Walk a mile in a migrant’s shoes

By Steve Christensen

What would you do if your child was taken from you? I would probably get shot trying to get him or her back.
Thousands of children were separated from their parents during a month-long political debacle that ended with a presidential order stopping the practice. And yet, many of those children have not been reunited with their parents. Many children are kept in chain link cages. Call them what you want, they are cages.
When these children appear before a judge they are not entitled to an attorney. In fact, they can’t even have an adult appear with them. So 2-year-olds must appear before a judge by himself. Seriously, a 2-year-old? Why bother with a hearing at all?
The constitution guarantees people, all people, due process. This applies to citizens and non-citizens. Denying people due process is unconstitutional. All people. Anyone. Everyone.
Again I ask, what would you do if someone came to your house and took away your child? Perhaps it isn’t, or wasn’t, quite the same, but the result is identical.
What would you do if you went to another country and your child was taken from you? I suggest you would fight and you would expect (rightfully so) the wrath of our entire country to rain down on the people responsible. We wouldn’t stand for it, and we shouldn’t.
So the next question I ask is, who are we? Are we people who condone such action, regardless of the situation? Are we people who will stand for it?
I suggest we aren’t and we wouldn’t and we shouldn’t. But it happened. It happened because we have a president who doesn’t care about people and apparently doesn’t care about the constitution. Oh, he wants to spin it in numerous ways that suggest he was not to blame, but he was. He could have stopped it as soon as it started. He could have stopped it before it started. But he didn’t, because he was trying to make a point. The point being that you can’t come here and if you do, we will stop at nothing to make it miserable for you.
Is that really who we are? Where did we come from? My ancestors came from Denmark in the 19th century. Where did your ancestors come from? Where did your spouse’s ancestors come from. For that matter, where did your spouse come from?
The point is, unless you are Native American, you came from somewhere else.
What if Native Americans stopped us as we got off the boats and took away our children? Just to give them a bath. But then, they are never returned.
Where have I heard that story before? Oh yeah, Germany in the late 1930s.
I repeat, that is not who we are. That is not who we should be.
Okay, I get that not everyone can live here. But, separating parents and children is not the way to accomplish it.
We must do whatever necessary to see that it doesn’t happen again.