IGNORED OBSCURED RESTORED
If you’re a regular reader of my weekly posts, you know that I don’t often use my soapbox to deliver political messages but today is an exception.
The Trump policy to separate children from their parents as they seek refugee status at the southern border of the US is cruel and inhumane. It does not represent who we, as American people, are. There has to be a more kind and generous way to protect our borders.
So what has that got to do with the SotW?
I was reminded of the lyrics to a song called “I Believe in You” by the country music star Don Williams.
I don’t believe in superstars, organic food and foreign cars
I don’t believe the price of gold, the certainty of growing old
That right is right and left is wrong, that north and south can’t get along
That east is east and west is west and being first is always best
But I believe in love, I believe in babies, I believe in mom and dad, and I believe in you
The lyrics to this 1980, #1 hit on the country charts are particularly appropriate because they seem to address the political divide in our country. But the last line ties it into the news of the day – “I believe in love, I believe in babies, I believe in mom and dad.”
For me (and probably you if you’re reading this) another line hits home:
But I believe in love, I believe in music, I believe in magic and I believe in you
Yes, I really do believe in the magic of music to heal and bring people together.
So there you have it. I’ve said my piece. Music without politics next time.
Enjoy… until next week.
On the contrary, how about posting a song every week to honor whatever this week’s Cause of the Century is? Someone should keep a record. I mean, they come and go so quickly – just long enough for everyone to don their ribbons and strike their poses and demonstrate their discount moral superiority, then on to the next. George Orwell is drooling in his grave.
If you agree with this platform there is a place
for you: it is known as California & I ran like hell to
get out of there
Don’t blame Americans for what’s been caused & created by irresponsible borderjumpers KNOWINGLY breaking our laws before they even get here, & are arrogant & unloving parents, risking the death of their children by breaking American laws- really? This is who we want here?
If recreating the culture of Mexico in the U.S is something you find desirable, a quick drive on Tijuana’s Revolucion district should cure you of that
The culture of a country is decided by its occupants
I don’t want to live in Mexico, Honduras, Nicaragua,
Guatemala or San Salvador. Do you?
my goodness, what an intolerant lot.
no matter what your belief in the laws, separating kids from their parents is punitive and outright wrong. and un-American, as is denying due process.
face it: there is no perfect system, but all the things that are right about America are being stomped on, and I am not denying reality, or defending how kludge government can be.
but, when things are for and by the people, that is what that means, and that means process needs time and planning.
i do live in California, and I LOVE it here. the diversity, the acceptance, the inclusion is what America is about (and, well, my parents fled Hitler and the Nazis, and that asshole took power just like our government is shifting now, including putting foreign kids in camps).
but, i ask too: the undocumented broke the law, they go to jail, and that is that. we are a system of law and order.
then that means all the folks who have pled guilty in the Russia probe were equally guilty of breaking the law, and the white house folks have broken any number with respect to signing disclosures, shifting money from non-profits.
if we are a country of such laws, i hope everyone out there is vigilant in demanding the law be executed equally, to all offenders.
and, when Trump and his mates are found guilty of money laundering, racketeering, and obstructing justice, the same folks who demand justice and the return of potential immigrants better be just as true to the rule of law, and demand, the ouster from office of the charlatan.
Right On Tom!!!! Power to the People.
lawr (a life long Berkeley resident)
Gene, I sympathize with your cynicism about political virtue. It is too easy to express heartfelt indignation and much harder to do the hard work to turn it into anything that actually improves anything. Too often it’s just words. But I would argue that those words are what lead to other people developing opinions and when collective voices become stronger lead to political action. Which sometimes leads to nothing, sometimes leads to betterment, and sometimes leads to mistakes. Is it worth it? For me, I can’t imagine not trying, despite the odds. YMMV.
Silkë, I don’t understand the vilification of strangers, and the laws that criminalize them. Throughout human history people have wandered around the world, trying to find better. It was never a walk in the park, there were conflicts and disputes, and wars, and cities and states built high walls and moats to protect what they had. Which caused a problem, because some of the things they needed/wanted came from outside the wall. This world, for people and for nations, is about other people. Nations generally got richer when they engaged with their neighbors and worked together, and get poorer when they warred or isolated themselves. Eventually. This is the way the world works and always has.
Our immigration crisis isn’t a crisis, it is a political cudgel used to provoke fear and loathing in the segment of the population that is afraid of the other and sees every stranger as trouble first. This fake crisis pits good people who fear and lousy people who hate against those who value diversity and the wealth it generates. Why? Because the anti-immigration rulers see the masses as liberal democracy and a threat to their self-enriching leadership, I’d say.
Jason Riley, a Wall Street Journal editorial writer, is no lover of liberalism, but he has written a pretty good book making the case for opening the borders. It’s well worth a read.
https://amzn.to/2tJV6Nb
I’m not anti-immigration at all. I confess that because I regard immigration as a non-issue, I don’t follow the ins and outs as perhaps I should. But as I understand it, seperating familes is not a new policy, it’s been happening all along. And The Left never said a word about it. If that’s wrong, correct me.
Well, “Zero Tolerance” is new, and the admin shaded reality as always Here is a link to some pretty good info from Factcheck.com..https://www.factcheck.org/2018/06/did-the-obama-administration-separate-families/
But, the arguments are so specious. EG, Stupid says the demos want to let MS13 in. Huh? ..0003% of the potential immigrants trying to enter under the Obama adm were linked to MS13, and ceremoniously returned to their country of origin,
Immigration–which has been way down the past eight years–is not even an issue. Human rights–and major civil wars in Honduras, Guatemala, and Nicaragua (that we helped initiate under Reagan) are the problem, so if we would focus on helping to stabilize and democratize those, countries, the waves of moms and kids from there would similarly dwindle.
But, stupid would rather spend $26 billion on a wall. Hmm, this is the same party who took credit for the elimination of the Berlin wall and said walls were bad.
Assholes.
That’s wrong, though the particulars are interesting. Laws were passed and courts ruled that immigrants caught illegally crossing the border could be incarcerated, and children could not be incarcerated. This put Presidents Bush 43 and Obama in a bind when they tried to crack down on illegal crossings. They could detain adults, but they would have to detain children separately, which both administrations decided was inhumane. So they developed an alternative, writing summons and releasing the families.
My understanding is the families ended up in the arms of community service organizations, who housed them and helped them make their court dates. These families were, almost universally, seeking asylum and by law had a right to a hearing about whether they deserved it.
From what I’ve read about 90 percent of those summoned returned for their court appearances (they were usually wearing tracking devices on their ankles). Some received asylum, some were shipped back home. The system was messy, some children arrived with adults who were not their parents, or who were arrested for felonies, and those children did end up in foster care. It seems like there were relatively few of these.
So, what Sessions and Trump did was enforce the letter of the law in the most cruel way process they could, kind of like what cops do when they go on strike by enforcing every violation, only vastly crueler.
This story does a better job than I could on the details: https://www.vox.com/2018/6/21/17488458/obama-immigration-policy-family-separation-border
I think us liberals were woefully weak pushing Obama to relax immigration enforcement, he was punitive and deported more immigrants than anyone president ever before, I think. He should have made a better case to the people why a sane and well defined immigration policy is preferable to blindly shutting the borders. It may not have worked, but he didn’t do that.
OK, I get it. Thank you. Again I must point out that underneath it all, on both ends, the problem is power itself. All power will be abused sooner or later.
Whenever talk turns to The Wall I am reminded of General Patton’s remark in another context: “Fixed fortifications are monuments to the stupidity of Man. If mountains and oceans can be overcome, anything built by Man can be overcome.”
Thanks for clarifying Peter. And, i think the main point was though the separation law has existed for a while, no one ever actively enforced the separation of family members until now, hence the argument that this is something previous adm’s followed is simply untrue.
However, none of that seems to matter any more.
But it didn’t matter what Obama wanted to do or not. I mean he was obstructed on getting a simple hearing for a Supreme Court nominee and now if the demos even suggest turnabout they are vilified. Worse, the objective of Stupid and his cronies is pretty much emasculate any of Obama’s accomplishments simply because they are bigots who did not like him.
Good thing we are the land of the free and home of the brave and all men are created equal and all that good shit.
And, Gene, I will not deny that power is at the source of most folks who go into politics, although often what initiates the interest is some kind of good works at the local level.
And, the demos are stupid (I voted for Bernie, and last month against Feinstein) in that they refuse to turn over seats to a new generation while the GOP, is completely willing to do that to a large degree. Name a face like Jim Jordan, Ted Cruz, Trey Gowdy or Marco Rubio who is really new and stepped up in the spotlight like those assholes (i am not meaning to call them names: they act like assholes imho).
But, no real platform that anyone is unilaterally discussing comes out. Everything is a reaction to stupid and that is a pathetic–and now historically unsuccessful-way to run campaigns.
Maybe the Castro brothers in Texas or Tammy Duckworth but not close to as many new outspoken voices and faces as the GOP (that was a compliment in case someone on the right is reading this and pissed off at me, and the truth is I don’t care anyway: be as pissed as you like. cos i don’t care).
Ya know, I thought some of you smart lefties would look at Trump and suddenly realize that all the power you have so successfully gathered into the national government these last many decades can very easily be turned against you. I hate to say it but it’s almost inevitable.
Our “choices” – we don’t have political freedom, we have “choices” – are fast reducing to the choice between national socialism and international socialism. This is a guarantee of war – Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, everywhere that this has been the choice there has been or is war.
Picture this: the next Trump, a smoother character, with the mass media on his side. Scared yet?
Agreed.