To the Editor:

Based on available evidence, how would we describe the American population? The answer would seem to be that we are a self-centered, angry, and very fearful people who have no respect for truth or facts. Let’s take these descriptions in order.

A large number of us are concerned primarily with our own possessions. We don’t want to pay taxes lest some pennies might be used to benefit those whom we deem unworthy. That would include those people who need healthcare but cannot afford the high premiums charged by insurance companies. We also definitely would not want any funding for those we think should fend for themselves, such as single mothers and anyone we feel should be able to work any menial job even if that job does not pay a living wage.

On the other hand, we feel angry because we don’t think that we have gotten our due as part of the Great American Dream. This was a large component of the folks who voted for Trump. He promised to get the angry people, who felt left out, their fair share of wealth. The anger is that others are getting advantages not available for those of us who feel left out.

Most of all, we are a fearful people. We fear anyone who looks different or who has a religion we don’t understand. For white folks, this would be anyone who is brown to black in skin color. Anyone who does not speak English as a native speaker is suspected of not belonging in the United States. Most of all, we don’t want anyone from a s_ _ _ _hole country to get any where near our borders.

That brings us to the fact that we will do anything to keep people from crossing our borders. We will allow, if not support, implementing all kinds of inhuman policies to discourage anyone from coming close to our borders. We will tear nursing babies from their mother’s arms and put kids into concentration camps apart from their parents and siblings of the opposite sex. We will make people afraid to ask for asylum or even consider seeking citizenship in this country. We will justify this with quotes from the Bible so that our Christian consciences will not be bothered.

To do all this, we need to suspend our reliance on truth and facts. We have started to do this by electing a president who lies on a daily basis and has installed the most corrupt administration in history. We will tolerate any and all immoral and illegal behavior so long as it protects us form the “others.” We can deny that our actions are influencing the climate or that all people are really created equal. Obviously brown and black people are not equal to white ones.

You might claim that “this is not who we are.” It may not be who we were, but the sad truth is that this is indeed who we have become. Even if some individuals differ from this description, they are allowing those who do fit the description to continue to act in accordance with the aforementioned descriptions. Other nations and history will judge us as a people.

Norman Hoffmann 

Waynesville