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Human rights denied

Our country, which is a country of immigrants, has a statue in the New York harbor with the inscription, “Give me your tired, your poor, the huddled masses. …” Now our country is separating children from parents who are seeking asylum here in the United States.

So why are we locking up people and taking their children from them after they have traveled miles to flee horrible conditions in their countries? A United States Senator Jeff Merkley went to Texas to check out conditions. His staff contacted three places and he was granted admission to two of the three. The last place was an old Walmart with windows covered. He was denied entry to a facility holding children of asylum seekers. I think the real reason is that this present administration is afraid of people of color. To me, the slogan “Make America Great Again” means make America white. I occasionally click on Fox News and caught someone saying that hate crimes have not escalated since the campaign of 2015. The Southern Poverty Law center would disagree. What do you call shooting unarmed black men in the back? The group of people in control of our government want to control women’s rights — protect the unborn — but do not want to protect the child after he/she is born. This is evident from the proposed Farm bill which would cut SNAP and give more money to big ag. I may seem to be rambling in my speech, but I want to be clear: When are we going to start treating human beings like human beings? It makes me ill to hear people say we are a Christian nation and then we treat others like they are inferior.

I urge all concerned citizens to follow the example of the Parkland Students to register to vote and vote for people who will protect all in the legislative process, not the wealthy 1 percent. By the way, the tax break I received is being eaten by the rise in gas prices.

Margaret Meeker

Williamstown

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