Letter to the Editor: The Golden Rule and politics

The fundraiser held for Hazel Goton on Saturday, April 18 is an excellent example of neighbors helping their fellow neighbors. Two hundred guests donated over $26,000 to help the Goton family through their continuing ordeal. Folks living by the Golden Rule, people “loving their neighbor as themselves.” This is the foundation of Christian faith and a practice that is experienced time and time again in this community. A fund has been set up at Big Horn Fed under Hazel’s name for additional donations.

Meanwhile, there has been a lot of discussion in the news lately regarding different interpretations of Christian beliefs including justification for war. Many of the politicians justifying war also claim to be devout Christians, however, their actions do not seem to be based on the Golden Rule. Ralph Waldo Emerson once stated, “What you do speaks so loudly I cannot hear what you say.”

If members of the current administration believed and lived by Christian values, would they have gutted funding for USAID?  They could have continued funding existing programs to help our neighbors around the world and farmers here at home, while methodically investigating possible “waste, fraud and abuse,” improving upon existing assistance. USAID was a major purchaser of wheat, soy beans and sorghum, buying $2 billion annually from US farmers for international aid before cuts were made.

Another example: Data from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse and the Cato Institute reports 65% to 71% of immigrants in ICE detention have no criminal convictions.  Among those with criminal records 53% were for minor offenses like traffic violations or illegal entry/reentry rather than violent crimes. Since the majority of immigrants are not criminals, how about adding new job titles (and the requisite training) for a portion of ICE agents from being aggressive, masked policemen detaining innocent people to becoming Public Assistance Personnel, assisting existing immigrants within this country to a reasonable and agreed upon path to citizenship. This could help millions of people to become or continue to be productive citizens of these great United States.  I understand this is an extreme idea, however, it is based on human decency.

These are just a couple of examples of how the government could be helping our neighbors if the Golden Rule ever entered into the policy making discussion. 1 John 4:20 states, “If anyone says ‘I love God’ and hates his brother, he is a liar. For how can anyone who does not love his brother, whom he hath seen, love God whom he has not seen?”

Tom Laidlaw

Greybull