Letter: Massive deportations start with propaganda

As people, we have the propensity to be manipulated by strong outside forces. The forces I refer to can be based in reality or fanciful distortions of realty. The distortions can be accurately described, in many cases, as propaganda.

Propaganda has been used as an effective tool for managing the collective minds of large segments of societies. Evil propaganda works and has worked in such places as Nazi Germany and Bosnia, to name just a couple examples. There, and elsewhere around the world, propaganda has made ethnic cleansing a political act with strong citizen support. Unfortunately, it often leads to out and out genocide.

With that preamble, I refer to the deportation of 11 million immigrants from south of our border. Some people in the political arena want to form a deportation force to expel the multitude. Welcome to the American form of ethnic cleansing. To accept this action, you have to buy into the propaganda that preceded it; you have been manipulated by lies, distorted facts and xenophobia.

I don't expect that my words will change many minds, but I do believe our citizens are capable of caring and acting humanely in the face of immigration challenges.

Major Short

Hilton Head Island

This story was originally published November 27, 2015 at 6:49 PM with the headline "Letter: Massive deportations start with propaganda."