On NPR (National Public Radio) this morning they played a recording of a typical scene now where the Border Patrol is separating children from their parents.
I was in my car on my way to work. I heard babies crying, children screaming in tears. A Border officer is heard saying in Spanish, "We have an orchestra." It was a pathetic attempt to settle the distraught children terrified of being taken from their parents.
The Trump administration is trying, unconvincingly, to dress the scene in quiet calm with children getting food and medicine, shelter and games. But let’s be honest. These are no substitutes for a child being taken from their parents. You can sit them in front of a circus of dancing elephants and they will still cry for their mother and father.
The president is cynically blaming Democrats, or saying he’s protecting the country from the drug cartel, or whatever sort of baloney he wants to embellish, but the truth is, and please, everyone can see this, the president is playing politics with these children and their families.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions even attempted to justify this cruelty by referring to Scripture. He said the Bible tells us to follow the government. Wow. That’s rich coming from a man whose entire political career has been steeped in racial bigotry and messy crony dealings. I suppose the Bible tells us to do that, too.
What we are seeing with these border families is simply an outrageous abuse of political power in order to win votes. Mr. Trump and his cohorts are banking on the bet that their base loves this kind of hardball play with immigrants and they will march in step to the polls to elect Republicans to Congress and governorships in November.
Mr. Trump is convinced he can get people to do whatever he wants. And so far, he’s been pretty darn good at it. People seem to salute and click their heels and do what they are told. No questions asked. His supporters are not interested in anyone else’s opinion. They follow Trump with steadfast devotion.
It was the French historian, Voltaire, who said, “Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”
The abomination at the border, approved and enforced and defended by President Trump and his supporters, clearly proves that people will turn away from cruelty and dismiss it, for the flimsiest reasons imaginable. They will then convince themselves that terrified children are not that big a deal. That the drug lords have to be convinced to stay out of America.
The problem with that small-minded thinking is that drug lords are not moved by screaming children. Or anything else. They and their product will get here anyway. Which makes me wonder why in God’s name are Mr. Trump and Sessions and our government not putting all of their righteous anger against the drug cartels instead of innocent toddlers and families trying to find safety and a better life in this country?
The answer? Politics. Elections. Winning. Profits. Staying in power.
That is all that is behind the border disaster. That, and men and women who have without question, lost their sense of humanity.
But it’s the law, shout the defenders of Trump’s border policy. The law? It was the brilliant novelist, Balzac, who wrote, “Laws are spider webs through which the big flies pass and the little ones get caught.”
Don’t talk to me about laws when this administration is crammed with men and women who laugh at the law, who trample the law, day in and day out; people who have made a career enriching themselves by ignoring, bending, twisting, and breaking the law without the slightest hesitation.
The Native American activist and journalist and fierce protester of slavery, Lydia Maria Francis Child, wrote, “We first crush people to the earth, and then claim the right of trampling on them forever, because they are on the ground.”
That’s what’s going on at the border. Don’t fool yourself. It cannot under any circumstances be justified.
Remember that come November.
© 2018 Timothy Moody
I was in my car on my way to work. I heard babies crying, children screaming in tears. A Border officer is heard saying in Spanish, "We have an orchestra." It was a pathetic attempt to settle the distraught children terrified of being taken from their parents.
The Trump administration is trying, unconvincingly, to dress the scene in quiet calm with children getting food and medicine, shelter and games. But let’s be honest. These are no substitutes for a child being taken from their parents. You can sit them in front of a circus of dancing elephants and they will still cry for their mother and father.
The president is cynically blaming Democrats, or saying he’s protecting the country from the drug cartel, or whatever sort of baloney he wants to embellish, but the truth is, and please, everyone can see this, the president is playing politics with these children and their families.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions even attempted to justify this cruelty by referring to Scripture. He said the Bible tells us to follow the government. Wow. That’s rich coming from a man whose entire political career has been steeped in racial bigotry and messy crony dealings. I suppose the Bible tells us to do that, too.
What we are seeing with these border families is simply an outrageous abuse of political power in order to win votes. Mr. Trump and his cohorts are banking on the bet that their base loves this kind of hardball play with immigrants and they will march in step to the polls to elect Republicans to Congress and governorships in November.
Mr. Trump is convinced he can get people to do whatever he wants. And so far, he’s been pretty darn good at it. People seem to salute and click their heels and do what they are told. No questions asked. His supporters are not interested in anyone else’s opinion. They follow Trump with steadfast devotion.
It was the French historian, Voltaire, who said, “Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.”
The abomination at the border, approved and enforced and defended by President Trump and his supporters, clearly proves that people will turn away from cruelty and dismiss it, for the flimsiest reasons imaginable. They will then convince themselves that terrified children are not that big a deal. That the drug lords have to be convinced to stay out of America.
The problem with that small-minded thinking is that drug lords are not moved by screaming children. Or anything else. They and their product will get here anyway. Which makes me wonder why in God’s name are Mr. Trump and Sessions and our government not putting all of their righteous anger against the drug cartels instead of innocent toddlers and families trying to find safety and a better life in this country?
The answer? Politics. Elections. Winning. Profits. Staying in power.
That is all that is behind the border disaster. That, and men and women who have without question, lost their sense of humanity.
But it’s the law, shout the defenders of Trump’s border policy. The law? It was the brilliant novelist, Balzac, who wrote, “Laws are spider webs through which the big flies pass and the little ones get caught.”
Don’t talk to me about laws when this administration is crammed with men and women who laugh at the law, who trample the law, day in and day out; people who have made a career enriching themselves by ignoring, bending, twisting, and breaking the law without the slightest hesitation.
The Native American activist and journalist and fierce protester of slavery, Lydia Maria Francis Child, wrote, “We first crush people to the earth, and then claim the right of trampling on them forever, because they are on the ground.”
That’s what’s going on at the border. Don’t fool yourself. It cannot under any circumstances be justified.
Remember that come November.
© 2018 Timothy Moody
Comments
Post a Comment