This Father's Day: Let Not The Children Suffer

As I sit down to write this message, today is Father's Day. The day that children honor their fathers.

However my message to you today is about honoring the children and the family, not just today, but every day. This is a plea to take action at some horrible injustices and callous behavior that is currently taking place in the USA. This is not about being political. It's about human kindness, love, empathy, and just simply being decent human beings.

I will begin by quoting from an email I received this morning from Zephyr Teachout who is running for attorney general in the state of New York. Here is a portion of what she wrote:

"Today should be a day full of love and celebration of dads across our country. But this year, Father’s Day is just not as joyous, because in America, in our name, children are being torn from their families and forced to sit, without their parents, in a cage.

We must confront the horror happening right now -- children being ripped away from parents by border guards. The crying, the fear, the complete sense of powerlessness from parents and children alike.

The moral fury of our country, grounded in humanity, can not let these outrageous family separations continue. We must overcome their politics of fear and scarcity and calculation with a politics of love and righteous anger and justice.


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But that means we must make our voices heard on this issue. If we are silent on this issue, we are complicit...

We the people have been and always will be more powerful than any one person or party if we are united.

This policy is not who we are, and we cannot be silent during this crisis. Please join us and speak out against this evil."

Another external voice who asks us to take action:

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As American citizens, or even citizens of the world, we need to stand up and say NO! This is not right, this is not moral, this is not just! All humans are human beings, no matter their race, color, religion, or country of origin. This is not a political matter. This is a human rights issue. This is an issue of moral actions, as opposed to immoral ones.

Please contact your government representatives and let them know this behavior "in the name of the people of the US" is unacceptable, immoral, and must be stopped. The United States is supposed to be a beacon of light for the world. The American Dream is not one where children are torn away from their parents and sent to live in a tent city on a military base, or "stored" in cages in an abandoned Wal-Mart.

Please, contact your government representatives so they take action to stop this atrocious behavior on the part of the USA.

Here's a specific text you can use when you call (taken from the Americans of Conscience Checklist, Week of June 17, 2018, By Jen Hofmann):

Call for an end to family separation.

Call: Your two senators (look up).

Script: Hi. I’m from [ZIP] calling to oppose the practice of separating families as an immigration deterrent. It is amoral and traumatizing to willfully separate children from their parents, documented or not. I’d like [name of your senator] to support Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s Keep Families Together Act (S. 3036). Thank you.

You might also choose to sign up for the Americans of Conscience Checklist. It provides all kinds of actions you can take, right from your own home, to make a difference in the world today.

If you think all of this is "none of your business", you might read (or reread) an article I wrote a while back: Stop Minding Your Business... Because EVERYTHING Is Your Business!

Happy Father's Day!

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The Infinite View: A Guidebook for Life on Earth by Ellen Tadd.The Infinite View offers tools and insights needed to help readers transform their understanding of themselves and the world around them.

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About The Author

Marie T. Russell is the founder of InnerSelf Magazine (founded 1985). She also produced and hosted a weekly South Florida radio broadcast, Inner Power, from 1992-1995 which focused on themes such as self-esteem, personal growth, and well-being. Her articles focus on transformation and reconnecting with our own inner source of joy and creativity.

Creative Commons 3.0: This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 License. Attribute the author: Marie T. Russell, InnerSelf.com. Link back to the article: This article originally appeared on InnerSelf.com

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