The Weaponizing of Children

I’ve had it.

For a year or two now, I’ve had civil conversations with friends who support Trump. We’ve discussed his policies reasonably and at length. They’ve offered valid reasons for the policies they like. I’ve agreed with some. And vice versa.

I learned that most Trump voters had two primary reasons for supporting him: they hated Hillary Clinton and they thought the system was rigged in favor of “liberal elites”.  I didn’t disagree. To me it was a matter of choosing which crook to vote for.

It’s all part of our democracy.

What isn’t part of our democracy is what our leaders are doing to illegal immigrant children.

Call me a bleeding heart liberal, but tearing children away from their mothers and fathers isn’t American. It is cruel and vicious. It tortures child and parent. It is psychopathic.

Our President is weaponizing children to strike fear in the hearts of any family thinking of crossing into the US illegally.

What if it happened to you, President Trump? Would you or Melania like to see Barron yanked away and not know where he was taken, or what would happen to him, or when you’d see him again? Would you still puff and strut?

How about you, Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, III? Suppose people had taken Mary Abigail, Sam, and Ruth away from you when they were little? Would you keep that phony smile?

Or you, Kirstjen Nielsen, Secretary of Homeland Security? Would you and your husband like to have your kids hauled away? Oh, that’s right. You don’t have a husband. Or kids. That figures: connecting with someone emotionally requires empathy, which you clearly don’t have.

We’d have to reach back to WWII and Roosevelt’s internment of Japanese Americans to come even close to what Trump and his minions are doing to these families.

No. Wait! There was an actual war then and the country was scared of anything Japanese. There was something of an excuse, weak as it was.

No. Wait again! Roosevelt didn’t separate Japanese kids from their parents. He actually kept the Japanese families together – even in the internment camps.

We’d have to go back to the 1930’s to find the last time someone tore children from their parents’ arms, back to Hitler and the Nazi’s. That’s when trainloads of Jews arrived at concentration camps and children were immediately taken away, most never to be seen again.

If referring to the Holocaust seems like a stretch, Google: dr. seuss 1941 cartoon adolf the wolf.

You’ll see a grandmother type reading to two frightened kids: “…and the wolf chewed up the children and spit out their bones. But these were Foreign Children and it didn’t really matter.”

Note the “America First” slogan on her shirt.

Note the drawing style. Yes, that Dr. Seuss.

Stephen Miller, one of the Trump advisors behind the weaponizing of children, was a Jeff Sessions’ advisor before joining Trump’s staff.

Here’s a scary fact: Stephen Miller is Jewish.

You know what is really scary? With a few exceptions, our Republican leaders, from Senator McConnell to Speaker Ryan to Senator Toomey of PA, – every one of them – has been downplaying, ignoring, or outright denying the immorality of treating people this way.

They aren’t leaders; they’re cowards, focused only on keeping their power.

They’ve been too busy genuflecting to their Don to stand up for children.

Just for a minute, Mr. and Ms. Republican, just for a minute, let’s forget about politics. Let’s forget the Clintons’ hijacking of the Democratic Party, over-regulation and over-taxation, climate change and all the other issues.

Just for a minute, imagine that some son-of-a-bitch just took your kids from you.

Imagine the horror, the freezing fear, the boiling rage.  Imagine getting your hands around the neck of any of the people who did that to your kids, to your grandchildren, to any child.

Now, hold onto that horror, hold onto that fear, hold onto that rage through the November election and maybe even 2020.

Take those feelings to your voting booth and throw out every single politician who supported – even for a moment – weaponizing children.

Democrats and Independents may be disorganized, weak-willed, regulation happy, do-gooders, and all the rest. But they don’t do this to children.

Yes. I’ve had it. And I hope you have, too.

(If you like this, pass it on. If you don't, pass it on anyway. Why should you suffer alone?)

I’ve changed my life

I wasn’t paying attention. I wanted to. I spend all winter waiting and waiting and waiting for the cold to blow away. I kept looking out the window, anticipating balmy breezes, cookouts, and long summer sunsets.

Nothing.

And then, at some point, the boredom of winter got to me and I started following the news – fake news, real news, stupid news, funny news, sad news – anything news related.

It wasn’t long before anything news related became anything Trump related. I became enmeshed in Trumpism – all day, every day: which oligarchs he admired, which Democrats he ridiculed, what nicknames he assigned to his enemies, which of his golf courses he played. It was captivating.

And then “Trumpisms” were replaced by Trump conspiracies:

Like Amazon’s Jeff Bezos aiming the Washington Post at Trump and taking advantage of the Post Office.

Like the FBI spying on Trump.

Or knife-wielding children flooding our southern border and infecting our schools with their hispanicism.

And Deep State newspapers and leftie TV channels working together to destroy democracy with facts.

I mean, this required all my time. I was so worried I missed writing column the week before last. I stopped smiling.

If my internet hadn’t dropped out during a late winter rainstorm, I would have had no idea about spring.

I went outside one day a few weeks ago and saw all these flowers! And grass! Look how high! (That must be why the town code enforcement officer has been sending me all those nasty notes.)

There were kids riding bikes and playing baseball. My neighbor, Neat Mike, was restocking his bee-hive and building an above-ground garden (he says bending over to pick vegetables at ground level ruins the crease in his pants).

I started smiling again. Really.

And then the strangest thing happened. I felt an insatiable desire to check my TV, my computer, or my cell phone for Trump updates.

So I did. And I lost the rest of Spring.

And my smile.

My kids called it Trump-Addiction, but of course, what did they know, really. Besides, they’re addicted to cell phones whereas I could take them or leave them.

When I left them, I just turned on my computer. It was easy and, frankly, the screen is bigger and easier to read. That’s probably why young people know less – smaller screens.

A lot of people decry digital newspapers. Not me. While CNN or Fox are just starting to edit their stories, the New York Times, Washington Post, New York Post, Google News, Associated Press, and all the rest, have already published them on-line.

Sure, I had to read them instead of seeing the pictures, but that was another advantage I had as a grownup: I liked to read.

As a result, I knew about all things Trump-related way ahead of my kids or Neat Mike.

The only problem was, by following Trump so closely, I had missed most of spring.

And that’s when it hit me. Wow. The kids were right: I was Trump-Addicted.

So, I’ve gone cold turkey. I cut cable, ignored local and national news shows, and deleted all news links on my computer. I don’t go near the newspaper stand at WaWa. When people at parties start talking about Trump, I smile serenely and walk away.

I go on long walks and am getting in better shape. My appetite is back. I’ve stopped making jokes about Neat Mike’s garden and he says he’ll give me a tomato or two if I continue to be nice.

Life is much better.

Oh, and I discovered Netflix and Amazon’s Fire Stick and Chrome and HBO Go and other streaming entertainment sites. They’re really great.

I could watch them 24-7…

(If you like this, pass it on. If you don't, pass it on anyway. Why should you suffer alone?)

Dear NRA, Gun Manufacturers, Everyone opposed to gun control:

One person – a teenager this time – uses two guns (or “instruments” according to Republican Congressman Trey Gowdy of South Carolina).

 

10 more killed!  1 teacher and 9 children.

 

Yeah for you!

 

Oh, I know. It’s not the “instruments”. It’s the person.

 

So… should we get rid of “instruments”,

 

Or people?

(If you like this, pass it on. If you don't, pass it on anyway. Why should you suffer alone?)