During the debate on Sept. 10, dangerous words were spoken by former president Donald Trump.
“They’re eating the dogs,” he exclaimed.
One might ask who is eating the dogs, and Donald Trump would tell you it’s Haitian migrants. It is disappointing and sickening, but not surprising. These words, baseless as they are, resulted in attacks and bomb threats that began to plague Springfield, Ohio. The city manager himself has pleaded for both the former president and his running mate, J.D. Vance, to halt the continuous lies about the town’s goings-on.
Springfield, Ohio, is in danger, but not because of immigrants.
The Haitian migrants that have moved to Springfield are here legally under the eyes of the United States government. These migrants, most of them overqualified to be here, are left working entry-level jobs to get by, fulfilling a necessary role in the local economy. These migrants are hard-working, tax-paying citizens.
They deserve better.
Vance cannot help but make a mountain out of a molehill to advance his political career. Rather than help with the power he holds as a senator, he would make a mockery of the town and its people, throwing them to the wayside to win an election
In a CNN interview, he continued to say that it was his constituents who kept bringing up the issue. One such example is an old lady who lost her cat. She erroneously assumed her Haitian neighbors ate the cat when it had simply been in the basement all along. She apologized to her neighbors.
The police in Springfield are also no help. Rather than fund the DMV or set up a way to help Haitian migrants better learn to drive, they are adding State Patrol resources to local law enforcement to aid in the increase of “dangerous driving.”
Vance, in that same interview, told CNN’s Dana Bash that he created the story and would do so again if it meant he could help his constituents, which, again, he has the capacity to do.
His words have power, and yet he’s wasting them perpetuating lies that ultimately harm the people he is claiming to help.
As a result of these lies, multiple bomb threats have been sent around the town, including some schools. Thankfully, none of them resulted in actual bombs. The Proud Boys were marching on the street, chanting for the migrants to leave.
Springfield is now in more danger than ever before, and it isn’t because of the Haitian migrants. It has, and always will be, a result of the hateful rhetoric that Trump and Vance cling so desperately to.
They have the power to stop at any moment, but they won’t.
