We Have Placed Fellow Human Beings Below Dogs

When I was a teenager growing up Germany, we had a subscription to a magazine whose title I no longer remember. But I do remember one issue in particular, it was an issue on American white supremacy. Germans like to understand their own history through many different lenses, so an issue like this would not have been out of the ordinary.

This particular issue contained an interview with an unnamed white supremacist. The interviewer asked him if this professed white supremacist would stop to help a black man on the road who had been hit by a car. Sure, the white supremacist said, just like he would help a dog.

That answer stuck with me for years.

Now, during this health care reform debate, which has been about everything else but really health care reform, another issue has come up--that of illegal immigration. The congressmen and women and senators are being asked again and again if illegal immigrants would also receive health care. Some of these people are even saying unimaginable things like, "they should all be sent back with bullet holes in their heads." Under no circumstances should illegal immigrants receive health care. No visits to ER, no visits with doctors. Send them straight to their home country without any medical attention. Can my fellow Americans really be saying these things?

Alas, some Americans have placed fellow human beings below dogs. That is very, very sad.