Currently I am in flying from Washington DC en route to El Paso, Texas to participate in a peaceful demonstration in front of the Tornillo Detention Center. I will be representing the National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd.
Some 200 children are being held in the detention center as "alien unaccompanied minors." Many are "unaccompanied" solely because they have been forcibly separated from their parents.
Aside from representing the National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, I have personal reasons. Before I was born, my father filed for divorce from my mother. Possibly for economic reasons, it was the Great Depression, during the divorce proceedings my two older brothers were placed in a foster home while I was placed in a state nursery. Growing up, I lived in different foster homes.
Overall I was well treated. Yet deep in my psyche, I know the pain of separation. As many others, I respond viscerally to the reports of the Trump Administration decision to separate children from their parents at the border. While supposedly the Trump policy has been changed, approximately 2,000 children still remain locked up in places such as the Tornillo Detention Center.
The poet W.H. Auden said, "All I have is a voice to undo the folded lie." Lacking great political power, I can join my voice, my presence, with other people, to challenge the Trump administration as it tears children from their mothers.
If we do not push back against what is evil, the evil of the Trump administration will become accepted as normal. This must not happen. Auden ends his stanza with, "We must love one another or die."
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Learn through this CBS News report that Tornillo is NOT subject to health and welfare inspections like nearly every other detention center.
Some 200 children are being held in the detention center as "alien unaccompanied minors." Many are "unaccompanied" solely because they have been forcibly separated from their parents.
Aside from representing the National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, I have personal reasons. Before I was born, my father filed for divorce from my mother. Possibly for economic reasons, it was the Great Depression, during the divorce proceedings my two older brothers were placed in a foster home while I was placed in a state nursery. Growing up, I lived in different foster homes.
Overall I was well treated. Yet deep in my psyche, I know the pain of separation. As many others, I respond viscerally to the reports of the Trump Administration decision to separate children from their parents at the border. While supposedly the Trump policy has been changed, approximately 2,000 children still remain locked up in places such as the Tornillo Detention Center.
The poet W.H. Auden said, "All I have is a voice to undo the folded lie." Lacking great political power, I can join my voice, my presence, with other people, to challenge the Trump administration as it tears children from their mothers.
If we do not push back against what is evil, the evil of the Trump administration will become accepted as normal. This must not happen. Auden ends his stanza with, "We must love one another or die."
--------------
Learn through this CBS News report that Tornillo is NOT subject to health and welfare inspections like nearly every other detention center.
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