We wish we didn’t have to continually write editorials condemning hateful comments from the president and reminding people that everyone deserves respect. Yet, we are living in a time when demeaning people who are different from us and threatening — even punishing and deporting — immigrants is a daily occurrence.

Last week, President Donald Trump took aim at people from Somalia, calling them “garbage.” To be clear, no person is garbage, no matter where they live or where they began their lives.

Such inhumane insults are hurtful. But worse, they open the door to dangerous actions, not only from the federal government but also from people who take the president’s words as a license to act on them.

As three Somali-born members of the Maine Legislature wrote in a column this week: “Reckless

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