A Mexican national with a criminal record kills a young white woman in San Francisco and immediately Donald Trump says, “See, that’s what I told you. Mexico sends us criminals and rapists.”

He totally ignores the following:

“Numerous studies going back more than a century have shown that immigrants, regardless of nationality or legal status, are less likely than the native population to commit violent crimes or be incarcerated.” (Wall Street Journal 7/14/15).

A single member of the Muslim faith murders five military personnel in Chattanooga, Tennessee resulting in a backlash against all Muslims. (Example: Read what Billy Graham’s son Franklin had to say).

In Charleston, South Carolina a white man takes the lives of nine black parishioners while they prayed and no one blames the white race for his actions. The all-white Ku Klux Klan praises his actions and marches in that same city carrying confederate flags and no one blames the white race for their actions.

Thinking about these three occurrences, I wonder if they represent a growing “us versus them” attitude? Is something ugly brewing out there tied to religion and ethnicity? Are certain members of the public choosing sides based on false emotions and selfishness rather than any kind of knowledge of people? Are they living inside their comfort zones surrounded by think-a-likes and, yes, look-a-likes as “those others” are judged from a distance?

Mr. Trump, the leader in the GOP presidential polling, is treating undocumented immigrants as pariahs (which rubs off on all Latinos), while a well-known religious leader is doing the same to those of the Muslim faith. We must be better than that or “and Justice for All” becomes a cliché -- meaningless throw away thought -- a disservice to those who first wrote these words.