"A ship crashed into a Baltimore bridge and demolished the lies about immigration" - Will Bunch

Philadelphia Inquirer.com This satellite image provided by Maxar Technologies shows a view of the Francis Scott Key Bridge that was struck by a container ship in Baltimore on Tuesday, March 26, 2024. The container ship lost power and rammed into the major bridge, causing the span to buckle into the river below. Uncredited / AP

Monday, April 1, 2024 — The Last Word, with Lawrence O’Donnell, had a story about the victims on the Frances Scott Key Bridge.  His guest was columnist Will Bunch of The Philidelphia Inquirer.  It’s a 7-minute view.  

Will Bunch shares a link to the story with no paywall.  See the bottom of the page.  

But the words are worth sharing here, as much as I felt fair use would allow.  Because words matter.  I think Kossacks will be as moved by this story as I was.  I was moved to tears 

Despite the right's ridiculous DEI conspiracy theories, the Baltimore bridge disaster reminded us that immigrants are what makes America great.

by Will Bunch | Columnist Published Mar. 28, 2024, 12:52 p.m. ET

From the day in the mid-2000s when a then-20-year-old Maynor Yassir Suazo Sandoval crossed the border into America, he never stopped working. The youngest of eight children, Suazo was fleeing numbing poverty and a dead-end career path in Azacualpa, a small rural village in the western mountains of Honduras.

The undocumented Suazo wound up in Greater Baltimore, a magnet for Central American refugees with its relatively cheap housing for the bustling Eastern Seaboard, a friendly climate toward migrants, and lots of opportunity. With American dreams of entrepreneurship, he took menial jobs like clearing brush, then launched a package delivery service, and when COVID-19 ended that, started working overnight construction for a Baltimore contractor, Brawner Brothers.

Suazo was described by friends and family as happy, outgoing, and tireless. He had to be. While supporting a wife and two kids, he was also sending $600 to $800 a month back to Azacualpa, enough to help family members buy a small hotel and even support youth soccer. In Baltimore, he was what his brother called “the fundamental pillar” for a growing number of relatives who made it to Maryland. Home from the grueling construction work at 5 a.m., he was out working again by noon, picking up extra dollars cleaning yards, painting houses, or landscaping.

“He always told us that you had to triple your effort to get ahead,” his brother, Martín Suazo Sandoval, told the Associated Press from Honduras. “He said it didn’t matter what time or where the job was, you had to be where the work was.”

At 1:28 a.m. Tuesday, the work was on the Francis Scott Key Bridge.

Snip.

When the Dali cargo ship demolished that bridge support on Tuesday, it also obliterated all the ridiculous lies and myths our demagogues have been spreading around immigration. There were no sex traffickers aboard the Key Bridge that night. Nobody was dealing fentanyl. They were not “animals,” but fathers and husbands like Suazo and Luna, whose wife occasionally showed up in her food truck to bring the men tacos and pupusas. They were filling potholes so their children could have an even better life.

These six workers who perished were not “poisoning the blood of our country,” they were replenishing it. This is a moment of clarity when we need to reject the national disease of xenophobia and restore our faith in the United States as a beacon for the best people like Suazo. They may have been born all over the continent, but when these men plunged into our waters on Tuesday, they died as Americans.

Will Bunch

I'm the national columnist — with some strong opinions about what's happening in America around social injustice, income inequality, and the government.

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I re-read the last paragraph over and over.  

Below is the tweet with the link to the inquirier.com.  

TONIGHT: @PhillyInquirer columnist @Will_Bunch joins @Lawrence on #TheLastWord at 10PM ET. Tune in. https://t.co/vi2JYFiRcd

— The Last Word (@TheLastWord) April 2, 2024

Pulitizer anyone?

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Update:  quetzalmom has shared a link to a fund for the victims of the Frances Scott Key Bridge disaster.  www.baltimorecivicfund/key-bridge-response-fund.  

Thanks to everyone for recommending this story.   I have been at Daily Kos since the “Howard Deaniac Days’”.  And you have made this my all-time most recommended diary.  Thank you for loving it.  I can always count on Kossacks to appreciate and engage in a great story.  

And a special shout out to our Texas Kos friends who shared the diary with their community groups.  TexKos - Takin' Back Texas! and Houston Area Kossacks.  

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