{"id":3960,"date":"2018-05-31T16:07:40","date_gmt":"2018-05-31T16:07:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/?p=3960"},"modified":"2018-06-08T16:08:43","modified_gmt":"2018-06-08T16:08:43","slug":"whats-going-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/?p=3960","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s Going on?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Growing up in New York City in the aftermath of World War II, I recall my Jewish neighbors bearing numbered tattoos on their arms that branded them as survivors of Nazi concentration camps. Beside the tattoos, they often wore grim masks of resignation and shrugged at whatever peril a day threatened. Nothing could compare with what they'd already suffered.<\/p>\n

Long before I ached as a teenager reading \u201cThe Diary of Ann Frank,\u201d I ached for the millions of men, women and children swept up in such a terrifying period of history. Seeing newsreel footage of camps finally being liberated produced such horror in me, I could not settle on any thought but, \u201cHow could this happen?\u201d  I abhor attempts to trivialize or deny the Holocaust.<\/p>\n

The American G.I.s who liberated the concentration camps are long dead, but surely, they recoiled at what their eyes had seen and suffered nightmare visions of skeletal victims. Long before post-traumatic stress attained its clinical name, these soldiers trudged through life as our brooding fathers, retreating into their own thoughts before the blue light of the TV screen.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to 2018: We greet each day with more dread than I can ever recall, given the assault on the government by the 45th president and right-wing media and the attendant rise of Nazi White Supremacists poised to fight the so-called Deep State with military-style assault weapons and drive away non-whites with presidentially sanctioned contempt.<\/p>\n

Too much silence greets the actions of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents as they increasingly detain immigrants with no criminal records, and the president lumps all immigrants in his disgust for M-13 gang \u201canimals.\u201d In one telling change, immigration issues once considered to be civil offenses with civil penalties are now treated as criminal offenses. We're told children of criminals must be separated from their families.<\/p>\n

Even Betsy DeVos, the head of the Department of Education, expressed openness to ICE agents rounding up immigrant children in public school classrooms if communities elected to do so, a violation of the U.S. Constitution.<\/p>\n

White House Chief of Staff John Kelly responded to questions about ICE \u201closing track\u201d of 1,475 unaccompanied immigrant children in the system when they were transferred to the Health and Human Service\u2019s Office of Refugee Resettlement by telling NPR, \"The children will be taken care of \u2014 put into foster care or whatever.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever.\u201d<\/p>\n

I see photos of detained children put to sleep on floor mats and covered with foil blankets. I wonder what U.S. agents could possibly feel as they patrol the cages holding these hapless \"illegal aliens.\"<\/p>\n

Given America\u2019s historic pride in welcoming \"Those yearning to breathe free,\u201d there must be at least a gnawing disconnect for patriots who never thought they signed up to conduct this cruel operation, even in the name of deterrence. Americans liberate<\/em> the oppressed.<\/p>\n

On May 7, Attorney General Jeff Sessions vowed to 100% separate children from parents attempting to enter the country along the southern border (or authorized entry points) even if seeking asylum. \u201cIf you don\u2019t want your child separated, then don\u2019t bring them across the border illegally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senator Jeffrey Merkley of Oregon, denied entry to a detention center, said, \u201cThis isn\u2019t zero tolerance; this is zero humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the American Civil Liberties Union, the administration counts on confusion among citizens to advance an anti-immigarion agenda and widen the net for detainees, this time targeting relatives who would dare to step forward to sponsor children in custody. Given this scenario, more children could be left in government custody, at the mercy of \"whatever.\"<\/p>\n

How desperate do parents in unstable Central American countries have to be to risk separation or send their children across the border unaccompanied? As desperate as Jews secreting their children out of Germany from 1933 to 1939? Note: In a U.S. that did not comprehend the seriousness of Nazi crimes, 20,000 Jewish children were ultimately denied entry here.<\/p>\n

By making this comparison, I do not trivialize the enormity of the Holocaust. I wish to avoid its modern equivalent on our soil. I wish to stop asking, \u201cHow can this happen?\u201d <\/p>\n

American Civil Liberties Union<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

\"\"<\/a>

Pretty Baby by Ed Morrisey<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Growing up in New York City in the aftermath of World War II, I recall my Jewish neighbors bearing numbered tattoos on their arms that branded them as survivors of Nazi concentration camps. Beside the tattoos, they often wore grim masks of resignation and shrugged at whatever peril a day threatened. Nothing could compare with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3960"}],"version-history":[{"count":49,"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4012,"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3960\/revisions\/4012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reggiemorrisey.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}