What are we permitting ourselves to become? We are developing into a nation of sanctimonious chauvinists that routinely separates parents from their children in the name of complete and proper submission to the rule of law.

My children are adults today, but, when they were young, I kind of liked them in that I cherished every moment I spent with them. Now, my country imprisons children whose only offense was being born to parents who sought a better life for their families, not, as we are led to believe by our misguided pontificating patriots, to rape and pillage and to subvert our glorious culture. Get real.

This is more than a minor lesson-teaching inconvenience to which we are subjecting these hopeful, starry-eyed American-wannabes who seem to cherish so what our land has to offer, as I do, although that is how our leaders present it. After all, we are informed, rule of law trumps basic human decency. Yes, Trump is a versatile component to the English language that can be employed as much more than a simple insult.

William Henry Seward, Lincoln's future secretary of state who later purchased Alaska from the willing czar, addressed the issues of slavery and the absolute supremacy of law in a speech in the Senate prior to the Civil War. When informed of the constitutional imprimatur for slavery, he wisely and justly said there is "a higher law," and for Americans to realize this is so much more than a mere pedestrian quest for enlightenment. It is a moral imperative to which I, and I feel every truly patriotic American, must subscribe.

Raymond Bertrand

Halfmoon