There’s Only One Bad Option Here: Silence
Apparently there has never been a good time to to keep one’s head down and stay out of politics, thus Plato’s famous remark: “One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.”
The memes here take it one step further: It’s wrong to be silent and cowardly when you see something horrendous happening around you. This week it’s putting children in cages, next week it will be something else.
It’s perfectly possible that something good will come out of all this madness. Maybe we’ll look back on this horrific experience as a teachable moment, and perhaps we’ll all be better and stronger for having lived through it. If that, in fact, does happen, it is because we had one key asset in our corner: your voice.
Craig,
There is a lot of virtue in what you wrote today.
However, when “speaking out” you must have an alternative to policies you dislike if you are to be credible and not just make a bad situation, worse.
That’s the dilemma in matters of public policy, how to enforce policy with no downsides or resistance. “Choosing sides” is all very well, but simply condemning the actions necessary to enforce public policy without suggesting any practical alternative (yet still accepting the benefits of those policies) is just useless hypocrisy.
Opponent’s of the current US administration loudly protest the actions of US authorities enforcing the law to stem the flow of illegal migration, but the question of why this practice is suddenly so shocking when enforced openly by President Trump, and yet was perfectly acceptable when President Obama was in office, is evidence of the hypocrisy that exists in US society.
Where were you Craig, when this law was being passed by a Democrat administration ? Why didn’t you protest then ?
The problem of illegal migration is vexing. Government’s, no matter how compassionate, sooner or later must yield to the demands of their citizens and halt illegal migration.
Every Western nation faces the same dilemma on migration. The US authorities must ensure undocumented children are not the victims of child trafficking, or professional people smugglers who often pose as parents to children that are not theirs to avoid detection.
Children are often used as drug mules and identity thieves. Once these people are taken into custody, the US Authorities must assume responsibility for their welfare.
It’s reasonable to assume the parents when contemplating the risks of illegal entry, were aware of the risks of separation.
Australia went through the tragedy of dealing with a flood of illegal migration until hard policy decisions were taken and enforced which effectively stopped the flood.
For nearly a decade, Australia maintained a compassionate and orderly intake of migration until a new administration relaxed the deterrents to illegal migration. The resulting chaos caused the deaths of more than 1500 migrants at sea, many of whom were children.
The situation quickly became intolerable and it was left a newly elected government to restore the policy of deterrence at great cost and suffering.
Fortunately, the policy worked. The flood of illegal migration quickly ceased and the dangerous trade of people smuggling by criminal gangs dried up. Regrettably, as is so often the price of effective law enforcement, the policy was not accomplished without human cost.
Sometimes the greatest cruelty in any social conflict is “taking sides”. It’s all too easy to “take sides’ without any regard for the reasons or merits of the “other side”. Turning a difference of opinion into a conflict and escalating the situation by a fanatical refusal to consider or understand the merits of other viewpoints, is dangerous and unhelpful.
I often think back to the words of the late Phil Ochs;
“Well, I know you’re set on fightin’
but what are your fightin’ for? “