First, there’s the Statue of Liberty, that beacon of hope and freedom, and at its base, the sonnet by Emma Lazarus,

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses,

yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your

teeming shore. Send these, the homeless tempest-tost,

to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

Isn’t that the spirit of America we all still believe in?

But now, we are asked to believe in the politics of fear. A wall? Deportations? The door to freedom, closed and barred? How un-American is that?

If we truly want to save American lives, perhaps we should look at the 35,000 annual gun deaths*. Addressing that would be a good start at making America safer without abandoning our values.

Tom Fix

Snoqualmie

*According to the Center for Disease Control, firearms related deaths in 2013 and 2014, numbered 33,000 to 35,000.