COMING TO AMERICA

  

 Jakelin Maquin

Seven Years Old

 Felipe Alonzo

Eight Years Old

 
I cannot stop thinking about these two children from Guatemala, seven-year-old Jakelin Caal and eight-year-old Felipe Gómez Alonzo,  who died in Customs and Border Protection custody.   I am sickened by the horrors of the Trump administration and their cavalier  attitude toward the loss of these children. 

GOP Congressman, Peter King had this to say:

 "These are the only two children that have died, certainly in recent memory ... considering what does happen in housing projects ... I think ICE has an excellent record."

An excellent record would be no DEATHS, you moron!  So the two children are simply statistics, is that what you are saying Mr. King?  Do you think DHS should be given a pat on the back for only having two children die while the children were in the custody of our country?  The children had names.  They were part of a family whose only crime was bringing their children on a difficult and dangerous journey seeking a better life.  

 Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said this:

  "Smugglers, traffickers, and their own parents put these minors at risk by embarking on the dangerous and arduous journey north."

When did we become a country of callous, ignorant, blame pivoting liars?  We are a country of immigrants?  When did we start hating immigrants? 

As a child I remember my paternal grandmother telling me the story of her journey from Scotland to America.  It seems like every time I saw her she would bring up the story of being born on a ship from Scotland.  She had, had a twin who did not survive.  She would continue the story with... even though she was tiny, she was strong enough to grab a $100 bill from another passenger.  How much of this story was a "Paul Bunyan" type of tale, I don't know.  The point is that the journey to a new life in America has always been filled with peril.  They were seeking a new life in a new country.  Are the parents of my grandmother to blame for the death of their child who was born on the ship coming to America?

On the maternal side of my family, my ancestors came to a place that was not yet the United States of America.  My six times great  Grandfather Samuel Morrison emigrated to America in 1740 sailing on the ship; "Sally of Coleraine" Their daughter Anna Morrison; born in Ireland died enroute to America and was buried at sea.   Should they have been blamed for the death of their daughter because they chose a perilous journey across the sea to a new land filled with opportunity?    

There's no tragedy in life like the death of a child. Things never get back to the way they were. Dwight D. Eisenhower
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/dwight_d_eisenhower_162228

There's no tragedy in life like the death of a child. Things never get back to the way they were. Dwight D. Eisenhower
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/dwight_d_eisenhower_162228

There's no tragedy in life like the death of a child. Things never get back to the way they were.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/dwight_d_eisenhower_162228

"There is no tragedy in life like the death of a child.  Things never get back to the way they were."
Dwight D. Eisenhower
 
This is Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen response:  "...their own parents put these minors at risk by embarking on the dangerous and arduous journey..."
  
It is long overdue for Ms Nielsen to resign!  She needs to be held accountable for their deaths!!

There's no tragedy in life like the death of a child. Things never get back to the way they were.
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/dwight_d_eisenhower_162228

There's no tragedy in life like the death of a child. Things never get back to the way they were. Dwight D. Eisenhower
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/dwight_d_eisenhower_162228

My ancestors came to this country looking for a better life just as these families coming from Central America.  They knew the journey was perilous and fraught with hardship, but with courage and grit, they came and they are still coming. Granted it was a different time and our country was in a different place when my ancestors came to America, but my point is, what happened to our country that we have lost our compassion and decency; that we have created "holding areas" (internment camps) that are unsafe; that those who still see this country as "a shining city on the hill" are hated and treated with contempt; that we turn our backs on those seeking asylum from dictators and dangerous situations.  When did so many of our citizens become so bitter that they find fault with those who demand that these migrants be treated with dignity? When did helping children become a bargaining tool, a trade off for taking care of our Vets and the poor and marginalized already in our country?  If we are the compassionate and caring country that we believe we are, why can't we do both? 

WHAT HAVE WE BECOME?