Never Again?

I have spent most of my life trying to understand what makes a Nazi. Ever since I read Elie Wiesel's Night, I was haunted by the horror of what happened to the Jews in Germany under the Nazi regime. Mostly, I tried to understand what makes good people do nothing—and what turns an ordinary human being into a killing monster. I have read many books about the era and even made a film about a Holocaust survivor. I never found any answers. But now I finally get it. The Trump administration's abominable actions of separating mothers from their children, siblings from each other, and of picking good people off the street has finally allowed me to see how it happens. A monster gets elected with an extreme following—or of ordinary people who think his extremist policies will "help them." There are rationalizations. In this case, people talk about "border security" and about making "America Great Again." Try and hold back the vomit as we look at the unsavory characters trying to sell these policies to the American public. And it's working. Unbelievably, Trump's numbers are up.

The most recent numbers of children separated from their parents is 2,000 plus—and growing, daily. There seems to be no end in sight for this policy. There have been heartrending images; a nursing baby, pulled from its mother's breast; a sobbing child; pleading mothers with haunted eyes. In another horrific action, sisters and brothers are now being separated—with some being sent to an isolated camp in the desert. I keep asking myself: How long will it be before an epidemic sweeps through one of the camps, killing these kids? How will separated families ever find each other if parents are held in jails? Many of the women are being held now in federal penitentiaries in various locations. One guard told a sobbing woman: You will never see your children again. Can you imagine the exhaustion of both the parents and children after fleeing dangerous, impoverished lives and walking thousands of miles, enduring the corruption of smugglers—all to try and give their children something better—and then they arrive—at Oz, they think? No—at Hell. In the Trump Administration's Orwellian world, good words and intentions are twisted into hateful actions and consequences. We have recently seen Jeff Sessions quote the Bible as a rationalization for his immoral policies.

"I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13, to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained them for the purpose of order,” Sessions said. “Orderly and lawful processes are good in themselves and protect the weak and lawful.” And Trump recently had the gall to twist fact and reality by blaming this shameful policy on the Democrats. In one of his delightful morning Tweets, he ranted: “Democrats can fix their forced family breakup at the Border by working with Republicans on new legislation, for a change!” In the camps, so-called caregivers are not allowed to touch the children, and parents have been abruptly separated, without even a word. Can you imagine the psychological trauma of this? And what do the kids do all day? How do they understand—or what narrative do they tell themselves to try and understand what is happening to them. What do they imagine has happened to their parents?

In a recent article in The Washington Post, pediatrician Colleen Kraft, who is president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, described her visit to one of the camps where she saw a 2-year-old child sobbing and beating her fists, while the staff looked on because they weren't allowed to comfort her. “The really devastating thing was that we all knew what was going on with this child. We all knew what the problem was,” Kraft told The Post. “She didn’t have her mother, and none of us can fix that.”

In what world does this possibly make sense? Nazi Germany maybe? In America??? Oh, I know—they will make a TV movie about it and everyone will cry. How can we allow this to go on? We are all complicit.