Over the last 6 months I have met hundreds of migrants fleeing the violence, abuse and hopelessness in Central America. I have met with them as a pastor and friend, eager to give them a sign of hope and welcome. Their stories have ripped my heart to pieces, but perhaps not as much as the treatment that they have been given by many in my own country.
Desperate families, with no other means to escape their plight, have been called invaders, criminals and far worse. They have been cruelly and intentionally incarcerated by OUR government in a twisted and sickening attempt to dissuade other desperate people from trying to save themselves too. Children are still being torn from their parent’s arms and their parents are still being charged with human trafficking for nothing more than applying for asylum at the US border in full compliance with international and US laws.
AND NOW, the president, in an act of revenge against the countries from which they are coming, is eliminating the foreign aid that is actually supporting the work of the organizations that are trying to bring security, peace and hope to the most vulnerable.
BUT, what’s more, our president is doing this because these countries are not doing enough, in his eyes, to hinder the ability of free people to leave their countries. Our president wants Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador to prohibit desperate people from emigrating. He is demanding that these countries behave exactly like the totalitarian regimes that we have fought against. The US imposed an embargo on Cuba for more than 50 years exactly because, we claimed, the Cuban government wouldn’t allow their own citizens the right to leave the country when life became unbearable. Now, for this president, such is the kind of behavior we seek to encourage.
We talk about freedom, as if we knew what that meant, while we angrily attempt to extort our neighbors into stripping away their citizen’s most basic rights.
What have we become?
For information about Ray Schellinger check our Global Peace Warriors About page.
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