Two Children Die in Border Custody

 

Two children from another country

Died because they were in the USA

They didn’t break in; there was no crime

They were busy being children

 

This happened famously

How many are dying quietly

 

Security is one thing

Incompetent security another

Are the agents uncaring in their job

I do not know

But it’s the policymakers, our surrogates

And advocates, who show less

Wisdom based on no compassion

 

If it were your child

But it’s not

But if it were

But it would never be

Really, you never think the broad sweep

Of a killing blade might not reach

You or yours

 

Such randomness in civil violence

Such lack of specific concern

Will the impersonal never touch the personal

Are you not affected

Aren’t we all

 

If not for fear of something awful

Let’s turn to the cause of something really good

We say we like life

Let’s like it, then

Cherish it, protect it

Let it go when it’s time

In the ordinariness of the divine

 

Let’s not make tragedy

We say we like free will

Be that democracy

That has made tyrants weep

Despots weak

Bullies to give up the fight

Or lose any place work having

 

I’ve heard us say that we like children

That we care for health, safety

Education

Family

I sound like a poster, now

How about this one, I Want You

Or We Can Do It

 

C L Couch

 

https://abc7chicago.com/2nd-guatemalan-child-dies-in-us-custody;-medical-checks-ordered/4968761/

 

Guatemalan boy, 8, dies in US custody on Christmas Eve – CNN

https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/25/us/guatemalan-boy-dies-in-us-custody/index.html 3 days ago … … Guatemalan boy has died in the custody of US Customs and Border … second Guatemalan child to die in the agency’s custody this month.

‘A Breaking Point’: Second Child’s Death Prompts New Procedures for …

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/26/us/felipe-alonzo-gomez-customs-border-patrol.html 2 days ago … “Moving forward, all children will receive a more thorough hands-on …. Jakelin Caal Maquin, a 7-year-old girl, died in Border Patrol custody …

 

note

The agencies that can help most personally and astutely will lose their funding in the current shutdown.

 

(image)

A “Rosie” working on the A-31 Vengeance bomber in Nashville, Tennessee (1943)

Alfred T. Palmer – This image is available from the United States Library of Congress‘s Prints and Photographs division under the digital ID fsac.1a35371.

Public Domain

 

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