America is great when it remembers all men are created equal
Jan. 18 − To the Editor:
Wariness of strangers is a predictable human emotion and has often been exploited by politicians willing to appeal to people’s fears, selfishness, or prejudice. Although the US, more than most, has been a nation of immigrants, appeals to “nativism” have arisen throughout our history. Even appeals as blatantly bigoted as Trump’s recent statement that “immigrants are poisoning the blood of our country” are not unprecedented.
In the nineteenth century resentment of German (Trump’s ancestry) and Irish immigrants was used for political gain. As those groups assimilated the resentment shifted to newer immigrants from Italy and parts of Eastern Europe. The pattern has continued in more recent times to target immigrant from non-white regions in the Americas, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
Notably, Trump singled out immigrants from South America, Africa, and Asia. Trump’s statement about the importance of blood purity echoes some of the most racist appeals ever made in this country by proponents of slavery and later segregation of the ‘danger’ of miscegenation or so-called mixing of the races. Fortunately, there have been leaders who have been willing to appeal to the “better angels of our nature” recognizing the strength of our diversity. What has truly made America great has been the extent to which we have ignored small men like former President Trump and endeavored to live up to our founding ideals that “all are created equal” and provided opportunity regardless of race, creed, color, or religion.
Dennis Mathews
Barrington
Another cloud of inflammatory and misleading verbiage from Azzi
Jan. 15 − To the Editor:
In his Jan. 14 opinion piece, Robert Azzi has once again released a cloud of inflammatory and misleading verbiage in an effort to undermine American support for Israel. Strangely, he does so by claiming that Claudine Gay suffered a “public lynching” after journalists revealed that she had plagiarized other authors’ academic work and after she declined to affirm before Congress that calls for genocide against Jews constituted a violation of Harvard’s code of conduct. It should be clear, however, that her resignation from the presidency of Harvard is the consequence of those two factors, not systemic racism.
Why does Azzi mount his unconvincing defense of President Gay? I suspect the reason is that he wants to strengthen the “intersectional” coalition that opposes Israeli efforts to destroy Hamas after the barbaric attack of Oct. 7. Azzi alleges that we are witnessing “ethnic cleansing and genocide in Palestine [i.e. Gaza].” What he refuses to admit is that the IDF delayed its entry into Gaza for several weeks in order to permit Gazan noncombatants to evacuate Hamas strongholds. During the past three months of combat, the IDF has eliminated 9,000 Hamas fighters. An unknown number of Gazan noncombatants have also died, but their deaths have occurred despite IDF efforts to minimize civilian deaths. Hamas could avoid any additional deaths by surrendering to the IDF, disarming its fighters, and releasing any Israeli hostages who remain alive after months of mistreatment. Tragically, the death cult known as Hamas fights on without regard for either Palestinian or Israeli suffering.
And what of “ethnic cleansing”? It is Hamas that has tried to clear southern Israel of its Jewish residents by brutally attacking their towns and villages. A quarter million Israelis have been refugees within their own country for the past three months as a result of the October 7 attack. They cannot return home until the IDF eliminates Hamas as a threat to their security. So, Mr. Azzi, let’s be clear about who is practicing ethnic cleansing and pursuing genocide. It is Hamas and its Iranian sponsors: They are trying to drive Jews from their ancient homeland, the Land of Israel. This effort will not succeed.
Richard England
Durham