Cogs can think.

Mr. Geert Wilders,

Today, I have been listening to your speech in the Lower House concerning the government’s new plans for the country. While these new plans certainly are up for scrutiny, and while I appreciate the fact that you, as elected official, exercise your right of opposition, I would like to explain something to you.

This country we live, this wonderful glorified swamp we built with our bare hands, has had a long and and intricate history. Some of the pages in our history book are as black as black can be. We were the most vicious slave traders of the colonial times, much worse than many of the other colonial powers. We have abused our colonies in extremely violent ways, exploited the native populations, and have forcefully tried to impose Christianity upon them. More recently, during WWII, many of our countrymen were quick to work with the Nazis, adding yet another dark, dark, extremely dark black page to our history book.

Some pages of our history book are bright; we have produced the world’s finest painters, writers and poets, scientists, and so on. We explored the world, and our constitution served as the very base on which the US constitution was built. We were one of the first countries in the world to embrace religious freedom; as a consequence, many people who were considered different in other countries, sought refuge in our swamp.

And this last fact, Mr Wilders, is something you seem to forget with your endless diatribes against the Islam. You speak of “tsunami of Islamification”, you speak of how headscarfs and burkas are “destroying your view”, and more of these things. Today, you said that many Muslims living in The Netherlands are “not worthy of their passport”.

In fact, Mr Wilders, it is you who is not worthy of carrying the Dutch passport. It is you who has not understood at all what my country stands for. My country stands for openness, freedom, tolerance, respect; you do not own any of these values. You do not understand what it truly means to be Dutch.

I am ashamed that you dare to abuse our good name, our heritage, all that we have fought for over the centuries, to spout your hatred towards newcomers, people who have a god given right to set foot in our swamp. People who have fled their own country in danger of being persecuted, just like the Huguenots centuries ago.

You, Mr Wilders, do not have proper Dutch blood running through your veins. You not represent our country, and what we stand for. You are an abomination to all that we Dutch stand for.

If I could, I would invoice your passport, and burn it before your very eyes. You are not worthy of our passport, our national anthem, or our flag.

Kind regards,

Thom Holwerda