Guantanamo conditions neglected
4/23/2013The Blade neglected to tell the whole story in the April 14 article “Guards, prisoners clash at Guantanamo; Protest flares amid inmate hunger strike.”
Of the 166 men held at the prison at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, at least 43 are classified as hunger strikers. They are protesting their indefinite confinement and a prison fraught with worsening conditions, ethnic and religious humiliations, and near torturous treatment.
These prisoners have no hope and are controlling the only thing they have access to: feeding themselves. They would rather die than continue living in this inhumane situation. Yet many are now being strapped down and force-fed through tubes in their nose.
The mainstream media needs to bring this to light so the American public can put on the pressure to close Guantanamo now, as President Obama promised to do during his first year in office.
KAREN WOLF
Middleton Township
Immigrants are not above the law
Your article on deportation opened up with a tug of the heart (“Deportation breaks apart families in Ohio, across nation; Immigration reform may come too late for 200,000 separated in 2-year period,” April 14). But what kept jumping out at me as I read were the key words: illegal immigrants.
That is what this issue is about. These people are here illegally. It is neither you nor I breaking up these families, but the individuals who choose to come to our country illegally.
There is a path to citizenship. The many people who follow the laws of this country are cheated by those who come here illegally.
Do we want people who feel they are above the law in our country? I think not. If they feel they can ignore this law, what other laws will they disregard? Nobody, including immigrants, are above the law, no matter how sad the situation is.
JEFFREY CLARK
Grand Rapids, Ohio
Nation wrong to welcome illegals
The United States is our home; illegal aliens have moved in (“Immigration concensus,” editorial, April 6). Are we are to welcome and support them with benefits and rights at our expense?
If some stranger broke into your home, that would be illegal. What if that stranger would live there, eat your food, share your possessions, and maybe take your job? Would you find these acts offensive and illegal and want that stranger out? What if that stranger brought friends and relatives?
Our government thinks we are in the wrong if we don’t go along with the illegal acts committed against us. Something is wrong with this picture.
JIM KRUMM
Springfield Township
Those on Medicare need attention
It seems to me President Obama is more concerned about illegal aliens than people on Medicare (“The system works (or not),” editorial, April 18).
I have been on disability since 2002, when a car accident left me with fibromyalgia. I went without a raise, including no cost-of-living increases, for three years. The cost of my health insurance has gone up, and my insurer is refusing to pay for three drugs I have been on for several years.
President Obama needs to look to those of us who are here legally rather than worry about who he can give my medical benefits to for free.
DIANA HERMAN
Whitehouse