Editor’s note: This commentary is by Alan Rawls, of Burlington, who is a graduate student in clinical mental health counseling at Johnson State University.
[F]orget the endless outrages, the hypocrisy, the endless slander of peers and colleagues, and the general destruction of anything resembling a meaningful or productive dialogue by the Trump administration. Forget the things about this president you may or may not like. This commentary is not about him because what is the point in hurling criticisms and allegations at a man who revels in them?
This commentary is about the people we elected to represent us in our national government, and about the people their party values, as Democrats, ought to oblige them to protect. This commentary is about Sen. Bernie Sanders, Sen. Patrick Leahy and Rep. Peter Welch.
Regarding the unilaterally implemented policy that forcibly separates parents from their children at the border between Mexico and the United States, our lawmakers have been notably silent. Repeated calls and emails to the offices of these congressmen has garnered in response emails that echo the dismayed sentiments of this commentator, but that outline no intention to act on behalf of those whose human rights and civil liberties are being stripped as they seek asylum in this country. This country, that was built and sustained on immigrant labor, on the notion of equitable justice for all, and on the idea that the horrors visited on people in other countries would not be visited on them here. This is a romanticized notion of America, but it is one that sustains our image of ourselves and perpetuates our identity as a place where those seeking protection against the harm they have endured elsewhere may finally realize some measure of self-actualization, autonomy and safety.
That romance, that notion of American tolerance and acceptance, has been disrobed, laid bare to the world and to our own eyes so that we may see that it cloaks racism, hatred and a nativist perspective that justifies the destruction of immigrant families as a “short-term deterrent.” A deterrent to those who would seek the romanticized America we have for so long insisted on believing in.
Jeff Merkley of Oregon is the only Democratic senator in Washington to openly oppose, in any meaningful way, the internment of immigrant children at the border. Leahy spoke recently on the Senate floor and may have tweeted his support for Merkley’s efforts at shedding light on the conditions in which immigrant children are being kept, but has done nothing meaningful to challenge this abhorrent and inhumane policy. Sanders and Welch remain equally absent and inactive in what ought to be raucous opposition to a policy that reduces our country to a state that values human rights and the notion of family less than we value our own ability to exert power over those we view as lesser.
Tweets do not amount to action. Nor do speeches. Sanders’ America — the one for which he campaigned in 2016, the one in which the rich do not get richer while the poor get poorer, the one in which social justice is characterized by an equitable distribution of wealth and social resources, the one in which power and greed do not render us inert in our ability to affect change for the good of our citizens — is fast-becoming a myth.
Why have our lawmakers not acted? Why have they not issued loud and visible public statements condemning the imprisonment of children in cages? Why do we suppose, that as Vermonters, we are somehow excused from engaging in conflicts that we feel do not threaten us directly? Do Sanders, Leahy and Welch forget that Vermont’s industrial dairy complex is largely sustained by migrant labor? Do they elect to sit quietly in the gloaming while others fight the fight for human dignity in the hope that their next campaigns may not be blemished by public opposition to a tyrannical administration?
America is imprisoning children in internment camps. America is visiting horror on those who seek her shelter. Vermonters elected Sanders, Leahy, and Welch to represent us, to stand up for our America. Why do they remain silently seated?
