One of my colleagues just spent a week of her vacation working to raise money for a program that's going to help a lot of people. As she's done for as long as I've known her, she selflessly dedicates inordinate amounts of her time to saving lives and making the world a better place while getting nothing in return.

But if Donald Trump becomes president and gets his way, she would not be permitted to enter this country when her work requires it because she's Muslim. She's done more for the people of this planet than just about everybody you know, but that ultimately means nothing because she's not "the right faith." She has made personal sacrifices on behalf of legions of people and never once asked what God those people pray to. She tirelessly advocates for those in need and it doesn't even enter her head to find out their religion. She is one of the most generous people I know, yet her efforts go largely unnoticed... even by the people who benefit from her efforts. She's a better human being than I am. Odds are she's a better human being than you are. But her faith dictates otherwise to people whose agenda it is to make you fear and hate her.

It's at times like this that I am horrified at what this country has become. The very foundation of our religious liberty is being systematically eroded, and too many of our citizens are entirely too comfortable with it. Muslims are citizens of this country just as they are citizens of this planet. To judge them in their entirety as a people based on the actions of their most radical fringe elements is a travesty that goes against everything the United States of America stands for. What America is SUPPOSED to stand for. People like Donald Trump and those who support him are destroying this country more than any terrorist ever could. Terrorists may kill us and destroy what we have built... but Trump and those like him compromise our ideals and destroys what we have achieved. Too many fought too hard and sacrificed too much to let THIS be the legacy of this great nation in the history of humanity. But it will be if we allow it. It will be if we do not speak out. It will be if we do nothing.

And what a shame that would be.