I’ve been writing blog posts for close to 30 years and during that time I’ve worked to remain apolitical, but I can no longer remain quiet. A news report last evening said that ICE with the aid of local law enforcement attempted to enter a Ritenour Middle School to remove children who were here illegally.
CHILDREN!!! What kind of society have we become when it’s acceptable to terrorize and traumatize 11 to 13 year old children; who have done nothing other than follow their parents into our country.
It’s one thing to go after parents who entered illegally…although I can’t help but wonder whether having people who are so committed to a better life for themselves, AND THEIR CHILDREN, that they risk thousand-mile long, dangerous journeys to get here, isn’t to our nation’s advantage.
I also wonder whether them being here illegally isn’t more a function of our country’s failure to develop better, more efficient, immigration systems than immigrants’ desire to enter illegally.
This isn’t about immigration; it’s solely about our society’s willingness to allow children to be terrorized and traumatized by government officials. And this isn’t the first instance. In 2018, Trump’s first administration, 5,000 children were separated from their parents at the Mexican border…reports indicate that many were never reunited with their parents.
I think that most of us had thought that when steps were taken to reunite children with their parents in 2018, that we wouldn’t see this type of terror inflicted on children again. How wrong, nay naive, we as a nation were to the willful indifference to the pain and suffering of children that the current leadership of our country has. If we hadn’t been that naive, we would never have voted the way we did in the 2024 election…or am I still being naive?
With the mid-term elections just around the corner, I guess I’ll soon have my answer. At the moment, all I can say is that I have never been more embarrassed to be an American. I have never felt a greater distance between my values and the values exhibited by “leadership” in all areas of government…local to national, including all three branches of government.
It’s up to us as voters to shape our future. I’m a firm believer that good prevails over evil…in the long run. Please use the upcoming November election to reclaim the values that once made us all proud to be Americans.
We were once the most welcoming, most caring (first to provide support where needed around the world), and most protective of children, nation in the world. Let’s reclaim that status and set a standard for the world to live up to. Let’s vote for leadership that will once again make us the envy of the world…and once again, make our children safe, whether they’re here legally or not.
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