An October surprise

Amber Alert is one thing. Abandoned in immigration/concentration camp is another.

It’s hard to imagine it is happening here in the US: kids lost in the shuffle.

I thought it only happens somewhere far far away, where the “thin red line” is (and even then, the whole village would chip in, help out and raise the child).

In our current situation, which needs to be rectified quickly – enough damage done to these 545 children’s psych on top of the US reputation. The policy served its intended and unintended purpose alright: nobody would want to “traffic” no kids no where near that border wall (no Mexican government is paying for it. Only its General who was apprehended in LAX on alleged drug charges).

Besides, with covid causing Latino deaths disproportionately, it’s a safer bet for everyone to stay put in South America. At least there you live and live together.

We can have a third-party Ad Agency (bi-lingual) run a campaign “We really do care”, blanketing countries of origin, to ID and re-unite families. If North and South Korean families can (after 68 years), we, the greatest nation on Earth, too can.

It’s unconscionable. It’s inhumane. And it’s unacceptable ( border-separation pilot? was it like a covid clinical trial Round 1, with lots of bugs- in this case, 545 of them).

Modern history condemned 9/11 and condoned the hunting down/killing of Bin Laden i.e. when it’s obvious, we act. Now we face another test. Can we, collectively, stand tall, in front of a mirror, and face our compromising selves.

Forget about Dreamers. Forget about Affordable Care Acts. This issue is plain and simple: you cannot “Ooops” in the name of anything. Since covid, the only terrorists we saw were home-grown domestic ones.

The Rule of Law still stays but as a subset to the Golden Rule: we don’t do this to other people’s children because we don’t want them do to ours. When I grew up, I was semi-abandoned between 9-5. But the adults in my family made sure we had domestic helps, who watched over me while doing their other chores. Now, I spend my days on payback and pay-forward.

Abandonment is like death. It deprives one of his/her rightful inheritance (the gap in memory and the missing piece called love).

Well, if we are connected at all by red blood and moon river, karma will have the last say. Don’t wait for it to speak up, for by then, it would be too late. Imagine yourself being one of those children in detention. Even when Apple and Nike decide to donate their corporate goods, what would the kid do with shoes and I-phone 12’s? Calling whom? and run toward whom? “I really don’t care, do U” (as the jacket says).

I remember now that B/W picture of children running towards their Dads, POW’s. who just got off the plane, still holding luggage across the tarmac.

We want that happy ending. We can make it happen. After all, NASA has just landed on an Asteroid safe and sound, for God’s sake. Our tech gets way ahead of our humanity. Like the one with Bruce Willis in Mercury Rising. Still plenty of days (10) to pull an October surprise to uphold that reputation as a nation that once said “Give me your tired, your poor.”