To the editor:

I would like to address the issue of what is happening at our border.

Christians, Buddhists, Native Americans and Muslims all share in our belief systems the sense that we are all connected, all part of each other, and that we bear responsibility for each other.  As a Christian, I can quote Jesus when He said “Whatever you do unto the least of these my brethren, you do it to me.”  And he told the story of the Samaritan who stopped to help the man lying by the side of the road, when everyone else just walked by.  

When our president keeps setting up “us and them” scenarios, he is dividing us all from each other, and creating fear in our hearts that keeps us from seeing our connection as human beings with those who ask us for help.   

I wish he would use his power to help the governments which are causing these people to have to leave.  Instead of calling these countries ugly names, I wish he would find people inside those countries who want to restore peace and safety, and find ways to help them, rather than just standing back and saying it’s none of our business.  And then looking at the people who have fled the violence and calling them criminals.

I wish we could all open our hearts to the children separated from their parents and put into scary places.   And I wish we would see the importance of seeing ourselves as part of each other no matter what our belief systems.  When I read about a suffering child I suffer inside my own heart as though it were happening to me.  And I can’t support a president who wants us to close our hearts, focusing on our differences and making us afraid of each other.

I am writing this now because our country is in a crucial battle within ourselves to find our own peace and safety.  Will we hold onto our fears and build walls?  Or will we have courage to look past those walls and care about each other?