Several times a month, a cluster of “pro-lifers" gather at a busy intersection, which I cannot avoid on my way to work. I respect their right to protest, but not without great discipline to remain calm. What I’d like to do one day is bring my own poster and stand right next to them; alas, they stand a block away from my job, inhibiting my taking a stand.
In writing this post I use the term “pro-life,” but it has become evidently clear that that is Orwellian speak, because what they are against is clear; what they are “pro" is not. Children are abused every day; they go hungry; education isn’t a right given to children of color or poverty; “pro-lifer’s” support politicians that want to prevent a society that affords equal healthcare for all. They are homeless and often forced into prostitution; they are exploited by drug dealers and escape into a life of crime that for-profit prisons enjoy incarcerating. So if these “pro-lifers” are really true to the posters they hold up- “life” would exist outside a woman’s womb.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is right: these migrant camps are concentration camps. I understand how this term connotes one of the most vile desecrations of humanity on earth and why using it vilifies this country to be just as horrific, but America has a history of brutally mistreating human beings. To argue that there are “levels" of treatment, from slaughtering indigenous people for their land, to whippings and chains, to internment camps- how badly people are treated, especially children, cannot be tolerated to spare public sentiment. Once we do that, we are no less guilty than the German citizens who lived with the putrid stench of burning flesh coming from the ovens in "camps" down the road... and said nothing.
When I listened to the lawyer talk about the young, teenage mom with breast milk stains on her shirt, or the child who just urinated on a chair without a clean diaper, or how the stench emanating from the room was so bad that the lawyer couldn't get as close as she wanted to... I cried. I cried as I remembered how it felt after giving birth at 19, with a body full of milk and hormones and feelings, but with a shower to bathe, clean linens to snuggle with my firstborn and my own mom with me to hug and get support from. To know how these young girls are being treated during one of the most life-changing moments- and left to fend for themselves on a cold floor with soiled clothing and no support what-so-ever… well, to say that it is inhumane feels like an understatement.
And guess who has been riding around in a golf cart at camp “Comprehensive Health Services," which is the for-profit prison at the center of children caging? Drum roll please: Former White House Communicator, John Kelly! He is now a Board member of "Calburn (sp?) International,” which just so happens to own, yeah... “Comprehensive Health Services.” As stomach-churning as that it, I have to quell the unease I feel wondering what Stephen Miller is up to- conspicuously absent from public view. Perhaps polishing the buttons on his SS uniform?
We citizens will be tested by this chapter in American history. It is up to us “to be the change we want to see in the world.” (Gandhi). Like the “pro-lifers;" where are they now? If these people say they are doing the Lord's work with their signs of righteous indignation- why aren’t they standing outside camps concentrated by race in protest? Are these not children? Do they not deserve a “pro" sign in their defense? Are these children not worthy of a Lord’s work? Anybody can stand at an intersection in protest- but the real test is living by the spoken word.