There Is Nothing More Important–Than This
Do I remember his hugs? His kisses? Soft words in my ear? No. My dearest mother told me stories of how he loved me, was so excited to have a daughter and bragged about me. Well, you know parents, they brag at the littlest things. So was I traumatized because I lost my father at a young age?
I’ve written about this before, so I won’t go into details here. But growing up I:
was afraid of men for a long time
was extremely shy for a long time
liked staying at home more than other children in my neighborhood who had fathers.
So you see where I am going here. There are degrees, but you can traumatize a child through death, loss and separation. And it doesn’t go away in a blink. I was a fearful child. And now let’s look at what is so-called policy in the United States.
It’s a Let’s Traumatize Children policy. Let’s create political theatre and use CHILDREN as hostages. And no, the Democrats did not start the specific policy that requires that children be separated from their parents no matter their age or where they come from, at the border–that was Jeff Sessions. He was very specific as to saying this would be a deterrent. You come here and we will punish you with this dictum. And it is being implemented by Kirstjen Nielsen, head of Homeland Security and totally approved by POTUS 45.
So what do the American people think? There is nothing more important than THIS today.
ThE PEOPLE SPEAK Thanks to the LA Times.
From: Ken Levy, Los Angeles Even Dickensian Workhouses and World War II camps for the Japanese Americans, as terrible as they were, did not dare separate children from their parents. It took the malevolence of President Trump and Atty. General Jeff Sessions to accomplish this. Trump had previously asked why a drone strike against alleged terrorists was delayed to save innocent family members from being killed as well. Sessions has used the New Testament to link the law to the word of God, nothwithstanding that this family separation is a policy, not a law. As a psychotherapist, I know this type of trauma visited on children can have life-long effects. The cruelty of the Trump administration is endless. It is up to us to put a stop to this horror.
From: Ann Lander, Covina My parents were childless when they were removed from the Amsterdam ghetto and brought to a holding area. There, they waited as weekly trams and then trains brought people to the Westerbork camp and then onward to concentration camps in Poland. Families with children were separated; the children brought across the street from the holding area to a makeshift childcare center. My parents were able to escape by climbing through a small window in the attic and then crawling along a narrow wooden plank to the building next door. If my parents had children at the time, they would never have attempted such a risky act. Instead, they would have tried to get reunited in the child-care area before boarding the tram. Those other families most likely perished in gas chambers with their children. I see very little difference between those horrific days in Europe and what detained parents who only want better lives for their families are going through today, with a Bible-quoting attorney general justifying separating children from their parents. Those parents and their children are not sleeping well tonight.
From: Bob Launius, Oxnard You commit a crime in the U.S. and it is likely that you will be separated from your children. Why is the left surprised when people who travel hundreds of miles to illegally cross our border are separated from their children? To answer Bob: First, is seeking asylum because you want to protect your most precious possession, your children, a crime? And you’ve got it right in your letter–they have traveled hundreds of miles hoping, praying for help. And you wouldn’t give it to them?
From: Steve Fisher Studio City Of all the shameful, horrible things Trump and his acolytes have done, the separation of children from their parents at the border may be the worst. No child, undocumented or not, should be separated from his or her parents in such an inhumane manner, and the fact that it’s happening on a daily basis in the U.S. should make anyone with half a heart feel sick. I, for one, am ashamed to call myself an American.
From: Murtadha A. Khakoo Fullerton How much longer can we drag down the law by insisting on separating Latino parents and children who are coming as desperate units from their home countries to seek asylum in the U.S.? First, by our Constitution, we must give these people due process. Second, as a nation of immigrants, we should have empathy for the people, as it was for our own parents a generation or two ago who came here from foreign lands seeking a better life. We have shred both these mercies at the alter of racism. If these asylum seeks were from Norway, I am sure we would not be doing this.
THE PHOTO
This is a coin in a new series celebrating the unalienable rights proclaimed by Thomas Jefferson in one of our country’s most important documents. This is Lady of Liberty teaching a child to sow seeds. The sword she carries symbolizes the power to defend life, while the furrowed earth suggests the labor to sustain it.
What seeds are we sowing today? What will happen when we need more labor to work our fields and pick our fruit? Hate of the other will never create a UNITED STATES. Germany still bears the stigma of the Nazis. We must not go in any direction remotely like that.
P.S. If like me, you lost a parent at an early age, you can read about the research done to explain such a trauma here.
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