Cruelty Is A Feature Of Current Administration

To The Reader’s Forum:

Proverbs 11:17 tells us that, “A man who is kind benefits himself but a cruel man hurts himself”

Additionally, a cruel administration hurts the millions of people they are tasked with protecting. Do we have examples of this? Every day provides new evidence of the stunning cruelty. At a July 1st press conference touting “Alligator Alcatraz”, Donald Trump joked that, “We’re going to teach them how to run away from an alligator”. Reveling in the mistreatment of fellow human beings. This is not about policy. You can have a policy to remove illegal immigrants. I’m talking about how we conduct ourselves. How we treat other human beings. The Bible offers no path by which cruelty is an acceptable means to an end. None.

Bombing boats in the Caribbean is another example. On September 6th J.D. Vance, when told that, “Killing the citizens of another nation who are civilians, without due process, is called a war crime”, responded by saying, “I don’t give a shit what you call it”. He later joked, “I wouldn’t go fishing right now”. You can have a policy to intercept drug shipments. The policy includes due process. Due process prevents cruelty, is strongly supported by the Bible, and is what separates us from Dictatorships. It prevents wrongful deaths, ensures fair treatment and serves justice. No one is against arresting drug traffickers. But to have one man declare everyone on a boat a drug trafficker and blow it out of the water with no evidence, no due process and no legal checks is cruel. And J.D. Vance doesn’t care if innocent people are blown up. He thinks it’s funny.

Recently, Trump has blocked Billions of dollars of federal funding for infrastructure projects from areas around NYC, NYS and other “Blue” cities and states that he does not like. These are not “liberal projects”, they are federal projects for maintenance and repair of roads and bridges among other things. To have our president punish areas he doesn’t like by withholding funds is cruel. It serves no purpose other than to make other human beings suffer. We will all suffer because these areas are full of voters of all registrations, People trying to live their lives. Trump has also refused to approve disaster declarations for Blue states but has for areas of the country that voted for him. No other administration has behaved this way. To inflict pain on your own citizens indiscriminately as payback for a perceived slight. Cruel. And the examples go on and on.

As citizens we should call out what we see, push back, and hold ourselves to higher standards because we aren’t getting moral leadership from the top.

Melissa First

Lakewood

The Times That Try Men’s Souls

To The Reader’s Forum:

“These are the times that try men’s souls” wrote Thomas Paine during a rather dark time in the American revolution.

We are also enduring a dark period, with masked and armed men sweeping up people on America’s streets for little more than speaking a foreign tongue. I can’t help but wonder if my German and Irish ancestors would have swept up some 200 years ago if such policies had been in effect then.

Thousands have been deported under the Trump administration without hearings and often sent to countries where they have no ties. The overall figures include some 170 U.S. citizens who have been detained for days in squalid conditions, according to ProPublica. If our country experiences a negative outflow this or next year, it will be the first net outflow in nearly a century, writes The Atlantic’s Idrees Kahloon who previously served as Washington bureau chief for The Economist.

If net zero population growth occurs Kahloon cautions, it will lower our nation’s economic growth and negatively impact out native-born population. One only needs to look at the Bracero program, which allowed seasonal Mexican workers to enter our country to work on farms. It was phased out by the Kennedy and Johnson administrations and did not result in substantial raises for native workers. Rather, farmers resorted to mechanized solutions. Later studies showed less home building and higher house prices following immigration crackdowns, Kahloon notes. Fewer businesses start during such times, he adds.

The birth rates for American-born women is at 1.5 or well below the replacement rate of 2.1. Without immigration, the overall U.S. birth rate is destined to shrink, impacting the overall economy. And with fewer people working, the entire Social Security system will be at risk.

It is time to reflect long and hard on Ronald Reagan’s farewell speech in which he spoke eloquently of the importance of immigration and warned that “If we ever close the door to new Americans, our leadership in the world would soon be lost.”

Phil Zimmer

Jamestown