What have we become?

Mohamed Ali Aboubaker Naser was snatched from his job by unidentified ICE agents without warrants. He entered the country with a legal work permit and is in the process of seeking asylum in the U.S. He is from Libya.

I have known Libya. In 1969, I arrived to teach in Libya just weeks before Moammar Gadhafi took power. I saw the chaos resulting from rule by whims of one man. Freedom of speech was gone. Dissent was punished harshly. People were “disappeared.” Police and military were free to stop or detain people without explanation. (It happened to me.) The country was controlled by fear of retaliation.

Every time I came home to the U.S. for vacation, I felt inexpressible relief. I was home, safe — in a country that respected human rights and dignity!

I can imagine

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