To the Editor:
As I participated Saturday — on the square in Bryson City — in a rally against injustices by our current United States government body (Congress, the Judiciary, and the Executive), a gentleman stopped to ask, “Why do you want illegal immigration?” It was immediately apparent that he didn’t stop for a conversation. What several of us said was, more or less, there’s a process, or there once was, to become a resident and/or citizen of the United States, and we support that, as well as supporting asylum, temporary protected status, and a valid usable path to United States citizenship.
If offered the opportunity, I would have also mentioned that the United States was built by immigrants and enslaved peoples. Our government is capable of heinous as well as wonderful acts, but they’re messing up “bigly” under the current administration. Stephen Miller and his concentration camps are in full swing, and thanks to GOP passage of the legislation that funded ICE without significant oversight, we are once again seeing ICE murders and mass capture of people who are most certainly not “the worst of the worst.” It was never about that. Racism thrives on lies. Humans thrive on love.
It is a shame that people can’t get along, same as it ever was. It’s up to the many good people of our country to see that the United States doesn’t go down the toilet that President Trump and his henchmen are leading us into. Know your candidates, vote your conscience, and be excellent to each other.
Bil Aylor,
USAF 1966-73
Bryson City