Lola’s POV: How I’m Feeling About The Families Separated At The Borders

As I sat down and pondered about what I would write about this week, it very soon was clear to me that this would not be my regular blog on something that I found funny or exciting, but something that deeply touched me and that needed my voice and attention. Recently, videos, audio files, and photographs have flooded my Facebook newsfeed speaking about the injustices of the separation of families due to the zero-tolerance immigration policy. I debated writing this POV for nights, mostly because I’m not an expert on the subject. It made me emotionally anxious to write about this because I wanted to do these families justice, yet I don’t know the feeling or the fear that they’re feeling or what they’re going through, and I don’t want ever to undermine their plight, pain or struggle. I also considered the legal standpoints and particular issues that could arise with the political sentiments of others who agree with the carnage and abuse that is still going on.  But this is not a legal issue, this is a human issue, and I can’t keep quiet.

The sounds of crying children are usually a triggering sound to most. But lately, it’s been trigger, after trigger, after trigger. I try to be very objective when it comes to world news, and I read on both sides of the story, but I can’t find any side that justifies what the world has come to and why they are keeping children in cages as if they were dogs. I feel like the world has slowly sunken into the depths of inhumanity and at this point, I don’t think that it would get any better.

They say that history is relevant to teach us the mistakes that our ancestors made, for history to not be repeated. They are keeping children segregated from their parents, in places they call “camps,” where they are treated inhumanely, held in cages where they respond to a higher authority because of their ethnicity. Does that not ring a fricking bell?! I mean come on! And why are there people supporting this? Some say that it’s a way to teach a lesson, to serve as a deterrent or to prevent illegal immigration from happening. Since when has the correct way been through intimidation?

“If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.”

I’ve tried to put myself in their shoes and tried to think what my life would be like if I were separated from my parents by force; if I were put in the hands of someone my parents don’t trust; if I were stripped away from my rights; if I were placed in a cage; if I couldn’t speak up. But I can’t. I’m sitting here writing about a feeling that is unfamiliar to me. And although I feel like there’s nothing I can do, there is. By just speaking about this, and sharing these stories, we build pressure as a whole and we find a way to get more people involved: to sign petitions, to enforce laws, to research, and to further continue to shed light on this issue. If we can’t make a significant change and stop this abuse for once, why don’t we take smaller steps to make a substantial impact as a whole? The only step in the wrong direction is the one we don’t take.