, trying to pry it open, and painted an orange swastika on the door.

This concerns me greatly. I wonder about the reasons for such a calibrated message of hate. I could have assumed this was a random act of a child who is not good, because children tend to act out what they learn at home. However, if I were to assume it was a child’s prank, I’d be lying to myself. The swastika was strategically placed to convey a clear and unavoidable message of hate.

This seems to be an act of an adult perpetrator (or perpetrators) with a clear message, not an act of a misguided child. The message is loud and clear: “We hate you and we are here to get you.”

The only explanation I can find, other than being a distasteful and irresponsible prank, is hate toward my Hispanic ancestry. Although the word Hispanic does not designate any particular race, racial cleansing and intolerance is the traditional meaning of a swastika anywhere in the world. I cannot find any other significance to a swastika painted on my front door other than hatred.

Why should I give it any other meaning? The cowardly delinquent who did it did not leave me his business card or a letter explaining its meaning. So far, he could only unleash his contemptible feelings in anonymity in a white-supremacist expansion of the Minuteman Project against U.S. citizens.

At the end of the day, I am not surprised that the excuse of an “immigration problem” is used by racist individuals to unleash racist hate and intolerance all over our country toward vulnerable families and individuals. I am not surprised that people who think this way feel their own ignorance and sick feelings fully validated through the all-too-frequent illegal hateful and racist incitement by politicians and radio and TV broadcasting under different pretenses.

Today, with the immigration excuse, it seems that any hateful and pejorative speech against Hispanic citizens or immigrants has become acceptable. The same hate speech, stereotypes and generalizations that would cause riots in Washington, D.C., if spoken against other minorities, today seem politically and socially “acceptable” when spoken against U.S. citizens and immigrants of Hispanic descent. It seems we have two classes of citizens.

Soon I will be back in Bangor as an attorney. No coward will cloud my feelings toward the magnificent style and human warmth of the people of Bangor.

No coward will tell me where I can or I cannot live in my own country, the United States of America.

To quote Albert Einstein, “Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre minds. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.”

I would like to specially thank Sgt. Jim Hodges of the Bangor Police Department for his help in reporting this incident.

Gonzalo J. Ferrer is a resident of Bangor.