But What About...?

I am angry, I am very, very angry. I am heart broken to the point of sobbing. I am determined, determined to find a way to make a change. This situation is so much bigger than me, but it is not bigger than US. WE can make a stand and make a change. We can stop the atrocities on our southern border. 

And I can hear it now, "what about when Obama...." Ok, lets talk about the immigrant crisis Obama dealt with. First, the immigrant children he was responsible for caring for were unaccompanied. They came to the border, without parents. Why did they come without parents? Some didn't have parents anymore because they were killed or taken prisoner in a country run by immoral leaders who care only about enriching themselves. Some children may have been sent by desperate parents who saw no future for their children in such a country. Their only hope for the child's survival being to send them alone. The parent may have been hurt, sick and unable to go. May have been arrested and forced to go God knows where. Can you imagine being so afraid for your child's life you are forced to send them on a journey of thousands of miles, alone.  I can't. 

Obama's administration may or may not have separated some children from families. They may have had to for the child's safety. They may have had to be separated because the parent committed a criminal offense, like drug running, assault or other FELONY crimes. Crossing the border illegally is a MISDEMEANOR. I cannot emphasize this enough, it is a misdemeanor. As I have said before, like jaywalking, speeding or running a red light. Certainly not a crime that deserves having children taken away. Certainly not a crime that that means a child should be tortured by taking her from her parents. Seeking asylum, not a crime, at all. A high schooler running in the hallways at school, has broken a bigger rule than an asylum seeker. 

"Where was the outrage then" some ask. I remember distinctly where the outrage was. I remember it like it was yesterday. It was from the same people who are supporting kidnapping now. Not, NOT because they were heartbroken about the children, like so many are now. Not because the unaccompanied children were held in detention centers. Not because children were being kidnapped from their parents, because, well, back then they weren't. No, NOT because of the things people are outraged about now. They were outraged because they were saying "those dirty children are bringing diseases to America." Yup, not care about the children being detained, but selfish worry about themselves. They were yelling and screaming at Obama to turn the children away. "They aren't our problem." It was all over the news and especially right wing radio and Fox News. It was all over Facebook, and I'm sure Twitter as well. That is where the outrage was. It was appalling. "What abouts" being spewed by these same people, like Hannity and Ingraham on Fox, are 100% selfish, hypocritical and do not hold water. Just stop it. STOP IT!

Another "what about." Those supporting this administration and its horrendous policy sneer, "why are liberals so worried about "those" people? 'What about' the homeless here, where is the outrage about that?" EXCUSE ME!!! Liberals are the ones that fight everyday for a livable minimum wage. Liberals fight everyday for fair housing, affordable housing, medicaid and medicare, CHIP, mental health coverage, food stamps, WIC and good jobs. Liberals fight for all of these things while conservatives sit back and say to the homeless, "why should I have to pay for these things, get a job." Never mind a LOT of the homeless have full-time jobs, some have two. This "what about" is full of shit. The hypocrisy is glaring. Just stop it. 

 Back to Ingraham, she is comparing the child detention centers to summer camps. I don't know what kind of a fucking summer camp she went to, or worse yet, where she sends her kids to, but those warehouses and tent cities are not summer camps. I went to summer camp every summer from second grade to twelfth. My summer camp days were led by women called Patches, Owl, Quincy and Tassle. The days were filled with swimming, hiking, campfires and songs. They were days to learn independence and grow emotionally. They were fun, VOLUNTARY and most importantly, I knew exactly when I would go home and see my folks. I think back to those times of my life with fondness and joy. 

I never went as a baby, nor as a toddler. I would have been terrified. Lets say, just for a moment, that the children ripped from their parents are having "fun." They aren't, listen to their cries. But lets pretend they might be. They still are not there voluntarily, they still do not know when or IF they will ever see their parents again. It is still not a summer camp. They will not look back at this time in their lives with either fondness or joy.

Now we have word of detention centers for "tender age" children. Children under the age of ten, all the way down to babies and toddlers. "Doctors and lawyers who have visited the shelters in South Texas’ Rio Grande Valley said the facilities were fine, clean and safe, but the children — who have no idea where their parents are — were hysterical, crying and acting out . Many of them are under age 5, and some are so young they’ve not yet learned to talk" We are imprisoning, torturing (yes, emotionally torturing) and abusing toddlers in state sanctioned kidnapping and terrorism, and some people are ok with it. Not just ok with it, but giddy about it. That is frightening, ghastly and tragic. We are on the precipice of becoming a country that will be reviled by all of civilized humanity. A time in history that will be more shameful than the internment of Japanese citizens in World War II. As shameful as the forced separation of Native American children sent to "boarding schools." Almost as shameful as slavery.

Call or write your representatives. Now, today. Let them know this is not the America we should be, nor the America we want to be.

We will all be judged by history. Our future generations will look back on this like we look back at slavery. They will be shamefaced by this. Will you be an enabler or a dissenter. Will your family be mortified or proud of your actions.  What side of history will you be on.
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For My Father Who Fought Fascism Overseas

Today is Father's Day. A day to celebrate and honor fathers, dads and daddies, whatever you call the man who gave you life. A day to cherish who they were and the love we feel for them.

In honor of my dad, who had his leg ripped from his body in World War II, fighting fascism  overseas, I write this. I write this because slowly but surely we are letting fascism overtake our Constitution. We are letting a proven liar, repeat his proven lies to take our country in a very bad direction.

He wants "his people" to sit up at attention when he speaks. I don't care if he meant "his people" as his cabinet or if he meant "his people" as us, the citizens, that is the wish of a dictator. He looks up to dictators and admires them. He excuses murderous regimes and calls their leaders "tough", as in strong and heroic, not as in cruel and vicious. He wants to emulate them. He wants to declare himself president for life, as another one recently has. He attacks our allies as he strokes the egos of regimes who are hostile to us. He wants to build a new Berlin Wall on the boarder of our country, like the one President Reagan told the USSR to tear down.

There has been one catch about that wall. He promised Mexico would pay for it. Still says that now and again. They won't. The president of Mexico has stated clearly, that will never happen. Tariffs won't make that happen, those increased costs will be passed on to US the consumers. Which means we will be paying for that wall out of our own pockets, and the tariffs will hurt people of the US, especially farmers, even those that voted for the madman. He tried to get congress to pay for the wall, with OUR taxes. The have not, yet. He is fanatic about that wall being built. I dare say he dreams of his face and name being plastered all over it. It is vanity that makes him crave the wall, not national security.

Since he can't get congress to approve his wall, he twists facts. He manipulates minds. He blames democrats. Democrats are keeping him from building his vanity wall, with OUR money. He is fixated on his wall. He thought it would be easy to manipulate congress and us into just pouring the money into the wall. He got a wall alright, it was called the budget. There is no room in the government budget for his tax relief for the rich, he got that though, (and now wants to take services away from, well, everybody, to pay off those poor innocent multimillionaires.) The wall though, he hasn't gotten that yet. It, like the redistribution of our wealth to the rich will send our budget deficit through the roof. If there isn't money out there to pay for Grandma's insulin, there certainly isn't money out there to pay for a multi billion dollar wall. He doesn't care though, he wants his precious.

He, his attorney general and one of his jack boot advisers came up with a plan. A way to extort the blood money he needs to build his wall. A way to get the blood money and convince people it is the democrats fault. A diabolical plan, in the truest sense of the word. All while punishing brown people for wanting a better life.

Yeah, you know exactly where I am going with this. He is holding children of asylum seekers hostage as bargaining chips to try and force democrats to pay for his wall. He is blaming democrats for a "law" that supposedly requires the separation of children from asylum seeking parents. There is no law of any kind. Let me repeat that, for you in the back, THERE IS NO LAW OF ANY KIND! It is a policy of THIS administration. Yes, there were times when children were in detention centers in past administrations. Most of those crossed the boarder unaccompanied. That means, their parents were NOT with them when they crossed. They could not be separated from parents that were not there to begin with, and we needed to protect, shelter and feed them. The centers most likely weren't the best option, but many of the children were placed with family or sponsors. The ones that weren't of the 1500 that were lost by the system, but I digress. Past administrations have not been perfect, but at least they weren't blazingly cruel and inhumane. This administration got to that line, gleefully passed it and went straight to evil.

Yes, it is evil to take a hysterical child from the loving arms of a parent. Every time I think of it, I think of my grandchildren. What if my children, out of desperation for a better life, fleeing from a war torn country, with genocide and sadistic leaders, crossed a line seeking asylum, only to have their children ripped from them? Taken to be "bathed", sounds a lot like "delousing" to me. I can't, I can't imagine in a million lifetimes what the parents feel. That is horrific enough. But the children, the CHILDREN! They know nothing of his POLICY, not law, policy. They have no capacity to understand what the HELL is happening to them. They just know they are living in a HELL of this administration's doing. They just know that they can't find mommy or daddy and there is no one to comfort them in the their time of greatest need.

Some fool on Twitter, on the day that Paul Manafort was sent to prison for breaking the terms of his bail, tweeted something like, are democrats upset now that Paul Manafort won't get to see his girls? Ok, let's, let's just forget for a moment, that his "girls" are grown women. Let us pretend they are toddlers, which they aren't. This man has been arrested and evidence put before a grand jury and INDICTED. (The asylum seekers have had none of these judicial procedures, before having their children stolen from them.) Yet, he still got bail, (again not given to asylum seekers). He was allowed to live with his family, which, if they were toddlers, would have included his girls. He would have been able to comfort them, read them stories, kiss them goodnight. Instead, he chose to break the generous terms of his bail, which ripped him away from his girls, who are again, grown women. Had he not broken the terms of his bail, he would still tonight be able to kiss his girls goodnight. Even now, as he rots in jail, if his girls were still toddlers, THEY would not be in a detention center. They would still be with a mother that could comfort them. They could still go out and play, go to the park, go to a movie, do what toddlers like to do, WITH THEIR MOMMY. Do we see the difference here? Oh, and guess what? Seeking asylum, NOT AGAINST THE LAW!!! These families are being torn apart for doing something LEGAL! Manafort? The evidence is there.

Republicans can never again say they are the party of Christian values, as Jesus would let the little children come to him, not rip them from their parents. They can never again say they are the family values party, as ripping family apart in the name of a nonexistent law, is NOT a family value. Hell, they can no longer even say they are the anti-terrorism party, as ripping children away from their families is STATE SPONSORED TERRORISM AGAINST CHILDREN. It is not "the rule of law" because, again, THERE IS NO LAAAAAAAW!!!!!!!! It is a choice made by the fascist wanna be in the White House.

If you don't think this is about that man's vanity wall, look at the pictures that were taken at one of the detention centers holding boys (Oh, make no mistake, brothers and sisters are being separated from each other. They can't even comfort each other. And reporters have only been allowed in boys' detention centers, where are the girls, where are the babies?)  There are murals of HIM painted on the walls, like he thinks they will all love and admire him. It is HIS VANITY, not national security at stake. Make no mistake, he is creating the next generation of terrorism, these kids will grow to despise and hate him and by extension, us.

We used to be the country that tried to stop atrocities in other countries. Now we are committing them. We used to be the country that tried to stop human rights abuses of other regimes, now we  carry out human rights abuses. We are now a country that the United Nations is pointing to as human rights abuser. This is shameful. It needs to stop.

Please, call, email, heck snail mail your government officials. Tell them to put a stop to this, and again I will say it, state sponsored terrorism against children. The children do not deserve this, the parents do not deserve this. As a Father's Day gift to my dad, and all the Dads who fought fascism in WWII I beg you, tell your representatives that this administration has crossed an evil ugly line.

Do it for him, do it for your dad, or grandpa, or great grandpa and anyone else who has fought for freedom.