Country is upside down

In the 10 months since he took office, Donald Trump has changed our perception of what the United States has become. It’s now a country where brown and black people, citizens or not, have to fear for their freedom and their very lives. It’s a country that has the largest, most evil, private army, cloaked in fatigues, faces masked, carry weapons used in war. They target people who don’t look like them, assault them in front of their children and neighbors.

Our allies don’t recognize us. We were a beacon of human rights. Now due process is just a catch phrase with no meaning. Our Constitution is being trampled on. Our courts and judges can no longer be trusted to do the right thing and protect all people regardless of color.

Is this history repeating itself? Hitler started his annihilation of anyone not ethnically German and all Jews. His private army began assaulting and capturing people, whisking them away to unknown places we later learned were concentration camps and gas chambers. If we normalize ICE and border patrols violent enforcement activities, then we’re going down a dark hole, one that will be difficult to crawl out of.

More than 7 million people of all ages peacefully marched at the No Kings rallies across the U.S, effectively saying NO! These assaults on our friends and neighbors is not normal, it’s not what Americans do. Mercenaries attacking peaceful protesters with tear gas and chemicals is not the American way.

Is building a $3 million ballroom at the White House while average people have a hard time feeding their children or affording health insurance the American way? Our country is upside down. We need to vote to defend our constitution, to get our country upright again.

Judith Miller

Schaumburg