Democratic Candidates Must Step Up

The stories and testimony we are hearing about conditions for children caught in our immigration system – ages 5 months to 17 years – should be making all sane human beings sick to our stomachs.  Strangely, there are many in our country who argue that this is not our fault, that it is the fault of their parents, that we owe no duty of care to these brown children.  

Trump’s Blame Game Has no Basis in Fact

Our President falls back on his regular habit of laying blame at the feet of Obama, the Democrats, Mexico – anywhere other than where it belongs – squarely at the feet in his own handmade expensive shoes.  And while Homeland Security attorneys argue with judges that soap, showers, toothbrushes and blankets are not a requirement for safe and sanitary conditions, Customs and Border Control personnel refuse donations of needed items saying, “We have all those things.  We don’t accept donations.” That may be the closest thing to truth we have heard about this sad state of affairs.  They have the money.  It was appropriated by the Congress Trump is trying to blame.  In fact, in many facilities we, the taxpayers, are spending $775 per day per child for their care.  That price should include soap, toothbrushes and blankets, plus a couple of good meals a day.

To add insult to injury, most of these children should never have been taken from the family members who are here in this country.  This was all unnecessary.  

This has become a Gordian knot, mostly I believe, because Trump sees it as a winning campaign strategy, and he doesn’t want it solved. What a pitiful excuse for this kind of wholesale cruelty.  

How Do We Cut Through This Knotty Problem?

Here is what I want to see.

I want all 25 Democratic candidates for President to convene a joint press conference outside the worst of the facilities where toddlers are being held in their own filth with no blankets, no beds, no soap, no showers. I want all the candidates, with no exceptions, to demand the doors be opened. I want them to demand a tour.

I would like the candidates to show up with people from the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders and UNICEF. I want the candidates to personally render aid to the children — on camera. At the very least, I want it on camera when officials refuse entry to a federal facility by senators, congress people, governors and the national press. I want to see the guards showing their guns to block them.

I want this planned carefully. I want it publicized before, during and after. I want Fox News shamed into being there, then I want Fox News shamed into showing it. I want the candidates to agree to stand together, unified, and be prepared to stay for hours. I want them to only grant interviews in teams and I want them to keep on topic. I want no self promoting words from anyone. I want them to allow their actions to speak.

I want the DNC to set up everything necessary for a rally — refreshments, stands, shelter — and make sure this event is open to the public and well publicized beforehand. I want to see everyone unified in naming this part of the USA’s new Concentration Camp system. No equivocating. I don’t want any more lip service to outrage — I want us to SEE the outrage in such a way that anyone who is turning a blind eye to the outrage can no longer deny its existence.

The logistics for this would be hard, but you cannot convince me it cannot be done, if there really is a will to save these children, there is a way.

Would that be blatantly using children for political props? Maybe, but it would definitely be an attempt to rescue children who are already being used as political props.

I want someone to do something for those babies. Now.

Facebook
Twitter
Parsing Truth

Parsing Truth

Recent Posts

Who Are Epstein’s Friends in High Places?

In doing research on the Epstein/Acosta sordid affair, I keep finding my attention pulled away from the Trump administration and toward Dick Cheney.  That may

Memories of Busing

Growing up White in Atlanta In 1953, I started kindergarten in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1954, we moved to a nice little neighborhood in Northwest Atlanta.