Seven year-old Jakelin Amei Rosmery Caal Maquin, from Guatemala died of dehydration and shock after she was taken into Border Patrol custody last week for crossing from Mexico into the United States illegally with her father.
Why did not anyone notice that she needed food and water? She was a child. She was seven years old. She died of thirst in America.
Feel the collective guilt.
Mothers living south of America’s border who are living in poverty, who are living in fear, who have no way of protecting their children from harm, travel north to seek a better life for their children. The journey to America’s border is dangerous and the journey is expensive. The journey is a life changing decision. But north of the border is America where life is better and where dreams are realized.
In the summer of 2018 dreams were shattered. America separated mothers and fathers from their children at the border. There was zero tolerance, zero compassion, zero empathy.
On June 20,2018 America ended a separation policy that had resulted in over 2000 children being separated from their parents.
Was the notion to build an invisible wall on the backs of the mothers who had their children pulled from them? Was the notion to send word across the border that there is a wall of tears, a wall that a mother does not want to cross with her child, a wall that even the safety from crime is not worth climbing – because the message sent was your child will be snatched away by an American in a uniform. Snatched away under the American flag.
Dreams turned to nightmares for theses mothers.
The USA is separating children from mothers, fathers and siblings at the southern border. The USA is putting children in detention centers without their family. The USA is depriving children of the security of family, depriving children of the touch of parents, depriving children of the brotherhood and sisterhood of siblings. The USA is sending mothers and fathers back to their country of origin without their children-maybe never to be joined again.
We as a people should be fearful that we as a nation are slipping quickly into a nation who condones atrocities to humanity. Are we listening to the children crying? Are we listening to the mothers moaning? Are we feeling the despair of the father who has lost all sense of hope?
The definition of drowning is to die through submersion in and inhalation of water.
On January 30, 2016, a small boy drowned after the boat that he was on capsized in the Aegean Sea. His body washed up on the Turkish coast. He was wearing socks with little blue cars. He and his parents were fleeing war torn Syria and were trying to reach Europe.
It is winter 2016 in America. We are contemplating the upcoming presidential election. We are worried about terrorism. We are trying to make ends meet. Each one of us has fears and challenges, but none of us has to dress our toddler up in his favorite blue stripped winter hat and take our child on an unsafe boat in order to escape the dangers of war.
America is a country that is rooted in immigration. The words “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free” should be more than a platitude, they should be words that reflect our arm that reaches out to people who seek refuge from war, poverty, violence and other life situations that make their existence intolerable. Our acceptance of the” huddled masses” is what has made America great.
When we rescue the drowning from a sea of atrocities we are the America that is a beacon of hope for the “huddled masses” of the world. We are America the Beautiful.
In The Light of Day
The Killing Zone is where the enemy is expected to travel.
In the Killing Zone the enemy is isolated and trapped.
The Killing Zone is a place to kill an enemy.
The Killing Zone is a place for the enemy to die.
Who is the enemy?
Not enjoyment, and not sorrow
Is our destined end or way
But to act that each tomorrow
Find us further than today
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (excerpt from A Psalm of Life)
Under the cover of darkness men, women and children risk their lives to be part of the American Dream.
Barrier Study
Open the gates and take down the signs.
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea!
America the Beautiful Words by Katharine Lee Bates,
A Delicate Balance
Law is neither wrong nor right,
Law is only crimes
Punished by places and by times,
Law is the clothes men wear
Anytime, anywhere,
Law is Good-morning and Good-night
1939 W.H. Auden from Law Like Love
The beauty of America is that we are a country ruled by laws. America’s laws are made by the people. America knows that not all laws are always wise and just. In America there is a process to review unjust/unwise laws. In America revision is possible, self reflection is honored. Is it possible that America is at a time in its history that calls for reflection on the laws governing immigration?
Yearning
The road is dark and lonely and
the atmosphere is strange and unfriendly.
The job is hard and
the pay is low.
But this is America and
it will get better,
because in America there is “liberty and justice for all.”
Isolation
Fear eats away at the heart of America.
Fear makes America distrust.
Fear makes America aggressive.
The border fence reinforces the culture of fear.
The fence is a symbol of fear.
America should heed Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s words of wisdom :
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
pamelaflynnart 