Do Something
From this morning’s Daily Stoic:
Around 1998, Miep Gies supplied a small note to be appended to the end of a forthcoming biography of Anne Frank. It was completely fitting that Gies have the last word on Anne Frank, given all that she had risked and sacrificed between 1942 and 1944 to provide for and supply Frank’s family as they hid from Nazis in an attic in the Netherlands.
In her note, Gies makes an essential point—one of the most essential and undeniable hard-won lessons from the Holocaust—that good people must not stand by as bad people do bad things. Gies writes that while it was her “great and abiding sorrow” that she was not able to save Anne Frank’s life, she takes real solace in knowing that she was able to prolong Anne’s life by two years and, in the process, lead to saving the journal, which would reach and help so many millions of people. “It confirms my conviction,” she wrote, “that any attempt at action is better than inaction. An attempt can go wrong, but inaction inevitably results in failure.”
Maybe there’s a message here for you. There’s certainly one for me.
Craig,
That’s what comes of reading the Daily Stoic or watching too much Rachael Maddow crying “The Children! The Children! The Children!” [Are the cameras rolling?] “Oh, oh, oh, The Children!”
Perhaps like many others, you failed to notice the heart rending images she was watching were actually old stock footage from a 2014 story that never made a broadcast back then during the Obama Administration.
Leftist commentators inadvertently ranted against the current President comparing him to Hitler etc, without realizing the quote they attributed to him;
““We have to send a clear message, just because your child gets across the border doesn’t mean your child gets to stay with you ! ”. (what a cruel bastard)
was actually from a 2014 speach by the then Secretary Of State, Hillary Clinton !
Leftist media cranked up the outrage industry over the issue, whipping up righteous hysteria, and fury. Amongst all the sanctimony it must be asked, where was CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, Washington Post, NYT, and all those outraged demonstrators, in 2014 ? Why was no one yelling F*** Obama ?
Where was all the outrage back then? Hey, in fact, where were you in 2014 ? Where were you when the laws enforcing child detention centers were enacted during the Obama administration?
Recent polling suggests the media frenzy is completely out of touch with popular feeling.
When asked which policy they prefer for handling families stopped crossing the border illegally, approximately two-thirds of survey respondents support detention for illegal migrants, while less than 20% percent support the Obama administrations’ policy of setting free illegal migrants if they promise to return for a later court date.
Even more surprising is these polls were conducted in June 17-20, during the height of media outrage, reflected a 55-7% support for separation of children when detained.
Emotive outrage and intolerant hysteria, are not a substitute for carefully thought out action.
Putting aside your own highly emotional reaction and political bias, what rational and sensible answer can you provide to the questions that have confronted and confounded both Presidents.
How would you ensure that the following doesn’t take occur on your watch ?
Experienced criminals involved in people, drug, sex slavery or pedophile trafficking, realize if they simply show up at border with a well rehearsed minor , claim the child as their own, and are immediately released into the US!
How do you ensure children will not be abducted or sold to people, drug, sex slavery or pedophile traffickers, as a free ticket into US ?
These are hard and vexing questions with no simple answers. The potential for human misery is enormous, and seemingly impossible to avoid.
I don’t expect you to reply, or even acknowledge the enormity and sad melancholy of this world-wide problem. You’ve become too caught up in the emotive, irrational dogma of the “never Trump” movement to understand some social problems are too complex to be solved by hysterical, and emotional abuse of those in charge.
It wouldn’t matter if Bernie Saunders were President, the problems would remain the same As President Obama discovered, some problems don’t have any easy solution.
As I say, I can offer no advice except the lessons learned from Australia’s, and Europe’s sad experiences.
What’s even more tragic, the media has created such bitterly emotive divisions, it’s become too difficult for rational discussion on the subject.
That’s where commentators like yourself should be useful. That’s an “action” you could take to bring light and understanding by encouraging, unbiased, non-politicized rational debate indifficult situation.
That’s why I believe people of goodwill, such as yourself, have a duty to promote calm and considered discourse and constructive debate.
In that spirit, I sincerely request you offer your thoughts on how practical solutions can be found for the myriad concerns involved in the often painful illegal migration dynamic ?