So tell me, who are the haters?
While in the hospital on July 18, I received a copy of the Maryland Independent with a letter to the editor entitled “So much hate from the left” by Chester Seaborn. Upon reading the letter, I could not believe what I was reading. The examples he gave of “hate” was a restaurant owner whose employees chose not to serve the spokesperson repeating the pronouncements of a congenital liar, and peaceful protests of verbal confrontation of Kirsten Nielsen by those opposed to the policy of separating children from their parents. He tried to equate this legal, peaceful opposition to the violent protests carried out by ultra left radicals like the “Weathermen.” I was so horrified that as soon as I recovered, I had to respond.
The really crazy part of this is that those he is defending as free of hate are in fact responsible for more hate than I’ve seen since Selma in 1963. They are responsible for tearing children out of their mother’s arms and sending them away while deporting the parents. Officials justified this by stating that Americans would not care about the damage to Latino children. To efficiently implement this policy they stated everyone seeking asylum must come through a “Port of Entry,” and then closed all of the “ports of entries.” In addition, they then held deportation hearings on children under the age of 12 months who they had separated from their parents. Four months after they were court-ordered to return these kids to their parents, there are still 1,500 children who can not be located. A person has to be really full of hate to treat families this way because they look different.
Other examples of the rightist hate include the murder and attempted murder of two American engineers of Indian descent. The murderer, Adam Purinton, yelled, “Get out of my country,” before fatally shooting Srinivas Kuchibhotla and severely wounding his co-worker on Feb. 22, 2017. A few days later another Indian man was shot and injured outside his home in Kent, Wash. His attacker yelled, “Go back to your country.” The White House said nothing in response to these hate crimes. But when a Latino is merely suspected in a crime, regardless of whether they are legal or even native born American citizens, the White House denounces the immigration system and Democrats for “letting all of these Mexicans in;” “they are all rapists and murderers.” In contrast, this victim’s widow, Sunayana Dumala, urged people to work together to spread love and stand up to hate. So tell me who is filled with hate.
In Portland, Ore., on May 26, 2017, three men were stabbed, two fatally, including a 53-year-old Army veteran when they came to the defense of two teenage girls, one of them a Muslim wearing a hijab, the other African-American, who was verbally assaulted by the murderer, Jeremy Joseph Christian. The three victims, Ricky John Best, Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche and Micah David-Cole Fletcher, were recognized by the city of Portland as heroes. Again, no comment from the White House.
Jan. 14, 2017, Bellevue, Wash.: An arsonist’s fire torched the Islamic Center of Eastside near Seattle.
Jan. 7, 2017, Austin, Texas: The Islamic Center of Lake Travis was burned to the ground before it was completed.
Jan. 27, 2017, Victoria, Texas: An intentionally set fire destroyed the Victoria Islamic Center mosque.
Feb. 24 2017, Thonotosassa, Fla.: An arsonist’s fire damaged the Islamic Society of New Tampa.
March 11, 2017: A mosque in Ypsilanti, Mich., was burned to the ground.
There were 63 publicly reported incidents from January to July 2017, where mosques were targets of threats, vandalism or arson. On average, that comes down to nine every month and at least two a week. There was no response from the White House about these terrorist acts.
On Thursday, Jan. 11, President Trump expostulated with Senators Chuck Schumer and Lindsay Graham, “Why do we want all these people from ‘[expletive]-hole countries’ coming here?” when referring to Haiti and African countries. A White House official reported that staffers predicted the comment would resonate with Trump’s base.
So tell me, who are the haters? Edward R. Joell,
Indian Head