Saturday, August 10, 2019

Trauma

Right after posting the photo of those four beautiful little girls in my last post, I ran across another image of little brown children, this one in the news, and it just stopped me. The trauma on those children's faces. They are the children in Mississippi whose undocumented parents, more than 600 of them, were rounded up by ICE at their jobs at poultry farms and other food factories this week. The seizing of these working men and women, who pay taxes on every item they purchase in this country, happened as the piece of shit president was in El Paso, supposedly to offer condolences after the mass murder that happened there a week ago. But of course, the president is incapable of empathy, so instead, he insisted a baby whose parents died while shielding him from the volley of AK-47 bullets, be brought to the hospital so the president and his wife could hold him up to the cameras and grin obscenely for a photo op. It was sickening.

Meanwhile in Mississippi, children had gone to school that day, and at the end of the day they waited for parents to come and get them, in vain. Some of the children slept in school gyms that night, others were taken in by neighbors. Their terror and grief and tears played across news channels, displaying once again the cruelty of the current administration. Many people asked, what of the business owners who hired these so-called illegals? Why were they getting off scot free? Why do their workers pay the price? The answer is obvious to anyone paying attention of course. Even so, what is happening right now is beyond comprehension to me.

And yet I go on with my life daily. Honestly, we had a wonderful time yesterday afternoon into evening, going with my niece for her final wedding dress fitting, learning how to help her tie the bustle for her train, and then my daughter, my two nieces, my cousin and me going out to dinner during Happy Hour in Chelsea, enjoying deceptively smooth margaritas and laughing together, almost as if the stories coming across the transom aren't happening to us. But make no mistake: We may not be huddled in school gyms and sobbing our hearts out in cafeterias, and feeling annihilated from the terror that we'll never see our parents again, yet the fact is, even when we are behaving as if we are oblivious, as if we can do nothing in this moment to change things, this national nightmare wounds us all.


14 comments:

  1. Your writing is profound. I have not been able to find the words to describe the horror that is happening to these families, but you have perfectly done so. Yes, we are all wounded.

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  2. Oh honey your so right. This has been heartbreaking and I cried my eyes out and wondered what can I do to help those poor kids in all of this POS president is doing to hurt these kids? If I could take some of them and give them the love that they are begging for at this moment I would. But I cannot.
    One question that I have wondered about... Didn't these parents deserve a phone call to call someone, anyone that their child was to be left behind?
    Also didn't that POS President end the separation of families? Why were they not allowed to get their child and be detained like the other families coming here?
    I guess the rules change to his liking. I am so against what he is doing. It makes me sick.
    We as a nation have to come together and vote him out. (Bet he wouldn't leave tho. I bet that he would say that the votes were WRONG). If he wins another election (Honestly) Then we as a nation are complicit with what he is doing.
    I shudder at the thought of another 4 years of him and his horrible administration in charge... I have to end this segment as I feel a rant coming on.

    I am so very glad that you all had such a great time. We have to go on with our daily lives.
    Oh and a wedding... I am sorry I have missed this news. I am trying to catch up as I am new but I do think that it was a wonderful time had by everyone and that makes my heart sing... Hugs, Beth xxx Oh and thank you so much for your comments on my blog. Yes, little else mattered other than my son survived that fire. I am very happy that I heard it from him rather than seeing that photo first. He is such a wonderful young man. All my children are special to me as I know you as a mother know how special your's are also! All our children are Special... even the brown ones...

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  3. You have nailed it. These things DO affect us all and in horrible ways.
    Every thing that this country has done affects us all and will always do so. The way the indigenous people were treated will never be atoned for. Slavery? We will pay for that as long as this is the United States of America and it will never be enough. Not ever. The internment of Japanese citizens is a deep scar on the skin of the country. And so on up to now when the sins of our leaders are causing any and all of us who have one shred of moral decency to want to hide our heads in disbelief and horror. Trump is an evil animal. Cruel and amoral. He hasn't one drop of the milk of human kindness in that black pit where a soul should be. Instead of making America great again he is giving us more and more from which we shall never recover. Just as I think he has reached the nadir of unbelievable behavior, he does something else which disproves that. The picture you're speaking of- the one where Melania is holding that child, is one of the most disgusting inhuman things I've ever witnessed.

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  4. I find it hard to believe that it was a coincidence the raids happened on a day when national attention would be directed elsewhere. Very hard. And as always, the children suffer the most. "Obscene" was a good word to describe that photo op with the baby. I can't fathom the lack of humanity in that man and so many of the people who are backing him.

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  5. this country is fucked up. how anyone can still support that man is beyond me. I have no words especially none that can follow yours.

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  6. I just finished reading a book that was in part about the siege of Leningrad, a mother with two young children caught in a war and what happened to them. There seem to be more and echoes these days, pointing back to Hitler and Stalin and the atrocities that happened under their leadership. It begins. The question is, will it continue? Or will people put a stop to it? It's wrong and everyone knows it but nobody knows how to stop this.

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  7. The situation is a nightmare and most of us feel frozen in that nightmare, not knowing what to do (except vote), not knowing what to say. But you did RM, you said it with clarity and compassion. I'm so grateful for your writing skill and your ability to speak out about complicated issues in a way that echoes our feelings and perceptions. Thank you for this.

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  8. You eloquently express the duality of these times...and keeping our heads down while horrible things continue...That man is worse than a piece of shit...

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  9. Yes. One of Sophie's caregivers has been beside herself. She shakes her head and cries.

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  10. Evil. The man and his administration is pure evil.

    Today The Washington Post has an article called ICE Air. Those men and women in Mississippi--many of them parents--were lined up on a tarmac--shackled--and put on an unmarked airplane and immediately deportated to Guatemala. Will the ugliness never end?

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  11. Thank you for writing this. I needed to read it this morning. I'm trying to learn how to balance the utter angst I feel about these times and also have a somewhat sane life.

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  12. I am so sickened by this, by that man, and so scared that he will manage to get re-elected and if he does it will be the end of us if it isn't already. there are no words to defend this man and his supporters or that there are seemingly so many who still support him.

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  13. What Can We Do To Help? What can we do to stop this man and his administration? There has to be something.
    We have to help these children and we have to help these families. This is appalling and so sickening that this is happening.
    Thank you for the Update. I fumed as I read those words and then I cried because I feel so powerless and know I need to do something but don't know what!
    Beth

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  14. It IS a national nightmare. No question.

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