Concord Monitor
Sunday, August 14, 2016
Donald J. Trump is a hate monger and he’s proven that once again during his recent appearance in Portland, Maine. Without any evidence whatsoever, Trump vilified and denigrated Maine’s Somali residents as being criminals and Fifth Columnists who are likely to become terrorist recruits for the Islamic State.
As the editorial board of the Portland Press Herald wrote, Trump maliciously “attacked innocent people who have never done him any harm” in order “to boost his standing by dividing the rest of us.”
Trump is unconscionably spreading fear and incitement while attempting to intimidate decent hard-working people of Somali heritage who’ve lived peacefully in this country for decades.
Now is the time, before it’s too late, for people to come together and unequivocally condemn not only Trump’s irrational, reckless and irresponsible behavior, but to repudiate him as an unfit candidate for the presidency whose toxic nativist divisiveness has only just begun ripping apart the fabric of our nation.
The Somali Community Center of Maine, responding to Trump’s incendiary remarks, stated that, “It is damaging to the psyche of our youth to hear a major party presidential nominee insult our culture and religion.”
They rightly denounced Trump’s name-calling, scapegoating and the lies perpetrated by his campaign and we must resolutely stand with them against the darkness threatening everyone.
John S. Hancock
Concord