These are difficult times we live in. Climate changes are disrupting our lives in ways we never anticipated. The hurricanes and the tornadoes are stronger and more intense. The floods more numerous all over the country. Homes are being destroyed, lives broken with the losses, and some have died. Temperatures are rising in the oceans and on land. Animals, birds, and insects are decreasing in number. In some parts of the world, the weather is already effecting the production of food, and water is scarce. People are on the move in order to help their families survive.

Wars are being fought because of greed and power. Corruption is rampant, even here in the United States. Terrorists and internal rival gangs are shooting people, threatening the lives of children outside our borders, and mass shootings are occurring at an unacceptable rate in our country. People leave if their children are in danger. They are looking for shelter, food, water, and safety for their families. Something we would do if we were trying to save our family members.

In America, we can choose to ignore migrants, threaten to hurt them or their children if they don’t leave, punish them by taking away their children, hold them in wire cages like animals and withhold resources, or we can treat them with the dignity and respect most of them deserve. At the very least, we can treat them with kindness and help if we can. Children do not deserve being treated like political pawns. They do not deserve to have bombs dropped on them, or to be torn from the arms of their mothers. Traumatizing them  by moving them away for long periods of time does nothing but handicap them for the rest of their lives emotionally. They are innocent and they are being punished which is wrong. There is no justification for it. A long time ago I heard a history teacher say, “What sets apart a civilized country from one that is not, is how the vulnerable are protected and cared for. “(This post comes in two parts. Part two will follow.)

Yu/stan/kema