Dear Editor:

Almost daily there is another news story of ICE’s illegal raids on suspected immigrants, each one more atrocious than the last. Lately on Chicago’s south side ICE busted down doors in an apartment building and indiscriminately detained everyone in the building, never showing a warrant. Children were torn from their mother’s arms and citizens were restrained. The apartments were trashed including those of citizens, veterans and pensioners.

But this letter is not just another complaint about Trump's many outrages we have suffered. It's about who we are as a people.

There are a few who take perverse pleasure in the senseless cruelties visited upon certain minority groups. We know them by their fruit.

But there is a vast majority who are decent people, people who care about justice and equity. People who know the importance of empathy and compassion in their daily lives. People who recognize that Trump’s view of America is inimical to the ideals that our country was founded upon.

It is tempting to sit comfortably in our homes in the hope that things will change for the better, but inaction in the face of a concerted determined takeover of our government by ruthless autocrats will only allow things to get worse. There is no bottom.

As citizens we need to protect our rights. We need to look past the propaganda and lies and identify which politicians will have our backs and which ones are in the pockets of the economic elite. Thomas Jefferson said “Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.” Suggested reading is Jason Stanley’s “How Propaganda Works.”

In this dark night of the American soul we must have the courage to stand up and speak out. We must be resolute in our values and committed to fairness and justice for all, so that we may emerge from this dark time with new strength and a clear mandate for a just world.

Fred W. Nehring

Boothbay