Basis for our nation is under attack

I have lived in this country for 82 years now, and I have always believed in the values of the United States, even during the times when we, as a nation, have not been following them very well.

We are a nation based on diversity, with the motto on our Great Seal of E pluribus unum (out of many, one). Engraved on the base of our Statue of Liberty are Emma Lazarus’s famous words, “Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breath free.” But now we are deporting immigrants, at least some of whom, perhaps many, are here legally, refusing refugees, and making it very difficult to apply for asylum as promised by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

We are sending some refugees and immigrants away, not to their country of origin but to third countries to be imprisoned without any due process, which is promised to all in this country, citizens or not. We are requiring businesses and universities get rid of their attempts at creating diversity in workplaces and places of learning. So much for the diversity that has created this nation that I have been so proud of.

Then we have equity — Equality, justice, and fairness are all aspects of equity, enshrined in our Pledge of Allegiance’s ending words: “with liberty and justice for all.” Masked agents are arresting people who are here legally with no warning for expressing opinions the administration does not agree with. We are getting rid of both liberty and justice and destroying not only the lives of many people but also institutions and the reputation of the United States in the world as a reliable and caring ally.

Finally, we seem to be eliminating inclusion, which must mean that we want exclusion. Whom do we want to exclude? Examine the list of people who have lost their major government jobs. It seems our government Is often trying to exclude those whose race, ethnicity, or religion is something other than white, conservative, Christian, preferably male.

Among the list of words banned for use in government documents are the word “women” and the words “female person.” Are we women to be basically eliminated from society? Diversity and inclusion are two sides of the “same coin,” two pillars of our society. When we get rid of DEI, we get rid of most of what our nation has been built on and has stood for, both at home and around the world. Everyone who lives here who isn’t a Native American is either an immigrant or descended from an immigrant.

Eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and offices has furthered the systemic racism we are not supposed to talk about. Early on, this racism was based on slavery and through the relocation and the decimation of Native tribes but has continued on through Jim Crow and, more recently, on through Trump trying to get the death penalty for the Central Park Five and even more recently to claim that President Barack Obama was not a U.S. citizen.

From this history continuing into the present, I feel all the rest has come, all the cruelty toward immigrants and refugees, veterans, Black people, Indian nations, women, disabled people, children and all who are on Medicaid, etc., etc., etc. Many dangerous executive orders have been issued, but it seems to me that the order excoriating diversity, equity, and inclusion is the underpinning of all the rest. As we blindly follow these executive orders that attack the basis of our nation, we start down the path toward the destruction of our democracy.

Caryl Lyons lives in North Liberty.