Humans should never be called ‘garbage’

During a recent Cabinet meeting, US President Donald Trump went on a rant, labeling Congresswoman Ilhan Omar and other immigrants from Somalia as “garbage.”

- Melvin Durai

“We could go one way or the other, and we're going to go the wrong way if we keep taking in garbage into our country,” Trump said. “She’s garbage. Her friends are garbage. These aren’t people who work. These aren’t people who say, ‘Let’s go, come on, let’s make this place great.”

As someone who occasionally has to handle garbage, wheeling our garbage bin from our home to the street once a week, his words concerned me. What if he calls people from India “garbage” one day? Would I have to wheel myself to the street? Perhaps my wife and I would wheel each other to the street.

Me: “You first.”

She: “No, you first.”

Me: “I insist.”

She: “I resist.”

I was concerned enough about Trump’s words that I decided to randomly dial members of the 260,000-strong Somali community in America to find out how they are coping. The only person who didn’t hang up on me was a 32-year-old nurse.

Nurse: “Whatever you are selling, I don’t want it. I have enough insurance, enough credit cards, and enough romance.”