Members of the Main Street Alliance, the coalition of socially responsible small business owners, have been speaking out against Donald Trump in the letters pages of their area newspapers. Here are two recent letters published in the New York Times and New Jersey’s Daily Record.
“Donald Trump’s Atlantic City,” New York Times, Oct. 21, 2016
I am a small-business owner with a shop in Atlantic City and a Pakistani-born immigrant. Our city, one to which Donald Trump is accustomed, comprises shop owners and customers of all backgrounds.
Not unlike much of our country, Atlantic City is fueled by the labor and economic contributions of immigrants. Mr. Trump’s hateful rhetoric directed at immigrants, refugees and Muslims is not just deplorable; it’s also bad for business.
How can we make someone like Donald Trump president when he insults and demeans my neighbors on Main Street and more than half the customers who come through my door? A man who characterizes Mexicans as rapists and drug dealers, and favors profiling Muslims. A man who calls African-American neighborhoods war zones and engages in public body-shaming of women.
His racism, sexism, lack of decorum and naïveté would hurt America and jeopardize all that we’ve built. We must reject the race-baiting, fear-mongering and dog whistling of the Trump campaign and vote with our conscience for a candidate who embraces diversity and exhibits tact.
SYED ALI
Atlantic City
“Trump shows little respect for women,” Daily Record, Oct. 19, 2016
Governors Mike Pence and Chris Christie cannot defend Donald Trump’s sexism. While Mr. Trump publicly claims he respects women, going as far as to say no one respects women more, behind the scenes he admits to regularly committing sexual assault. Mr. Trump’s comments and actions are an affront to women, and they are not to be downplayed.
Most women know what it’s like to be viewed as an object, and a second-class citizen in our country and economy. Our next President should be one that rejects this notion, not one that perpetuates it. Women are CEOs, doctors, lawyers and blue-collar workers. We head households and are primary breadwinners. And much to Mr. Trump’s chagrin, we vote.
As a business owner, I’ve been wary of a Donald Trump presidency for the better part of the year. Learning of his multiple bankruptcies and tax evasion and seeing his cut-and-run business tactics deployed down in Atlantic City I found it hard to believe a President Trump would have the best interests of Main Street at heart. Now, I’m almost certain he would ignore the interests of women, too.
Marilyn Sealy
MORRISTOWN
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