By Stephen Witt
“Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Being a Donald Trump hater has never made sense to me, and when I tell this to family and fellow Angelenos in the Democratic echo chamber, this statement is often misconstrued to mean I like Donald Trump.
This is not the case. As a nonpartisan individual running LACP, a nonpartisan digital media news site, it means we look at policies and issues through an ideas-over-ideology lens. Trump takes risks, particularly on international issues, and some we like. Others we think are wrong.
That said, as MLK day approaches, LACP would be remiss to not clearly state the view that the Trump Administration’s policy of putting masked Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in American cities is deplorable. Equally deplorable are Trump’s bringing in the National Guard until the courts stopped him, and his new threats to bring them back in under insurrection laws.
This policy is Un-American, and the American people have a Constitutional right to peaceful protest. Added to which, it creates fear in American citizens and immigrants alike, as well as confusion among local, state and federal enforcement agents in any given city that ICE floods.
As MLK Day approaches, it is worth noting how much the great and martyred Civil Rights leader believed in the American Dream. Thus, his words to “…judge a person by their character and not the color of their skin” are akin to the Declaration of Independence’s “…all men are created equal… and inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
These thoughts and words are aspirational in that we, as a country, must work to bring them closer to reality with every generation.
But MLK also stood for justice and said, “There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.”
LACP strongly condemns the Trump Administration’s current internal immigration policy. Armed and masked ICE agents flooding American cities sows fear and mistrust and promotes violence. This policy should stop.
