Protect citizens first

John M. Crisp’s op-ed in the Jan. 8 Spokesman-Review wherein he states “calls by the candidates for the Republican presidential nomination to ban or severely limit immigration by Muslim refugees are probably counterproductive and maybe even un-American” are no more counterproductive or un-American than was the FDR (democratic) decision of the U.S. government to imprison Japanese Americans in early 1942.

Retrospectively, looking at the merits of the decision to so punish Japanese Americans after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, today that decision seems brutal and arbitrary. In 1942, not so. Yet, and appropriately so, as time went by, that decision was reversed.

Until the U.S. can determine what is the lowest common denominator (causative factor) associated with the terrorist attacks and focus on that factor, the U.S. government has the responsibility to protect its citizens first and foremost, just as FDR did post-Pearl Harbor.

Gordon Spunich

Spokane Valley