Ah, the contradiction of values that goes on in this country. An editorial from the Dallas Morning News (April 24) expresses that leaving Afghanistan might leave that country under the Taliban’s Shariah law, “where women are treated as second-class citizens, lesbians and gays are persecuted, if not imprisoned or executed.”

And yet, another news article the same day details how the U.S. Supreme Court is set to decide whether conservative Christian organizations in this country can refuse to work with same-sex couples.

It makes one wonder why so many are concerned about protecting the “second-class” female citizens and LGBTQ people in one country, but not our own. Granted, they are certainly deserving of being safe, as all humans should be.  However, how many years have American women been fighting for equal rights and equal pay right here?  How many years has the gay community been persecuted just because their love is not as “right” as others judge?

How about we start to treat everyone in this country as equal and respect their differences? How about we remember that unless we believe that differences are what makes this county what it is; and remember that people who are labeled “second-class” or “different” in this country need the same concern and consideration as those elsewhere.

Why is such hypocrisy still tolerated?

Susan Turgeon

Norridgewock