Mara Faulkner, OSB, St. Joseph
Ron Scarbro’s May 6 opinion piece, “Pest control includes BS, HYPE and DONALD’S,” makes the kind of argument racist leaders and regimes often make to stir up hatred against whole groups of people. The Nazis roused hatred against the Jews by calling them rats; more recently, the Hutus in Rwanda called the Tutsis cockroaches who needed to be exterminated. Scarbro is doing exactly the same thing in saying immigrants to the United States are “pests and vermin,” “critters,” “another species” that should go back to the mountains and trees “as nature intended.” If we don’t get rid of them, he says, they will gnaw at the foundation of our country and bring it crashing down. If the foundation of our country is racism, hatred and greed, he may be right. But like most people, I believe the foundation is respect for all people, generosity and a desire to share our freedoms and blessings with others. That’s the foundation Scarbro’s proposals, borrowed wholesale from Donald Trump and put forth without a shred of evidence, will surely damage.
Scarbro has the right, guaranteed by this country he claims to love, to hold and express this view, despicable as it is. But the Newsleader has no obligation to print his views and spread them abroad. We certainly need reasoned, vigorous political debate to counter the lows this presidential campaign has already reached. But this article is not reasoned debate; nor is it funny. It’s racist, anti-immigrant propaganda. I’m very disappointed the editorial staff of the Newsleader chose to publish it.