Laura Bush: Separating children from their parents at the border breaks my heart [View all]
Last edited Mon Jun 18, 2018, 01:56 PM - Edit history (3)
Source: WA Post
On Sunday, a day we as a nation set aside to honor fathers and the bonds of family, I was among the millions of Americans who watched images of children who have been torn from their parents. In the six weeks between April 19 and May 31, the Department of Homeland Security has sent nearly 2,000 children to mass detention centers or foster care. More than 100 of these children are younger than 4 years old. The reason for these separations is a zero-tolerance policy for their parents, who are accused of illegally crossing our borders.
I live in a border state. I appreciate the need to enforce and protect our international boundaries, but this zero-tolerance policy is cruel. It is immoral. And it breaks my heart.
Our government should not be in the business of warehousing children in converted box stores or making plans to place them in tent cities in the desert outside of El Paso. These images are eerily reminiscent of the Japanese American internment camps of World War II, now considered to have been one of the most shameful episodes in U.S. history. We also know that this treatment inflicts trauma; interned Japanese have been two times as likely to suffer cardiovascular disease or die prematurely than those who were not interned.
Americans pride ourselves on being a moral nation, on being the nation that sends humanitarian relief to places devastated by natural disasters or famine or war. We pride ourselves on believing that people should be seen for the content of their character, not the color of their skin. We pride ourselves on acceptance. If we are truly that country, then it is our obligation to reunite these detained children with their parents -- and to stop separating parents and children in the first place.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/laura-bush-separating-children-from-their-parents-at-the-border-breaks-my-heart/2018/06/17/f2df517a-7287-11e8-9780-b1dd6a09b549_story.html?utm_term=.5408297272e3
Before she was First Lady, Laura Bush was a librarian who worked with kids.
And there is no woman in the Republican party who has more stature than she does.
Also, unlike some of the other R's who've spoken out, she is condemning the zero-tolerance policy without attempting to place any blame on Democrats, or claiming a false equivalence with previous administrations.
Thank you, Laura.
ON UPDATE: I see the Bush Presidential Center is now tweeting Laura's WA Post opinion piece.
And now this: Michelle Obama:
Link to tweet
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