My friend who started the conversation isn’t the only one who is depressed. When she mentioned her trouble, a flood of friends joined it. At the end of the discussion the question became what can we do? Posting about this on Facebook isn’t doing any good.
Now, most of my friends have worked somewhere in the fields of children and disability services. They completely understand the magnitude of the harm that is being done to those children taken from their parents and incarcerated. Those that survive physically will suffer lifelong trauma. That trauma will be passed to their children. There is nothing that can be done to undo the damage to those children. This trauma has ripped from them the ability to reach their full potential. A portion of their humanity has been stolen from them and destroyed. I do not have the skills as a wordsmith to fully explain what is happening to these children. I have worked with children who have lost their parents. The pain I saw in their little faces never went away even when they were in safe and loving homes, even when they grew up and had children of their own.
I have also encountered those who have said that taking children from their parents and incarcerating them without due process is really okay. Let me promise you, it isn’t okay in any way shape or form to inflict such damage upon another human being. It is child abuse. It is soulless cruelty.
This is the point at which I join ranks with the depressed. In the course of my work, I have seen the horrific things that humans do to their young. I have PTSD from being close to that reality, and I have constructed walls within myself to keep the memories contained. The element of our current situation that got around my barriers is the realization of how many people are willing to participate in and even feed off of this level of depravity. People I know and respected shrug and say it’s none of their business. People I loved are willing to let this horror pass. I want to tell myself that they don’t understand that this behavior is illegal for a reason. People will condescendingly say, “Well, you know, Delinda, we really have to…” Under my attempts to rationalize away the behavior of my friends and neighbors lies the fear that they really are depraved monsters. These people are child abusers.
I am depressed—a lone soul abandoned on an island with a few others while madness rages around us. We are powerless to stop the raging storm.
So here we are faced with a violation of our forth amendment that rivals the crimes of Nazi Germany. What can we do? We can march in the street. We can write or legislators. We know those things will not help when so many are just fine with being cruel to toddlers. We hear the voices that laugh at our distress and know that the problem is greater than some children being taken from their parents. This time, marches in the street and a few fine speeches aren’t going to do anything for our cause. The people who support and excuse these policies are child abusers—not like many of the sick or desperate women I’ve encountered over the years. These people take joy in hurting the defenseless. They know what they are doing and feed on the power of hurting others. We must name the problem and prosecute to the full extent of the law.