It amazes me that someone can complain about fuel assistance to “refugees” and close out their letter asking how “cruel and unfair can human beings be to other human beings?” [“Fuel assistance for who?” Recorder, Jan. 21]. Does the writer not see the irony in that phrase? Does the writer look on “refugees” as less than human beings? This is so in line with the far right in this country to dehumanize and stir hatred against people seeking safety and survival.

Our foreign policy, our national consumption of drugs, our idolization with guns, and the devastation we as a country have done to the environment are all reasons people are forced leave their homes and families. A large portion of our population are the descendants of the people who left dire situations in their country of birth to seek a better life. What would the writer do if they were born in Haiti, Central America and many other places if their livelihood, safety and their children’s lives were in peril? Have we forgotten what compassion is and are own history?

Robert Fairchild

Royalston