Remember that horrifying image taken of Elian Gonzalez during a raid by US Border Patrol? The image was taken by freelancer photographer Alan Diaz, and shows an armed Border Patrol agent confronting a screaming Elian, being held by stunned-looking Donato Dalrumple.
The image became nationally and internationally famous.
And, as it took place in the waning years of the Clinton/Gore administration, and VP Al Gore's initial retraction of support of legislation that would give the boy and his father permanent residence may have been a key factor in his losing the Cuban American vote.
But the type of confrontation that the image portrayed, and potential for violence that it promised and foretold, is exactly what today's Republican "candidates" for President are promising to enhance and to act upon.
This is what Donald Trump is saying. This is what Jeb Bush and Scott Walker are saying, or at the very least implying, when they address their screaming, violent, myopic minions of mindless mayhem & destruction.
This is what we need to share with others, to remind them of, to enlist their aid in preventing repetitions of.
Yes, this actually happened. And it happened under a Democratic president - during a Clinton presidency, in fact. The Right will be ecstatic, and point that out ad nauseum.
But the image remains.
The image doesn't evoke the political idiotology of one side or another - it exemplifies the idiotology of using force & violence as a primary approach to solving immigration issues.
The rabid rabble are being stirred toward mindless, mind-numbing violence & outrage. Please use the above to help put the face of innocence in front of them, and remind them that our nation is supposed to be a beacon of freedom, of democracy, of hope, in an ever-darkening world - not the killer of dreams, dispenser of death or harbinger of hate and xenophobia.