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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsStuff that needs to be said.....
Last edited Tue Jul 31, 2018, 07:07 PM - Edit history (2)
"There are ways to alert you that people around you have lost the basic plot of humanity; massive red flags that point to a fundamental heart sickness, a cancer of cruelty that has metastasized to the point of being irreparable.
Ive seen those signs far too often lately, from adult human beings who are no longer moved by the trauma of a child. The suffering of the most vulnerable among us is not cause for grief, as it would normally be in a properly working soulbut simply another occasion for them to double down on a political position regardless of the cost.
The daily social media refrains are familiar:
The parents shouldnt have come here illegally.
Thats what happens when you break the law!
Oh, theyll be just fine.
These kids arent innocent. (This is from our President himself.)
Do you hear yourselves, America?
Do you hear the sound of your voice as it diminishes and drowns out the raw-throated cries of a terrified toddler whose family has disappeared?
Do you hear yourself rationalizing families willingly separated and not reunited?
I dont imagine you can hear yourself anymorebecause if you could, youd realize how sickening you sound.
Youd realize how far youve strayed from anything resembling decency.
Youd understand how callous your heart has grown.
Youd be as sick to your stomach as I am listening to you.
This has nothing to do with immigration or protecting borders or disagreements on policy.
This isnt about politics, its about being human.
When you stop caring about children, your empathy is badly broken.
When you find yourself (for whatever reason) standing between a parent and a childyouve chosen the wrong side.
When you excuse, or explain away, or even boast in the suffering of a baby, youve lost the battle for your soul.
When your need to bolster your political opinion or justify your vote or simply be right supersedes your protection of life on its most fundamental levelyou may want to rethink the path youve chosen.
I wonder what percentage of your children would be acceptable for you to have taken from you and never returned. I suppose its zero, now isnt it?
But these kids arent like your kids. These parents arent the parents you are, right? That is the story you tell yourself, isnt it?
I can understand why.
I suppose its easier to disregard these children if you convince yourself that they or their parents are somehow culpable for their plight.
I imagine abject contempt is much simpler if you dont stop to ask why a mother or father might risk so much; what poverty or worry or threat they might be fleeing from to begin with.
Im sure your flippant tweets and tossed-off comments wouldnt come as easily if you took a half a second to wonder what a refugee is actually taking refuge from; why they seek sanctuary.
Fortunately for you, youve probably never faced such urgency. From that spot of safety and security, sermonizing and finger-wagging is effortless and it costs you nothing. In your whiteness and relative wealth, youve probably never been pressed by such despair.
If you convince yourself that all these families are criminals, gang members, and drug runners, that might make your inhumanity more palatable to youbut that would be a lie.
These are children: unique, unprecedented, never to be repeated in the history of the planet, human beings.
They are lives at their most vulnerable, most delicate, most needy.
They are beautifully original human beings, with wide eyes and open hearts and boundless potential within them.
They are in the middle of the only childhoods theyll ever have, and they are as valuable as the children sleeping in the room next to you or sitting across the table from you.
If you can rationalize why none of that matters, I feel sorry for you and for the world youre making here.
I realize these words probably wont make a difference. If petrified kids in glorified dog kennels didnt move you to griefIm fairly sure no words will, but I had to say them. Maybe they will reach you in some deep hidden corner where empathy still lives. Maybe youll see how much good you could do.
This isnt about ratifying your political affiliations or about supporting your President or about penalizing these parents.
This is about you, and whether or not youre pro-life enough to be burdened to sickness by the damage to these lives; whether youre willing to be for them, before you are for a political party or a President.
Friend, when you stop caring about children, youve stop being human.
Its really that simple.
Its really that important.
Stay human."
Credit goes to John Pavlovitz.....https://johnpavlovitz.com/
KT2000
(20,568 posts)bobbieinok
(12,858 posts)Louis1895
(768 posts)Thank you for posting this. I need to read more of his writings.
Anyone interested in the original source of this and John Pavlovitz's other writings:
https://johnpavlovitz.com
jayschool2013
(2,311 posts)Journalists work hard, and they deserve to get as many clicks to their original material as possible.
Copying and pasting people's hard work does those journalists very little good.
Louis1895
(768 posts)I guess I shall continue to seek out the original postings.
We all should try to give credit where credit is due.
jayschool2013
(2,311 posts)defacto7
(13,485 posts)We also need to be careful giving click credit to news and organizations that are contrary to our pro human message. I see those links offered all too often.
This post link is worth as much positive feedback as possible.
Heartstrings
(7,349 posts)I should have done that......
Louis1895
(768 posts)Great read!
I posted it at Facebook. Will be curious to see if any of my Trumper relatives respond, especially since most of them are evangelicals.
saidsimplesimon
(7,888 posts)From recent evidence, I am losing optimism that the current trend is just a blimp on a chart of continued cruelty, disrespect and ignorance.
onecent
(6,096 posts)Very nicely written!!!
Heartstrings
(7,349 posts)The credit goes to John Pavlovitz, however....
hkp11
(275 posts)will be remembered and shown in history just like the other inhumane treatments during our world's history - Hitler, etc.
Beautiful writing by J Pavlovitz.
A child is blank slate, who is molded by their family, friends, discovery, emotions, experiences, learning, and a possible changer of the world that will be written about in history or a unique human being that brings happiness to their families, friends, and others around them that will remember that unique human.
Shame on these inhumane beings that have lost their souls of human decency.
c-rational
(2,589 posts)psychotropic drugs. Where is the moral outrage.
colorado_ufo
(5,730 posts)smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)TomSlick
(11,092 posts)oasis
(49,339 posts)defacto7
(13,485 posts)TexasBushwhacker
(20,148 posts)Most people will tell you they would do anything for their children. But suddenly, when someone with brown skin is willing do anything, including break the law, for a better, safer life for their children, they are demons. What a crock of shit.