Trump’s Wall – A Trumped-up call

May 23, 2019 Letters

---

DEAR EDITOR,

Growing evidence shows that the real threat lies within the wall not outside the wall.
The Democratic leadership and its various committees totally blinded and blindsided by a strong dislike of President Trump, his pugnacity, his banality, along with an ongoing quest to bring about his downfall, are failing to see the multiplicity of problems that America and her citizens are facing.
Regrettably, Robert Mueller’s report did not produce the ammunition that they had hoped for. The U.S.-Mexico border wall is a distraction and the reasons proffered for its erection are both unfounded and factitious. Evidence exists that undocumented immigrants commit crime at lower rates than American-born citizens, and additionally are a crucial part of the labour force.
To support his call for the wall, President Trump has been telling exaggerated and uncorroborated stories about women being exploited by traffickers on the border. Such a statement rings familiar, as he also campaigned on pumped-up stories about Mexico being guilty of sending rapists to the U.S. Concerned as he may be for the safety and well-being of Americans, he has yet to see that the threats are not outside the wall, but coming instead from inside the wall.
President Trump remained silent regarding Juan David Ortiz, a U.S. Border patrol agent who confessed to shooting four women in the head, one of them transgender, and leaving their bodies on rural Texas roadsides. The incidents took place in September 2018, and authorities have said the victims were sex workers whom Ortiz knew and targeted for their vulnerability.
During the 35-day partial shutdown from December 22, 2018 – January 25, 2019, and President Trump’s hostage–taking tantrum tactics to get his border wall built, native-born white male Americans, not Muslims, nor immigrants, proved once again to be the major fount of violence and hate in America.
January 19, 2019, three white men and a 16-year-old were arrested in upstate New York in an alleged plot to kill Muslims in nearby Islamberg. They had in their possession 23 guns, and makeshift bombs packed with nails and black powder. All four of the males were members of the Boy Scouts of America, and one had even invited the President to his Eagle Scout ceremony in 2017.
On the very same day as the aforementioned incident, Christopher Cleary, a 27-year-old white male from Colorado, was arrested in Provo, Utah, after making credible threats to indiscriminately kill women. According to one report, Cleary had written a long Facebook tirade about being a virgin and wanting to become “the next mass shooter”. He was already on probation for stalking and threats of domestic violence.
January 24, 2019, Zephen Xavier, 21, a former prison guard trainee who had recently moved from Indiana to Florida, killed five women during a standoff at a small bank. A woman, whom he had dated, said that he was always preoccupied with death. He eventually surrendered to the SWAT Team that had surrounded the building.
Another 21-year -old, young white male, Dakota Theriot, went on a killing spree, starting with the 20-year-old woman he was dating, her 17-year-old brother and her grandfather. He further went on to kill his parents, then fleeing to Virginia in his father’s truck, where he was captured at the home of his grandmother. According to reports, his grandmother had fled to a motel out of fear of her grandson.
USA Today reports state that James Jackson, a self-avowed racist and a white supremacist pleaded guilty in January 2019 of killing a homeless black man, 66-year-old Timothy Caughman, with a sword, as part of a racist plot. He regarded the fatal stabbing as practice for a larger attack, and part of his plan to stop interracial relationships, and express his hatred for black people. The accused told police that he had travelled from Baltimore to New York to carry out the attack, because New York was the media capital of the world.
Plainly put, or factually stated, the border wall is a grave distraction. More importantly it distracts Americans from things that actually kill a lot of people, including gun violence, car accidents, disasters, poor air quality, lack of access to medical care, and domestic violence. These are the walls that would make America safer — around the NRA and those who want the proliferation of guns, around racists and anti-Semites, homophobes, misogynists, and the entitlement that lies behind the delusion that anyone has the right to take the life of another human.
In the meantime, we should all remember what is and is not a threat to real lives. Above all, to remember that the real serious threat to America is coming from inside Trump’s wall. If Democrats want to defeat Donald Trump at the ballot box in 2020, then all Americans should know the reasons underlying a continued call for the non-building of the wall. Let the truth be known that the sin is within.
Yvonne Sam

---

---