I’m responding to Greg Knill’s article on “Lesson from the past not always learned,” Abbotsford News, Feb. 10.
I take issue with his remark that Donald Trump is “using his executive power to bar people from select countries from entering the U. S., based primarily on their religion.” Whatever anyone thinks of Donald Trump personally, the list of seven countries that people are temporarily being barred from is a list composed by the Obama Administration — as being harbingers of ISIL, al qaeda, and other terrorist organizations.
The ban isn’t against a specific religion; it’s a cautionary vehicle allowing time for proper vetting. In an era where terrorist attacks have happened in a number of countries, I believe President Trump’s ban is prudent. The ban is not permanent, and in my opinion, is a temporary discretionary measure which the President of the United States has the full right to use.
I understand anyone disagreeing with certain decisions that the leader of a country might make, but to compare this ban to the horrible atrocities of Auschwitz and Dachau is a little jaw-dropping.
My parents were refugees. They fled from Communist Russia in the 1940s to Germany. They had to make a strategic stop in Poland, allowing my mother to give birth to me. They spent several years in Germany — being labelled “Russians” and “Communists” (all of which they weren’t). When they decided to immigrate to Canada, it took more than two years to get all the proper papers. But, to my parents, Canada was the land of milk and honey; the promised land. They considered immigrating to North America a great privilege, and they never took it for granted.
President Trump is trying to be cautious and make sure that proper and timely vetting takes place. He’s concerned about the safety of the people residing in the U. S. Thus far, I haven’t heard of any work camps, crematoriums, or extermination camps being built in either the U.S. or Canada — and to compare President Trump to Adolf Hitler and his regime is chilling.
Lilli Kehler