1. United States
2. Pa.
3. Letter

You are familiar by now with the poem “First they came for the socialists”. Before Nazi Germany attacked the socialists however, they came for the sick and the disabled. The Executive Order named ENDING CRIME AND DISORDER ON AMERICA’S STREETS does exactly that. It targets people who are temporarily or permanently homeless. (Most people experiencing homelessness experience it for 8 months.) It orders forced institutionalization above and beyond state or federal law or precedent. It forces the treatment of people addicted to drugs to take place in a ward. We already know these measures do not work. They turn being ill or disabled into a crime. They are directly aligned with the removal of funds from Medicare, which will force people to choose between healthcare and housing. If you choose healthcare you are committing a crime by being homeless and if you choose housing you will likely die of lack of healthcare. Nice country we’re living in, huh? Take every action available to you to throw out this cruel and unnecessary executive order. Because the president has already made LGBTQ+ life illegal in every way possible. First the Nazis came for the people with mental and physical disabilities and the people of Germany thought that was a good idea, actually. Then they came for people who identified as LGBTQ+ because they could justify their behavior as a mental health issue. Then they came for the socialists. And you know the rest. NEVER AGAIN.