Manitowoc letter-writers share views on Donald Trump, immigration and a book ban shirt at the library

Here is this week’s letter to the editor of the Herald Times Reporter. See our letters policy below for details about how to share your views.

We the jury …

Not long ago, the state of Michigan imprisoned a mother and father on negligent homicide charges. They had provided a murder weapon to their mentally disturbed son. He used it to kill his school classmates.

The parents claimed: “We didn’t know he was ill enough to commit such a crime.”

The jury thought otherwise. They reasoned: No one knowing his history of mental instability should give him so lethal a weapon. They were criminally negligent in doing so.

There’s a coming trial in which WE will be the jury. We will pass judgment on Donald Trump’s control and use of a weapon. In this case, it won’t be a handgun. It will be America’s nuclear arsenal.

Consider his tirades: “I am your revenge. I am your vengeance. They’re coming for me; they’re coming for you. I am your retribution. I would be a dictator on day one. I have complete immunity.” What jury could hear these rants and NOT think him unstable and out of touch with reality?

Should we trust him to have his fingers on the triggers to Armageddon? Don’t we already know that he is volatile, spiteful and might easily provoke nuclear adversaries by bullying them? Might he destroy alliances that have, so far, prevented a third world war?

Stability, rationality, compassion, fidelity and honesty are absent in him. He must never again have the keys to the arsenal. If he’s elected again, WE will be criminally negligent. The consequences could be nuclear annihilation.

David Estes

Manitowoc

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Kindness, respect needed on immigration

It is disgusting to hear Donald Trump describe immigrants at our borders as “murderers, rapists and drug dealers.” A steady diet of fear and distrust of immigrants is fed to the public by Trump and Fox News.

Fox does not describe the typical immigrant as seeking an escape from the extreme poverty, brutality and climate change in their home countries. They come seeking freedom and safety and an opportunity to work and support their families. Instead, they are portrayed as outsiders, a threat to the American way of life.

We need real solutions to immigration. We got close with a bipartisan bill that was ready to pass the Senate until Trump intervened to keep immigration policy his election issue that only he could solve.

People are walking hundreds of miles to come to our borders seeking work, safety for their families and freedom, only to be turned away because one candidate wants it to be his election issue. How selfish is that?

Statistics in border states show that immigrants have lower crime rates than the rest of the population, they work hard and raise good families.

The six men who died making bridge repairs on the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore were immigrants from El Salvador, Mexico, Honduras and Guatemala. They were described as hardworking, honest and good family men by co-workers.

We need a big dose of kindness and respect for our fellow human-beings if we are to survive as the world’s oldest democracy. Mr. Trump may be selling Bibles, but his words do not reflect the message within.

Darlene Wellner

Manitowoc

Concerns about 'banned books' shirt at public library

For years, I have gone to the Manitowoc Public Library. Recently, I took a trip there and I noticed something peculiar. A staff member was wearing a shirt about “banned books.”

The phrase “book ban” has become a highly political rallying call for child-sexualizing activists to provide pornographic books to children while trying to shame others for calling them out on it. They also use it to describe citizens wanting to keep books talking about “gender identity” and transgenderism away from children. Children are susceptible to whatever an adult and book tell them. When they read, or are read, these books, their developing brains are confused. These books throw out basic biology like gender is binary. They get it in their head that they were born in the wrong body and want to transition, causing irreversible harm to the body.

Actual book bans are when books are destroyed and removed from all sections of society. If adults want to read these books, that is their own business, but it becomes a problem when they actively call on children to read these books or read them to children.

These books containing radical gender ideology and pornography need to be kept away from children at all costs. Any “banned books” merchandise and advertisements should not be portrayed by a taxpayer-funded public entity. Public libraries should not be getting involved with political agendas, encouraged by local special-interest groups, and need to remain neutral.

I ask the library board to consider these concerns.

Brayden Myer

Manitowoc

Our letters policy

Letters to the editor are published in the order in which they are received and letter-writers are limited to having one letter published per month. Letters can be emailed to htrnews@htrnews.com and Editor Brandon Reid at breid@gannett.com. Letters must meet specific guidelines, including being no more than 250 words and be from local authors or on topics of local interest. All submissions must include the name of the person who wrote the letter, their city of residence and a contact phone number. Letters are edited as needed for style, grammar, length, fairness, accuracy and libel.

This article originally appeared on Manitowoc Herald Times Reporter: Manitowoc letters on Donald Trump and book ban shirt at the library