To the editor:
Given that so many apologists for Donald Trump (especially religious leaders) tell us not to look at the person but the policy, let’s look at two policies Trump and Braun repeat as the solution to almost every problem: on immigration — demonize immigrants and conduct mass deportations, and on energy and climate–pretend Human-caused Global Warming is a hoax and double down on cheap and dirty fossil fuels.
On immigration, we all bear responsibility. American employers seek undocumented workers to lower labor costs in construction, agriculture, meat packing, hospitality, caregiving and other industries. Climate refugees are comprising a steadily rising proportion of asylum seekers. Liberalized American gun laws provide the cartels guns, and Americans’ illegal drug appetites provide them the cash to be ever more vicious and resourced as human and drug smuggling operations. Clearly, our border problem cannot be solved only at the border. A mass deportation would wreck millions of hardworking families, drive up inflation and make housing even more scarce. Trump’s scapegoating and lying about asylum seekers ignores the role we all have in this matter, spreads hate rather than solutions and is counter to moral teaching: “The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt.” (Leviticus 19:33-34)
On energy and climate, we all have a moral obligation. The world is way behind targets for reducing the burning of fossil fuels and preserving a stable climate. Trump’s last four years in office were wasted by undoing the small gains of his predecessors on working with other nations to secure a future for our posterity. Giving him another four will certainly doom our children to hopeless apocalypse. His rally chant of “Drill, Baby, Drill” and the oxymoron “Energy Independence” are the immoral lies of a terracides and filicides who refuse consequence and basic science. The burning of cheap fossil fuel is dependent on wreaking havoc on our children’s future. The moral imperative of climate change gives us a clear choice: either we sacrifice some of our own luxury and laziness for our children’s survival or we sacrifice our children’s future for our own luxury and laziness. We can’t have both.
When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. On Nov. 5th Americans and Hoosiers we can choose leaders with more tools in their toolbox — including sound moral character.
Steve Plasse, Crothersville