Svaty clarifies position

Bob Laubengayer and I go back far enough that I love him like a son. But I strongly disagree with the position he took in his letter to the editor of 7-3.

Regarding Bob’s comments in the letter, I do not recall ever saying and I do not think Jerry ever said that people who are not here legally should not be deported. We just want it done legally. A government “enforcing the law” ignoring the constitution negates, nullifies and denies the existence of the law except in the mind of the enforcer. That is and was the concern raised by both of us in our letters. Calling our concerns “misguided” is basically saying that the ends justifies the means.

Bob said that Biden broke the windows. Both sides broke the windows. Bob said that 2.8 million came in under Biden. 2.4 million crossed over under the first Trump administration. The 10 million figure is the number who are here since the Reagan amnesty. Biden belatedly had a deal with the Republican congress in 2020 to add 30,000 additional border agents and 100 additional immigrations judges. Trump told the Republican congress to nix the plan after they had agreed to it and just like they are doing now, they obeyed.

Bob said that Trump is cleaning up the mess and repairing the windows. Denying due process hearings, spiriting away people to places unknown, denying members of congress access to detention centers, physically intimidating people who attempt to video the physical snatches or who attend immigration court hearings, claiming that we have no control over the people spirited away to the gulag in El Salvador when the president of El Salvador tells the UN that we have complete control of them, scooping up American citizens born here during the masked unidentified snatches and holding them for up to 24 hours without any consequences, grabbing a 70 year old man who has been here 60 years and having him die in custody, and not identifying who is being held in the gulag in El Salvador is not “cleaning up the mess”.

Bob said we had angst and vitriol. Angst is defined as deep anxiety or dread on an unfocused cause. I admit deep anxiety or dread but it is not unfocused. It is focused on a President who ignores the law on every level basically because of that Supreme Court decision that says he can do so without consequences and because the Republican controlled Congress will not challenge him because they are afraid. Our letters on immigration enforcement have focused on those violations. He ignores the law on the sale of his meme coin with people buying them saying out loud that they are doing so to buy influence with him. He accepts a plane from Qatar that we taxpayers will pay to refurbish and which he will take when he leaves office. He imposes tariffs without any authority to do so, including placing 50 per cent tariff on Brazil because they are punishing their past president for what Trump tried to do 1-6-2021. Speaking of that date, I am in deep anxiety and dread because he pardoned all of the people who physically tried to forcibly overturn the 2020 election and has now appointed one of them to a high office. And he has appointed numerous others to high office who verbally supported that action and who continue to say that it was justified. Vitriol is defined as cruel and caustic criticism. Telling the truth about what is happening is not cruel and caustic.

Trump has said he hates Democrats. He strikes back hard at people he dislikes or who disagree with him, including law firms, media companies, universities & individuals. He is now talking about deporting Elon Musk. He is still going after people he was mad at during his first administration. Almost every day there is somebody new that he attacks for disagreeing with him or disputing him on some fact. On July 1st while we were seated together at a family dinner at Orozco’s Bob turned to me and said that I needed to quit sending letters to the editor. I will not stop until the situation improves or until I am snatched and disappeared.

Thank you, Ron Svaty Ellsworth

Concerned about rights of people In my reply to Commander Laubengayer, I begin by saying that I have the greatest respect and highest regard for him. He served his country bravely and honorably for more than twenty years rising to the rank of a Naval Commander. We have been friends for a long time. He is right when he reports the “angst and vitriol” I feel towards Trump and his administration. He is wrong when he writes that “the current administration is enforcing the law” pertaining to immigrants.

The unlawful treatment of immigrants by the Trump administration needs to be acknowledged, failure to do so puts citizens of this country at grave risk. Trump will attack anyone that gets in his way, citizen or not. A fact made clear by Sen. Murkowski of Alaska in relating the fear congressional Republicans have when it comes to opposing Trump.

If members of Congress have reason to fear Trump, so do American citizens, the primary fear being the loss of their constitutional rights. The same rights the Trump administration denies immigrants. YES, immigrants have constitutional rights. The first ten amendments of the U.S. Constitution detail those rights, our Bill of Rights.

The Constitution confers those rights upon PERSONS under the jurisdiction of the United States, to include immigrants, lawful or otherwise, and citizens. The words citizen or citizens do not appear in the Bill of Rights. The words person or persons appear six times.

If the Trump administration can deprive immigrants (persons) of their rights, one can bet he will not stop at depriving citizens (persons) of their rights. How can he get by with it? Silence. That is what Trump counts on, the silence of the people.

There are many examples of Trump’s abuse of people’s rights. I will focus on one, Narciso Baranco, an undocumented migrant that has resided in the U.S. for decades and raised three sons. All three sons enlisted in the United States Marine Corps, two remain on active duty.

ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents wearing masks targeted their father. Out of fear of being attacked by a gang of masked men, he allegedly resisted. He was not resisting when three agents pinned him to the ground face down while one beat him repeatedly about the head and face.

They violated his lawful rights at Trump’s behest, not overtly mind you, but Trump has made it clear more than once how he likes to see those he targets treated. It did not matter that Mr. Baranco was mainly a law-abiding person having raised three sons to help defend the United States. All that mattered was Trump’s hateful campaign against undocumented aliens and anyone else that might get in the way.

If readers think such treatment will not befall them, ask U.S. Senator Alex Padilla about the treatment he received at the hands of Trump agents because he had the audacity to try asking DHS Secretary Kristi Noem a question at a press conference. Agents pushed him out of the room, forced him face down on the floor and handcuffed him. Had he remained silent the agents would have left him alone. If you remain silent, you too might be left alone, but your rights will be gone.

“A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.” (Third to last paragraph of the Declaration of Independence.) The principle applies to Presidents as well.

Thomas Paine, Common Sense, 1776: “In America the law is king.” Not in Trump’s America. Not if the people remain silent.

Jerry Marsh Ellsworth

Democracy is messy

On July 2,1976, the Continental Congress voted for Independence and two days later the signatories released the Declaration of Independence for publication across the colonies. We “The People” have been fighting politically and physically ever since. As we celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States over the next year, it is worth remembering democracy is messy. It may seem we live in divided political times, but we have been here before, and it is really nothing new. We will survive and thrive despite all our faults and divisions because of our founding documents.

Years ago, I was in Newfoundland conducting a military exercise and visiting with my Canadian counterpart. His family fled Boston for Canada because they supported the British during the Revolutionary War. Torreys-loyalists were 15-20 percent of the colonial population and supported the British. Rebels targeted loyalists with mob violence and executions. We started fighting each other from the start.

Thomas Jefferson and John Adams teamed up pushing the votes for independence, Articles of Confederation and the Constitution. For 10 years they collaborated closely with each other to politically support the Continental Army. They became bitter political enemies with Jefferson advocating for states’ rights and Adams supporting a strong Central Government. They carried their political battle out in the biased press, running to publications that supported their positions. Wow, times have changed.

Andrew Jackson (President) and John C. Calhoun (Vice President) continued the friction of Adams and Jefferson over the power of the Federal Government. The “Nullification Crisis” was over whether states could declare federal laws unconstitutional and unenforceable within their borders. Calhoun supported nullification and Jackson opposed it. Imagine states not supporting and enforcing federal law. Wow, times have changed.

The Civil War ended the conflict between those advocating for a strong federal government and those supporting state’s rights. To keep slaves was the “State Right” that started the conflagration. Kansas was central to the conflict as illustrated by our state capitol’s giant mural of the Nation’s first true domestic terrorist, John Brown.

In 1932 General MacArthur, accompanied by Majors Dwight D. Eisenhower and George Patton, led troops down Pennsylvania Avenue with fixed bayonets, cavalry with sabers drawn, tanks and tear gas to disperse the Bonus Army Protests camped in Washington, D.C. The Bonus Army was a Veterans group demanding pay, which Congress promised WWI veterans over time; however, the Bonus Army wanted paid immediately. Federal Troops protecting Federal property. Wow, times have changed.

Charles Lindbergh, who received national fame by flying solo across the Atlantic in 1927, became the head of the American First Committee in 1941. In a speech he blamed the British, the Jewish and Roosevelt Administration for pushing the U.S. toward war, claiming the Jewish influence in the media and government was a danger. Wow, times have changed.

The 1960s saw the rise of the violent left. The Weather Underground was one such group and believed in a violent revolution to overthrow U.S. imperialism, racism and capitalism. They rioted in Chicago resulting in 28 injured police officers and they continued to attack police and government to include bombings. Wow, times have changed.

Mark Twain stated, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” Our nation has survived revolution, civil war, two world wars, financial and political crises. The country survives because individuals are free to pursue their dreams. Despite centuries of division and strife, the enduring strength of our nation lies in the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, which continue to unite us as we navigate the challenges of today and tomorrow.

Bob Laubengayer Ellsworth