From left, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., Rep. llhan Omar, D-Minn., Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., respond to remarks by President Donald Trump after his call for the four Democratic congresswomen to go back to their "broken" countries. All four are American citizens; three were born in the United States, one arrived as a teenager.J. Scott Applewhite/The Associated Press
Letters to the Editor should be exclusive to The Globe and Mail. Include your name, address and daytime phone number. Try to keep letters to fewer than 150 words. Letters may be edited for length and clarity. To submit a letter by e-mail, click here: letters@globeandmail.com
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Go-back politics hurts
I am a person of colour; my Canadian passport doesn’t shield me from people asking me to go back. My accent over the phone doesn’t help me win arguments or captivate many hearts and minds. I will never forget when a frustrated passenger wasn’t pleased with my answer as a ticketing agent, angrily asking, “Can I speak to someone from this country?”
I have a message for those who keep asking us to go back. We live in a global community, where one thing affecting one community will impact on all – one way or another. Donald Trump is making the life of anyone who isn’t white more miserable. Those immigrants his supporters can’t stand seeing could have been forced to flee as a direct consequence of their government’s meddling.
If we apply this demand of “go back to your country,” everyone will be affected, including Mr. Trump himself. His wife would have to board the boat before many others in the line.
Abubakar N. Kasim, Toronto
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Even as a Canadian who is merely looking in on the U.S., the chants of “lock her up,” now replaced by “send her back,” are particularly ominous. As only the most recent outrage in a long string, it’s being written off by the GOP as “Trump being Trump.” Maybe they think he’s just field testing possible rallying cries for 2020, but Donald Trump has clearly loaded a powerful gun and is now pointing it.
During the past two years, we’ve watched the systematic breakdown of civility. Heightened fear and loathing have exposed deep societal fault lines – this despite a good economy, when normally there’s peace and unity.
History has shown how other nations have lost their senses, abandoned the rule of law, constitutions and consciences, and finally their freedom, all in a virtual heartbeat. It can happen when a country becomes desensitized to corruption and violence, and is invited to act against those deemed “enemies of the people” by its President no less. Sadly, Mr. Trump is just warming up. Like the chorus in a Greek tragedy, the world can only watch as he goes to war … against Americans! We, his neighbours, should be worried.
Rita Fundner, Toronto
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I’m picturing a new game show, The Amazing Racist, recorded in front of a live audience. As contestants vie for prizes, audience members enthusiastically shout “Lock her up,” “Send her back,” or that old favourite, “Lynch him high.” I think it’s a winner. I just can’t picture who would make a good host.
Nathan Ross, Toronto
CBC should reconsider
Re CBC’s Plan To Boost The Fifth Estate’s Ratings With Series On Paul Bernardo Divides Staff, Angers Activists (July 18): The CBC’s fifth estate is planning a series on a murderer and serial rapist. I would like to ask them to reconsider.
Patrick LeSage, presiding judge in the Paul Bernardo trial
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What great ideas some of the high foreheads at the CBC television program the fifth estate have for boosting ratings. Why not add The Execution of the Week from Saudi Arabia?
This long-time supporter of CBC has seen enough. CBC Radio is world-class and it’s offering programs unlike anything the private sector can or will do. But there’s nothing on CBC TV that can’t be produced as well or better by private broadcasters.
It is time to beef up the radio services and streaming services, and turn out the lights at CBC television.
Ken Cuthbertson, Kingston
‘Stop the inhumanity’
Re Fighting For A Cause (July 19): It has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. This dictum was well-illustrated in Friday’s Globe and Mail, where a photograph showed a “protesting” nun being led away in handcuffs from a demonstration in Washington calling for an end to immigrant detention.
The fact that she is holding a small sign that says “Stop the inhumanity” made the picture look much like a typical political cartoon, in which a newspaper headline is used to make the point.
Regrettably, this was no cartoon, but another illustration of the irrationality that plagues the United States under the present administration.
Dave Ashby, Toronto
Fossil-free frontier
When President John F. Kennedy called for placing a man on the moon by the end of his decade, most of the world, if asked, wouldn’t have believed it possible. Yet, through disciplined, thoughtful (and brave) actions, it happened.
This achievement bears an interesting parallel with another project: achieving a world free of the burning of fossil fuel by the end of the 2020s.
It can be done; it only requires disciplined, thoughtful action. Just as going to the moon required no fundamentally new science, building as it did on the work of Newton, Goddard, and Von Braun, so the non-fossil technologies for producing energy are already available at prices comparable to fossil-fuel technologies.
Just as Kennedy and his successors relied on the engineers and applied scientists at NASA to achieve the space goal, this new goal, too, should rely on engineers and applied scientists. Choices among alternatives have to be made, and other professionals, such as politicians must be involved. But the problem is basically an engineering one. Forming a multiparty advisory and guiding panel seems like a good idea.
As we celebrate the achievement of putting men on the moon 50 years ago, let’s keep these thoughts in mind. The achievement of fossil-fuel elimination may be of more lasting importance than any achievement in space.
K.G. Terry Hollands, Distinguished professor emeritus, Faculty of Engineering, University of Waterloo
Out on a pass
Re Killers Not Criminally Responsible Should Never Be Let Out, Ford Says (July 19): I think it is fine to let a patient at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health out on a day pass subject to a proper risk assessment, but I am perplexed as to why Zhebin Cong was not fitted with an electronic bracelet that encompassed GPS technology.
Then you would know if he was deviating from his allowed route, and he would not have been able to get through airport security.
Adam Plackett, Toronto
Degrees of populism
Re Could Populism Take Root In Canada ? Too Late – It Has (July 20): I have always found right-wing populism repulsive, but when I read words and phrases like “Cascadians” and “the Laurentien elite,” I completely disengage.
I suppose I could pull out my dictionary or consult an encyclopedia, but instead, I just feel bored and resentful that the author made no attempt to appeal to commoners like me with accessible language. So I guess I am more of a populist than I thought.
Greg Scott, Gloucester, Ont.
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