Not Our Enemies….

That shrinking ragtag ‘caravan’ of refugees slowly hiking their way toward the southern border of these United States must certainly be carrying nukes, or nerve gas or some other weapon of mass destruction–otherwise why has our President sent thousands of troops to the border to keep us safe from this ‘invasion’?
Maybe I’m the one who is crazy but when I see the footage of these folks, all I can find are the faces of some extraordinarily desperate fellow human beings. These people literally have almost nothing but the clothes on their backs and they’re trying to walk hundreds of miles to a country that has made it plain they’re not welcome.
Just how hopeless and afraid would you have to be to drag your kids on such a grueling dangerous mission?
I’m not saying we should let them in. In fact, there’s a strong argument to be made that they should be kept out just to discourage others from attempting the same crazy trek.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t have compassion for them. That doesn’t mean you have to demonize, dehumanize and utilize them for selfish political reasons. Unless of course you are Donald Trump. Then, of course all of that is exactly what you do.
I get it, Mr. President. The midterms have you terrified. Perhaps a Democrat-led house would hold you to account for some as yet undisclosed misdeeds. Perhaps.
But there is a quote from a young Boston lawyer from the McCarthy hearings way back in 1954. The devastating last line is well known but the whole thing is particularly appropriate today.
“Until this moment, Senator, I think I never really gauged your cruelty or your recklessness….. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency?”
Sadly the answer, then as now, remains the same.

By | 2018-10-31T00:58:18+00:00 October 31st, 2018|Uncategorized|Comments Off on Not Our Enemies….

About the Author:

Derek McGinty is a journalist, an award-winning interviewer and a commentator. He got his first job on the air back in 1984 at WHUR radio in Washington DC. From there he went to WAMU-FM where he launched a nationally syndicated daytime talk show on NPR. By the end of the century he’d been a correspondent on the CBS broadcast Public Eye with Bryant Gumbel and HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.