For many of us, there is much in the Trump agenda to fear and protest. As a longtime oncology social worker, the wife of an oncologist, and a two-time cancer survivor, I am especially concerned about the possible repeal of the Affordable Care Act without a replacement that guarantees health care to all Americans. Cancer patients are especially scared and vulnerable.

However, I am moved to write today about the executive orders that limit immigration to the United States and move us closer to an absolute ban on particular groups of people. Our country was founded on the opposite position; we have always welcomed and valued newcomers to America. Without hundreds of years of important and successful immigration, we would remain an impoverished nation.

The president’s actions are probably illegal and certainly un-American in the extreme. This mean-spirited, xenophobic, and dangerous behavior must be checked.

Join me in the swelling movement to maintain our longstanding values and honor the Statue of Liberty, which speaks for goodness and mercy: “Give me your tired, your poor/Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,/The wretched refuse of your teeming shore./Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,/I lift my lamp beside the golden door!’’

Hester Hill Schnipper

Concord