From: Michael Greven
Columbus
Of late there has been a great deal of discussion about the surge of immigrants at the border. There is, without a doubt, a very large challenge that Americans need to meet, but meeting that challenge is not met by maligning those who are seeking to get into the U.S., or by cutting off foreign aid to the countries these people are fleeing.
It is clear that the people are fleeing with good reason, and that they are people who simply want to provide for their families — the same thing all of us want to do!
The Central American countries of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras are a huge mess. That is nothing new. The governments of these countries have been under the direct control of the U.S. government for years as the U.S. government wages a decades-old drug war that to date has been unsuccessful. The “war on drugs” was started by Richard Nixon in 1971, and by 2015 it had cost the U.S. over $1 trillion, according to “Ending the War on Drugs: By the Numbers,” by Betsy Pearl.
It is going on today and people are abusing and dying from drug overdoses at a staggering rate. By all rational parameters, the U.S. would appear to have lost this war. That loss has been a loss shared in the aforementioned countries as well as others. The very fundamentals of their societies have been impacted through long-term corruption and illicit businesses. New ideas and approaches need to be developed in concert with responsible leadership in those countries, but cutting off foreign aid is not going to be a successful approach.
Those who have fled persecution, murder, rape and violence deserve our compassion and help, not our scorn and derision. They flee with their families so that they can be safe, be healthy, get educated and be successful in the pursuit of their life’s goals. Helping them attain those goals is what our American ideals demand we do and it is the creed of many religions.
The religions are few, if any, that I know that instruct you to kick a man in the stomach when he is down. All of the Abrahamic religions with which I am familiar teach us to help our fellow man and to treat others as you would wish to be treated. Something about doing unto others as you would have them do unto you. My question to my fellow Americans is, would we want to be turned away at a border just because it is a border if we are in need? I don’t think there is one person who would not appreciate the opportunity to be well received and cared for.
We can rise above petty border issues and assist those in need as well as help solve the problems that create the need for migration in their home countries. We need compassion, not the hatred and scorn from Trump and his lieutenants. Trump’s rhetoric and action is un-American. Period.
