(not sure if this already posted, so doing it again)

Since when has it been an American value to treat others in an inhumane fashion? Since when is it necessary to bring out the guns and scare a little child in order to take a peaceful woman into custody? This smells of rank fear to me.

Our laws are unjust and must be changed. The whole meaning of justice is that it is equal to all parties, that everyone should have equal justice under the law. If it is ok for our government to hold and detain migrants in unsafe and dangerous conditions (lack of medicine leading to people dying, separating families), then that is not justice. It is not justice to pull a gun on a woman because she is protesting those laws. It is not justice to allow companies to lure migrants here to the US, betray their promises of wages and working conditions, and then go off scott free when the migrants leave that job and are arrested elsewhere and deported.

Just as in the Iraq War, the folks in leadership positions both in our government and in the press, are exploiting fear and distrust to help continue these injustices. That is not what this country should ever be about.

Good for Elvira Arellano. Ironically, she is more an example of the ideal of an American, one I would trust and respect, than my own government and society here in the US. Sad that we should have to once again relearn the lessons that led to the writing of our own Constitution -- equality under the law. That's not something that national borders should have anything to do with.

i think this is the first time i've seen the comment, Nightprowlkitty, and i'm glad you went to the trouble to leave it (again). you said so many good things here i really dont want to touch it or add anything. es la verdad.

Since when has it been an American value to treat others in an inhumane fashion?

Reading such works as David Stannard's American Holocaust, Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, and Edwin Black's War Against the Weak: Eugenics and America's Campaign to Create a Master Race and I'd suggest that it's been an American value to treat others inhumanely from the beginning.

James, I won't disagree it's been an American reality, but if you look at the arc of rights won since the inception of the United States, I think the values of America have always reached for justice -- whether it be freedom from slavery, a woman's right to vote, the right of workers to form unions, the right to sit anywhere you want on a bus. All those rights, and many more are, to me, American values. The right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, American values.

Now in each of those struggles yes, there have been folks in power who would do anything to deny others their rights in fear of losing their own. The greed and fear that promotes these kinds of hateful acts and injustices have been around since the beginning of human history, and America is certainly no exception.

Today we see that greed and fear ascendant and it is a horrible thing to witness. But American values, at least the ones I believe in, are towards liberty and justice, not greed and fear. America is now being run by a group of downright criminals, criminals who have allowed greedy corporations to run amok and have torn down so many of the rights that Americans fought and died to gain.

So no, I don't think treating others in an inhumane fashion is an American value. But yes, that is what this country is doing, and it is a crime.