Sunday, June 17, 2018

A Day for Atonement

by Pa Rock
Father

It's Father's Day in America, a day set aside by our government to  recognize and honor dads for their faithful efforts in raising children and promulgating civilization.  Unfortunately this Father's Day is marked by that same government exercising a policy that intentionally and cruelly separates children from their parents along America's southern border.

Children are being taken from their parents and spirited into a great unknown of foster care and institutional warehousing, sometimes hundreds of miles from where their parents are being detained.  1,995 children, some as young as breast-feeding infants, were taken from their immigrant parents by government officials from mid-April through the end of May of this year - roughly a six-week span.

Donald Trump, a politician who has built his political career primarily by demonizing immigrants, is trying to back away from ownership of the onerous policy that separates children from their parents, and he has been blathering on that the child-removal is the result of a "Democratic" law that Democrats need to change.  There are a couple of problems with that statement.  First, it is a lie.  There are no laws on the books mandating taking immigrant children from their parents, Democratic or otherwise.   Second, even if such a law did exist, the U.S. government is currently under the complete control of the Republican Party, and Democrats are unable to change anything.

The practice of separating children and parents is a government "policy," a policy that was enacted by the administration of Donald Trump.  It was promoted by Trump aide, Stephen Miller, and has been defended by former Trump chief advisor Steve Bannon, as well as Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders - both of whom defended the policy on Biblical grounds.  (Some religious leaders, however, have openly disagreed with the policy - people like Pope Francis and evangelical huckster Franklin Graham.)

Attorney General Sessions has also said that taking children from their parents is an intentional effort to discourage people from trying to enter the United States.  And Donald Trump appears to be using the abhorrent situation to angle for concessions from Congress - such as funding for his "border wall."  The captive children are, in effect, being used as bargaining chips.

So, Happy Father's Day, America.    Wouldn't it be wonderful if we used this day to honor every father - and mother - and child in America, whether they have a "legal" status or not?  Aren't each of them, and each of us, passengers on the same planet, children of the same God?

Let's celebrate Father's Day by honoring families - not destroying them.

Atone, America, and set those children free!

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