The Widder Curry Asks – “What has happened to my fellow American?”
For weeks I have sat back and not voiced on this site my horrific feelings about the migrant children that are being housed in sub-standard facilities.
For weeks I have watched supporters of the man in the White House cry because “they are treating the President so badly.” For weeks I have been waiting for the public outcry deploring this concentration camp atmosphere. For weeks I have been waiting for the Republican party to say “enough is enough.”
For weeks I have been listening to Republicans in office indirectly support the separation of children from their parents. For weeks I have been shaking my head when I hear things from representatives say, “There’s not a lock on the door. Any child is free to leave at any time. But they don’t and you know why? Because they’re well taken care of.” (Rep. Michael Burgess, Texas) I do not think that I have to elaborate on Burgess’ comment. If you believe him, shame on you.
For weeks I have heard on FOX news different comments made by elected representatives and/or news commentators the unbelievable statements that receive claps and cheers from trump supporters. For example, In a segment of Fox and Friends, Fox News host Brian Kilmeade defended white nationalism and Trump’s family separation policy by claiming that “those aren’t our kids, and it’s not like Trump was doing this to the people of Idaho or Texas”.
So it is okay to do what is being done to these children? Where is the compassion; the understanding that America used to have. Since when has it become against the law to seek asylum?
For days I have heard people ask what can be done to help these children. A suggestion was to made to gather together diapers, toothpaste, toothbrushes, food, etc. and donate it to the cause. So what happened? The Border Patrol is refusing those donations.
For weeks I have been hearing that the cost of housing each and every child in these horrible concentration camps is $750 PER CHILD. One could stay at the Ritz Carlton, have shampoo, tooth paste, lotion and a warm robe for less than that. And who is making money on these private prisons? Wealthy individuals that are, for the most part, in the trump cliques. The estimate is that 1/6th of the “owners” of these prisons are indirectly (or directly) related to members of trumps team and/or congress.
In the past few days I have read – as I am sure most of you have also – about the group of lawyers that paid a visit to some of these detention facilities. What they found is absolute appalling –
“that up to 250 infants, children, and teenagers are being held in unsanitary and horrific conditions and are being fed uncooked frozen food or rice. Some had gone weeks without a bath or access to clean, dry clothes. And they are sleeping on dirty, hard concrete without sheets and/or pillows.”
What has happened to my fellow American.
I read a statement yesterday talking about how Nazi Germany got started – “One third of the people would kill one third of the people, while one third watches.”
And that is what I see happening in our America today. Where is the public outcry of what is happening to these people? Where are the elected officials that find this appalling? When is it going to stop? How is it going to stop?
If you think that it is expensive now, just wait until all these people seek therapeutic help for the trauma that we have put in them over these months. We are creating people – people that were little children – by starving them, abusing them, neglecting them – into potential threats. When you are hungry you go to any lengths to find food; when you are hurting you go to any length to assuage that pain. What do you expect these helpless people to do as they grow up – IF they grow up.
Don’t just sit there and say to your friends and family that it is a shame. Do something. Write, call, your congressmen. Write letters to the editor. Post signs on your front lawn deploring these conditions. Make noise. Attend rallies. And don’t stop, because lives are at stake. And above all, don’t tell me that it will all change in 2020. We may not even have a United States as we know it in 2020.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
The scale of this abuse doesn’t just “happen”- it’s been created in Texas by private prisons who have literally written legislation allowing children to be kept longer in these detention facilities. And it was ignored in California by legislators- despite lawsuits filed against private prison corporations for their abusive behavior. Meanwhile they accepted their campaign contributions, derived from obscene profits.
See this May 2, 2017, “The Intercept” article: “A BILL WRITTEN by a private prison operator to assist its immigration detention business could advance through the Texas state Senate this week, despite vocal protest from civil rights groups. The legislation would allow family detention centers to be classified as childcare facilities, enabling Immigrations and Customs Enforcement to detain women and children for longer periods.
“The bill aligns with the Trump administration’s punitive immigration policies and helps it navigate a challenge to federal detention policy.”
In California- all but one San Diego legislator (Dr. Shirley Weber) accepted contributions from CoreCivic and/or The Geo Group- the nation’s largest private prison corporations. They are making record profits while incarcerating immigrants.
Taxpayers reimburse them at $700/night per person.
So how did we get here? In part by the greed of local elected officials, who took private prison money, from the profits of GeoGroup and CoreCivic, and used these funds to tell voters how “progressive” they are.
When these payments were made public last June several donated the money to immigrant support organizations- but at least one lied about it (he was caught) and another wrote defensive posts, accusing critics of being “mean.”
So how did we get here?
Incrementally, as our elected officials turned a blind eye to the abuse in California, and allowed private corporations to write the regulations in Texas.
Thank you for the Intercept article.
Honestly Judy, what has changed? My stepmom as a young girl was taken to a US concentration camp with her family. She was conceived, born, and schooled in San Francisco public schools so she was a Citizen of the United States. Her parents owned their own home and had an agricultural business-many Japanese immigrants did in the late 1930s. But not for long due to unpaid property taxes which is damned hard to pay when you are locked in a cage and your job and bank account disappears…. the gov sold everything they owned cheap at auction for ‘unpaid taxes.’ How’s that for understanding and compassion 80 years ago? I really don’t see a whole lot of difference here.
They were dumped on the street out of their cage with nothing after WWII but unpaid bills due years before which were not ‘forgiven.’ I won’t relate any of the stories she talked about to me because you might be eating dinner. Vietnam was going then and her youngest baby brother was over there and she talked a lot about it as it brought up obvious PTSD memories. Suffice to say they are freaking awful.
So what I’m saying Judy Curry, is that this country has always been like this. Always. And generally most people don’t like to face the ugly truth underneath all the lies and myths we grew up with. Cognitive dissonance hits our brain and then we hide/turn away/deny facts when faced with it. Very hard to overcome.
The target population changes now and then but when one delves back into US history it’s quite easy to see the pattern. Curry? Is that Irish? If so the Irish immigrants weren’t considered White people until after 1905. Irish was a separate box to check on government forms!
On and on it goes and not just this country. Right on back into the deepest known written or oral history of our species we see this pattern all over the world.
Notice that I don’t use the term ‘human’ because we have never been a humane species. The bright lights have always been individual people doing wonderful things for other people or the planet and the rest of the species that live on it. They are truly the ‘human-e’ ones!
But the US Empire is and has been exhibiting the same brutal colonialist behavior that our parent country the British Empire did. Remember the Maine! And I actually have a picture in this computer of US Army soldiers torturing/waterboarding a Phillippino prisoner for the camera. It wasn’t just Abu Graib in Iraq. But then Empires have never been known for treating those ‘others’ as human.
We need to remember that this country was founded on genocide of the indigenous population and slavery of another. They really should teach the brutality of that in schools but…cognitive dissonance.
And remember that Obama deported more immigrants during his term than any other president before him. And that the old concentration camp Trump wants to throw 1500 kids in? It held 7,000 ‘illegals’ during O’s administration. Trump is more ‘in your face’ than Obama, a different level of brutal, but again what policies have actually changed I’m very sad to ask?
We could do so much better but don’t. Big sigh.
Here’s a personal story link that fits right into your question that popped up today:
My father got better treatment in a WWII Nazi prison camp than 2019 kids at U.S. border
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2019/6/26/1867556/-My-father-got-better-treatment-in-a-WWII-Nazi-prison-camp-than-2019-kids-at-U-S-border
integrate
2019/06/26 · 22:38
In May 1943 my father, flying in an Allied bomber during a raid against Nazi Germany was shot down, taken prisoner, and sent to a Luftwaffe POW camp — where he remained 21 months before being forced-marched to the German heartland in the final months of the war.
Unlike the children imprisoned by Trump, he was an actual and declared enemy of the German state. Nevertheless, while imprisoned in Germany he:
unlike the children imprisoned by Trump, was provided with a bunk off the floor
unlike the children imprisoned by Trump, was provided with a blanket
unlike the children imprisoned by Trump, was provided with soap;
unlike the children imprisoned by Trump, was provided with access to showers
unlike the children imprisoned by Trump, was allowed to accept practical gifts of clothing and extra blankets from outside humanitarians and humanitarian agencies (like the International Red Cross)
While life was no picnic at Stalag Luft III (re-captured escapees received a bullet in the head as punishment), it is astonishing that 75 years later we are able to point to several measures where the Nazis did a better job of providing basic care to their enemies than the twenty-first century America provides to children who — unlike my father and his aircrew — have never dropped a bomb on the homeland.
________
Judy, how in the world can we stop this crap? How does one fix ‘stupid, vicious, and greedy?’
sealintheSelkirks
Frightening. Maybe we need to do a better job of teaching history in the schools. My family also has a history of the concentration camps, but I never had the chance to spend much time with those that came out of it, and when I asked questions it was too painful to answer. I remember the numbers tattooed on the arm of one cousin and when I asked her about it as a 5 year old she began to cry and I never asked her again.
I wish I had an answer to your question. As long as greed and inhumanity exists in America I don’t have much hope that things can become much better.
Thank you for your response. Judi