A country on shaky ground as we approach our 250th birthday Opinion

As we approach our country’s semiquincentennial, we wonder “Is this the United States of America, the land of the free, with liberty and justice for all?” Daily we are witnessing blatant violations of the constitutional rights of freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, voting rights, and the right to due process for all by an administration entrusted with protecting these rights.

Most recently we saw the city of Minneapolis under siege by thousands of ICE agents who had no respect for people’s rights. This administration is criminalizing immigrants who (along with enslaved people) built this nation and are still building it. If you are not Indigenous or from enslaved ancestors, then your family are immigrants. ICE is carrying out a type of ethnic cleansing where immigrants of color, native people and others of color are being rounded up, arrested and detained. And protesters are being arrested, shot and even murdered. There have been horrendous abuses and numerous deaths in the detention centers. Some people have been sent to prisons in other countries that practice torture, rape, and abuse. All of this without the constitutional protection of due process. These harmful, violent acts are being funded by our tax dollars, which could be used for healthcare, education, housing and employment. This administration is the antithesis of what leadership should be: rooted in empathy, guided by integrity, and committed to the civic responsibility of protecting the dignity and safety of all people.

Our country’s 250th anniversary should be a time of honoring and celebrating our national values. Our country was founded on the premise that all people are created equal and are entitled to certain God-given rights. For 250 years people in this country have struggled to claim the rights withheld from them. We have come through systemic dehumanization, including genocide, slavery, Jim Crow, homophobia, ableism and others. But in the last decades we have made significant progress in achieving our aspirational goal of liberty and justice for all. This sacred duty requires empathy and accountability.

It requires the upholding of truth, justice, freedom and morality regardless of race, creed, gender, sexual orientation, ability, or color. But this administration is built on force, fear and lies. It is destroying the good that has been built in the last 250 years, both in our country and in our relations with other nations.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/country-shaky-ground-approach-250th-205400239.html