Build bridges, not walls, to people fleeing desperation

Mr. Donald Trump's idea to prevent all Muslims from entering the U.S. sounds like he thinks that fear drives the American voter and he is taking that opportunity to advance himself. I say we should act out of moral courage and do whatever we can to help desperate people, just as we hope they would help us if we were desperate.

If people are hostile to us, we may find that is because our foreign policy tries to dominate them, and many people do not want to be dominated. They want to exercise their self-determination in ways that do not threaten us.

But if our government demands that a country install our forms of economic, political, or military systems, then we can expect hostility. There's the common sense that Mr. Trump says he is seeking.

In one of my earlier letters, I advocated admitting refugees from Syria. A responder expressed the opinion that we shouldn't do that because we don't know these people; even though our government says they vet them, we can't trust our government.

But if we can't, how can we trust it to follow our orders to keep them out?

Our goal should not be to build walls. I believe that we should build bridges, not walls, and seek to understand why the situation is the way it is. Once we understand it, we can fix it. Fear prevents that.

John Steinmeyer

Bradenton

This story was originally published December 12, 2015 at 12:00 AM with the headline "Build bridges, not walls, to people fleeing desperation ."