MARK M. MCDERMOTT
July 30, 2018
Everywhere I go, many people
are upset and angry about the brutal, cruel and inhumane immigration policies
of the Trump administration. The latest
wave of outrage has focused on individuals and families seeking asylum, refugee
status and, safety from brutal and unsafe conditions in their homelands. The Trump solution has been to forcibly
separate children from their parents and jail entire families with virtually no
regard for the law or the impacts on these children and their families.
As I reflect on these
deliberate abuses by the administration, I want to find hope and inspiration
that will encourage people to continue their fights to change these immigration
policies.
So where do I find hope and
inspiration? The extraordinary level of
resistance that led to 700+ demonstrations and protests on June 30th
alone. This is unprecedented in our
nation’s history of immigration. The
soul of our country is not dead. It is
rising up against these and so many other injustices. It is critically
important for people of conscience to use our own history to grasp the
significance of our modern-day resistance and find hope and inspiration to keep
fighting forward.
Consider this
perspective. For almost 250 years, it
was constitutional and legal for white slavers and slave-owners to rip children
away from their unjustly enslaved parents. Children were separated from their
parents and sold to separate slave owners. The power of our government and the
dominant social mores backed these practices.
Tragically, the outcry of the white population was small and weak for
most of this period. Eventually, African-Americans
and people of conscience organized the abolitionist movement and these barbaric
slavery practices were wiped out after the Civil War. How many children and their parents suffered such
unfathomable life-changing pain and injustice. Millions of children were torn
away from their enslaved parents each year for 250 years. The number boggles my
mind and pains my soul.
Our nation was founded by
tearing away Native Americans from their land and forcing the survivors on to
reservations. White settlers pushed people into smaller and smaller areas and countless
Indian people were killed and wounded. Once
the carnage was over and the land taken, the government tore thousands of
children away from their parents and forced them into schools where they were cleansed
of their heritage and values. Thousands more children were taken. It was not
until the 1970s till Native Americans and people of conscience ended these
horrific practices.
So where do I find hope and in this current period of
injustice and cruelty towards immigrants in America? As
we have seen in the past, I find hope and inspiration that we, the people, have
risen nearly a thousand demonstrations and protests in one day.
It is critical for people
of conscience to recognize that the level of resistance to these injustices
today dwarfs the resistance for most of the 250+ years of slavery and the
conquest and dispossession of our Native American brothers and sisters.
Our own history can give
us hope and inspiration that we can prevail over injustice and create a more
just and humane future. We can do this
if we find hope and inspiration in our own acts of justice and compassion and
inspire others to take action as well.
Despair is our enemy. Hope is our
ally. We can bring hope to our friends,
families, communities, and unions and inspire them to act.
Do you agree? Is this perspective helpful to you and those
you love? Let’s us know.
