Fair warning and disclaimer: these opinions are, in fact, my own.

Move.

Families across the globe move because they are forced to flee. Many more remain in hiding, are tortured, and die a long, slow, and painful death of body and spirit.

Homes are ripped away due to war. Discrimination. Segregation. Oppression.

Asylum, a word of hope.

A process of desperation.

Shall I ever have to plead for Asylum? I don’t know. Policies, as they stand currently, mean my family is not welcome to relocate in most English-speaking countries. We are born Americans. However, if we want to emigrate, or if circumstances worsened, forced to flee…we would have few options. To be honest, as it stands, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, even the UK would not receive my family.

I am not exaggerating. 

As of now, we are blessed and privileged. Privileged enough to read of asylum seekers on the technology I carry in my hand. Blessed enough to write this while my son unloads a dishwasher.

Also, frightened and angry. Selfishly frightened for myself. Angry at my country and its leaders.

Who has the courage to change this course of brutality to the powerless? Children lost, some to human traffickers there is little doubt. Children separated from their parents and their siblings. And, even assuming the fairest and safest conditions (which I do not) this is an inhumane and cruel act. Cruel and unusual in fact, in the extreme. Making it unconstitutional in addition to unspeakably traumatising and unnecessary. Additionally, those separated and left to fend for themselves among other frightened children, include those most vulnerable due to age and/or disability. There has been little mercy, if any.

Today I Will

TODAY I am moved to write to my representatives. Today I share my outrage with you. My heart is broken. Is our country so far gone?

Today You Can

If you are moved to act on these horrors happening under our nose,  here are some starting points:

A U.S. policy has kids being taken from parents at the border. Here’s what we can do.

And this link complete with action script for advocacy: https://momastery.com/blog/2018/05/30/lawmakers/

This is the directory to your government representatives.

This has been a Finish the Sentence Friday Freewrite with the prompt: “Move.” There’s still time to tell us what moves you, how it feels to move, what move means in your world right now. Link up here.