I have nothing new or noteworthy to add to the reports of children being separated from their parents at our nation’s southern border. Outrage from all sides of the political spectrum is at a fever pitch, as it should be. But I’m confounded by the gleeful cruelty displayed by the people supporting this policy. From the president’s word choices (infest?) to Jeff Sessions highly selective Bible-thumping to former campaign chair Corey Lewandowski’s mocking of a child with Down syndrome to the Fox news host who claimed the detention centers were just like summer camps, the soundbites are piling up and they are damning. Even if you believe that we need to take a harder stance on immigrants and refugees seeking to enter the country, why would you double down on hateful rhetoric? Why would you crack jokes?
I keep hearing people say that that this isn’t who we are as a country. I disagree. This is exactly who we are. We are an immoral, cruel, vindictive nation that idolizes the rich and powerful and openly despises anyone who is needy or weak. We punish anyone unlucky enough to be born into difficult or impossible circumstances, whether here or abroad. We deliver mean-spirited punchlines instead of meaningful debate. We claim to care about the sanctity of life, but children in America aren’t safe from gun violence at school or at church or on the playground, and many mothers in America don’t have access to even basic health care. And now we are the nation that rips crying babies from their mothers’ arms with zero thought to what is in the best interest of the child.
We’re a nation of empty, meaningless “thoughts and prayers.” We are a nation without a conscience and without a soul. And for everyone who is thinking “what about…” some other cruel thing some other administration did in the past, don’t bother. I agree with you. Our history is rife with evidence that we are a nation of terrible people committing terrible acts against humanity, but now we are even worse. Now we are terrible and gleeful at the same time. Now we are not only a nation that threatens the lives of innocent children, we are the nation that cracks jokes about it on national television.
If you disagree, then prove me wrong. Trust me, I’d love to be wrong.
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