America: time to return to our values

America prides itself with being a Christian nation yet people have been jailed in this country for telling the truth and citizens threatened with imprisonment for showing compassion to needy migrants. We do not threaten an ambulance operator with jail term if they help a person who has suffered an injury and we do not drag a surgeon to court for performing open heart surgery on a mob boss. The reason is that we believe that treating everyone equally and preserving life is the right thing to do, regardless of whether we are dealing with an offender or not.

As such, the ill-treatment America now reserves for illegal migrants demonstrates perhaps a new, if not renewed, trend of double standards. To me, this disintegration in morals in America must be blamed in the upsurge in fascist tendencies. But what is crucial is to find out why Americans are allowing these fascists to have their way. Why are these fascists able to sell this lie of a very serious immigration problem in America whereas we know such issues are not unique to this country? To begin to find answers, we must look at the actions of Corporate America and its grip on the American political class.

Under Ronald Reagan, the courts and immigration officers relaxed protections on aliens at the work place. Then Corporate America resorted to abusing the same immigrants whose labor it sought and enjoyed. It went as far as demonizing these immigrants through the rough treatment it meted out on them under the Trump Administration. People just want to have a better life. That is why our own forefathers came to America. We cannot deny others, notably South Americans, the right to improve their lot as did our ancestors. It is, therefore, time to give praise where it is deserving and to call out wrong-doing.

America’s whistle-blowers and humanitarian activists are the true patriots for trying to preserve our nation. They are unlike the nationalists who beat up the refugee and oppress the minority and foreigners. Nationalists, in behaving in this way demonstrate a lot of cowardice. Their abusive behavior cannot be what America will now uphold as its standards. Americans cannot pride themselves with such behavior. It would only be the case if our preachers and politicians, who tend to be those who cry foul the most, have actually transformed us into lunatics, much the same as a cult master or a fascist leader would do.

The extent to which we have embraced these indecorous practices leads me to question if we can still turn around. I ask if we are too far gone into this negative change and if it is still possible to make a U-turn. It is my sincere hope that we can still return to those values that made us who we are. We stand as the example to follow and we do not need the rest of the world trailing this bad behavior of late. Corporate America has been going down this path since Reagan and we, as a nation, have been dragged along, notably since H. W. Bush.

I think that there were several aspects of our leadership since H. W. Bush that made our American exceptionalism look more like American Nationalism, not to say American extremism. Corporate America and the Church in America have battered the American citizenry to the point where our country has gone off the farm. Right now, our political and religious leaders are teaching wrong is right and right is wrong, in the process betraying our collective conscience. In the fray, the right wing has gained a lot of ground and there are still many who support Trump and his extreme tactics and ways.

However, I don’t think we have hit rock bottom just yet. It suffices that we break with this habit of looking for a country to attack for profits that would go to Corporate America and that we ensure that the worker or laborer is treated with respect for us to get back on the right track. The resetting of these values will go a long way to improve our approach towards migrants, both legal and illegal, so that America would again become the safe haven it was for those seeking to improve their lives and for persons in search of freedom.