While recently ripping up a December issue of The Forecaster to start a fire in my woodstove, I read with deep dismay of Abdi Nor Iftin’s decision to step back for a while from writing the columns that routinely appeared in this paper. Let’s be clear about one thing: Abdi has every right to live here. Twenty-two million people around the world seek to win entry to this country through the State Department’s visa lottery. Abdi considered himself blessedly fortunate to beat the 400:1 odds and become one of only 55,000 winners.

He felt that way, that is, until an article of his criticizing Trump’s immigration policies elicited a barrage of hate mail, a sampling of which he shared in his goodbye-for-now response. That readers of this paper would direct such venomous comments toward someone who followed all the rules to get here and has since gone on to provide a vital window into the lives of people in Maine’s immigrant community is truly despicable. All of which begs the question: Would he be treated this way if he had immigrated from, say, Lapland? I can only hope that Abdi is recovering from this verbal mugging and will return with renewed determination to share his unique and highly insightful perspective.

William Holland
Durham