O-blog-dee-o-blog-da

While the President of American Academy of Pediatricians calls out  Family Separation as “Nothing Less than Government-Sanctioned Child Abuse”, I call it another step along the path of the Nazi trajectory of 1939!

Last night, as detention centers reached capacity, filled with kids ripped from their parents, the administration announced that it will open the first ‘tent city’ to house children – tents, propped up in the middle of the Texas desert. The crackdown seems destined to get worse.

But as the administration doubles down on its cruelty, heed this caution from Slate’s Dahlia Lithwick:

“Don’t go numb. For going numb is a choice, and it’s also a luxury, because the asylum-seekers at the borders cannot afford to go numb. Female victims of domestic abuse who are coming to the United States to save their own lives cannot afford to go numb. Teen girls denied access to reproductive care do not have the luxury of going numb.”

Today, to keep from going numb, read CNN’s Catherine Shoichet salient interview with President of American Academy of Pediatricians Dr. Colleen Kraft. It’s deeply disturbing. She speaks of the psychological impacts on little kids. Get outraged. Then read on to take action as recommended by the New York Times editorial that follows.

Here are excerpts from the CNN piece:

The toddler pounded her fists on the play mat, sobbing, with no parent to comfort her. Dr. Colleen Kraft watched from across the room, shaken by what she saw.

“She was just inconsolable. … We all knew why she was crying,” says Kraft, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics. “She was crying because she wanted her mother, and there was nothing we could do.”

Kraft had been invited by local pediatricians to visit a government shelter for immigrant children in Combes, Texas. The majority of the kids there, she says, had been separated from their parents.

The heartbreaking scene was unlike anything she’d witnessed in her decades as a pediatrician.

…Kraft says separating children from their parents is likely to trigger what’s known as a “toxic stress” response.

“Toxic stress is prolonged exposure to hormones such as cortisol, epinephrine, norepinephrine — fight or flight hormones — and then inflammatory hormones,” she says. “In a very young child, that disrupts brain development.”

Possible results include developmental delays, such as problems with motor function or speech. And later in life, she says, kids that experience toxic stress are more likely to have health problems like heart disease, cancer and morbid obesity.

“The younger the child is,” she says, “the more likely it is to really do long-term damage and short-term damage.”

Children separated from their families at the border aren’t the only ones dealing with toxic stress, Kraft says.

Pediatricians across the United States, she says, are sharing growing concerns about their patients as the administration continues its immigration crackdown.

“It’s creating a whole generation of kids who are traumatized,” she says.

In a stirring must-read editorial by the New York Times entitled, Seizing Children From Parents at the Border Is Immoral. Here’s What We Can Do About It, the ed board calls on Americans to take action: donate to legal and humanitarian efforts (groups listed); vote; call Congress; and join protests. “This is a moment of truth. Find a way. Express your opposition to this profoundly immoral policy.”   Hat tip to Frank Sharry and America’s Voice on Twitter: @FrankSharry and @AmericasVoice!

Here are my thoughts: @MelanieNathan1

None of the former and latter is enough! None of what they ask will make much difference quick enough to the harm being done in real time. This is far too drastic of a situation – and it this requires something way beyond our normal course of ‘lets play democracy American style’.

I see this as a crisis requiring more than months or years until our vote makes a difference.  Calling a dead beat complicit Congress seems like a joke! What do those protests do, albeit make us all feel as if we are doing something? Are we merely fueling the Trump supporters at this time?   Short of drastic action, I am stumped….

Here are the suggested actions – to protest the Nazi like trajectory of the trump Administration in its attack on asylum seeking parents and their children:

• Mass work boycotts
• City transport boycotts
• Consumer boycotts
• Busses of Professionals and all- to the borders where this happening
• Cancelling vacations and taking our own families to border towns – El Paso etc. where this is happening!
• Massive STROLLER march on Washington D.C.
• Parents taking their children down to Federal Buildings and protesting
• Every Church/ Religious Organization must come out strongly against this – especially that Attorney General Jeff Sessions has used the Bible to justify this
• MAKE AMERICA STOP STILL – (#MASS)until this CHILD ABUSE and NAZI Trajectory STOPS!Do we care enough? Let’s see….And while you are at it- if you do have a Republican Senator – contact them and tell them to support Senator Dianne Feinstein’s Bill to protect children!

AND SEND A SNAIL-MAIL (and EMAIL) to your local Republican Congress member and Republican Senator’s local office – to bombard them with a call for support and passage of Senate Bill S 3036  :

by Melanie Nathan, a Mom !
My e-mail commissionermnathan@gmail.com
Support our work at African Human Rights Coalition
Check out my shenanigans on Facebook
Follow me on Twitter – @MelanieNathan1
Check out my Instagram: Commissionermelnathan
Visit my Family Law Mediation site: Private Courts
RESIST TRUMP on FACEBOOK
Ask me to Speak: SPEAKER