True heroes support equality

There is an association between Sue Lani Madsen’s opinion piece railing against Muslims, Roy Moore’s primary win in Alabama, the ascendancy of Steve Bannon, the abysmal response of Donald Trump to the Puerto Rican crisis, the re-elections of our do-nothing Rep. McMorris Rodgers, and the rise of the alt-right, which has to do with their common vision of what America is and what it represents.

To them, America represents an extension of Northern Europe - a nation of white Christians, a place where people with easy English names create everything and do the hard work, a place where one need only pay lip service to the proposition that all men are created equal in rights.

The fact that Russian internet trolls whose real names are unpronounceable by English speakers fan the flames of this ethnocentric worldview on Twitter and Facebook is ironic, but it’s an irony lost on these public figures and their supporters. The America we should be celebrating in patriotic ceremonies is the America of ideals – ideals of equality we haven’t yet achieved, but which are stated in our founding documents. Those who strive to make our country live up to these ideals are our true heroes.

Greg Presley

Spokane