Immigrants need help, not hate
Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids that remove immigrants in America are affecting many homes. ICE raids aren’t targeted only at law-breaking immigrants but also target those who live by the law since entering illegally. If all immigrants are planned to be removed from the country then financial problems and a lack of employees would spread across the country.
ICE raids are inhumane ways of coping with immigrants. Imagine a SWAT team entering your house, treating you like a criminal, and taking you away from your job, friends, family, and life in general. In addition, many immigrants who arrive in the U.S. are fleeing from countries that lack the ability to give their people safety and rights. Sending immigrants back would be condemning them to countries where simple rights we take for granted are not a given.
We would lose billions of dollars that immigrants pay in taxes that go to fixing our roads and funding public schools. Many minimum wage jobs that Americans are unwilling to take would be vacant as well. Instead of seeing immigrants as rats who have infested the country we should see them as refugees in search of help.
America should focus its money and work in supporting nations that can’t stand by themselves. Financial aid given to El Salvador cut immigration rate from the country by 50% from the 72,000 in 2016. If other unfortunate nations could receive funds from us than citizens wouldn’t have reason to immigrate to America. The U.S certainly has the money to help and cutting off plans for The Wall and further ICE raids would save money as well. We can protest and fundraise to bring awareness to the nations that lack these resources to self-suffice. Immigrants need our help not our hatred.
Diego Caballero
Honokaa
Nothing was better back then
I heard a family member say about a family member protesting on the mountain, “If he were born 200 years ago, he would be happy.”
Another family member replied, “He would still be miserable and unable to support his family.”
Many years ago, a history teacher showed our class, by history, the only three ways all of humanity is related: Everyone has a relative who was a slave, slave owner, or head-hunter.
Everyone in America today cannot starve to death or die of thirst unless on purpose unless they are so stupid as to not be claimed as a family member.
One is safer today from dying of various diseases than 200 years ago and the life expectancy is also far superior today compared to 200 years ago. Every aspect of life, and freedom of choice in all areas are far superior under republican rule than a king’s rule.
So, the people atop the mountain have no grip on the reality of the here and now or appreciate self-responsibility or gratitude.
William Tucker
Ocean View
Heed what elders are telling us
Last week I had an assignment to teach a science class to the sixth-grade students at Kealakehe Intermediate School. We read the article, “Hawaiian Elders Protesting Telescope Construction Are Arrested” by Mihir Zaveri from the New York Times.
The article mentions that for the Hawaiian elders, “This mountain is sacred.” I asked the students, why is Maunakea sacred? A 13-year-old Hawaiian student raised his hand and answered, “Because this is the place where our elders speak with the ancestors.”
According to current scientific theories, there are two kinds of particles that constitute the phenomenal world, one is material, the other is anti-material. The material particle is constantly changing and perishable while the anti-material particle is the opposite.
If scientists are going to build a TMT to study the physical stars made of material particles then the University of Hawaii should also build an institute and library to study the properties of the anti-material particles, which are the fundamental reality of all living beings as the Hawaiian elders are trying to tell us.
Manuel Roberto
Kailua-Kona