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Don’t fall for fearmongering

Letter to the Editor

By Alice Reed, Iron Mountain 3 min read

Often labels are placed on people because there is a lack of knowledge about them.

Abdul El-Sayed is a person who has inherited such labels, just as other political candidates before him have. Barack Obama couldn't possibly be president, supposedly he was foreigner. That was the excuse in lieu of being overtly racist. We couldn't possibly have a woman president. Women are too weak and incapable of such leadership. How could we possibly have JFK be our president? He was Catholic (gasp!). He would be swearing allegiance to the pope, it was said. We could go on about various ethnic groups and religious groups and their difficulties gaining positions of importance in this country.

This is fearmongering. It starts with politicians and others in power who have something to gain by stirring up hatred of ethnic groups, religions, etc. The fearmongers find easy targets in people who haven't experienced various cultures. Abdul El-Sayed is just one of many people that this is happening to during this particular election. There are Native Americans, Asians, and others who are experiencing the same thing.

When visiting my daughter, who has lived in many countries including several years in Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist countries, what stands out is that people are more similar than different. There are some extremist countries and people but just because you're a Muslim does not mean you're an extremist any more than I am a member of the Mafia because my ancestors were from a country associated with that label. Not all Americans shoot children and teachers in schools, though we Americans have the distinction of leading the world by a landslide in that category.

Dr. El-Sayed, born to Egyptian parents, is an American citizen who was born and raised in Michigan. When his parents divorced and his mother left to go back to Egypt, he was raised by his father and his stepmother, whose last name was Johnson. Dr. El-Sayed holds degrees from the University of Michigan, The University of Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and Columbia University. He has written several books on public health. He has presented solutions for universal health coverage like most other industrial nations have. Obamacare was not perfect but it was working before this administration worked to diminish it.

If Dr. El-Sayed was so dangerous for our country, he would've been investigated by Trump's powerful Department of Justice. Nothing has been found because there's nothing to find.

Islam and Christianity are both Abrahamic religions that share the idea of one God and his son, Jesus. Both religions revere many of the same prophets and they teach moral accountability and a final day of judgment and life after death.

Don't be misled by fearmongering. Read about the candidate's platforms, listen to their speeches, and search for facts from reliable news outlets. Everyone has reasons for voting as they do, but please don't rely on fearmongering and propaganda.

Starting at /week.