Outpouring Of Grief And Rage Across A Nation Caging Children #LightsForLiberty

Waterville, Maine  July 12, 2019

My husband and I attended two events yesterday in Maine protesting the child concentration camps and family separations employed by the federal government to terrorize asylum seekers and other immigrants.

Waterville, Maine July 12, 2019

50 people turned out in Skowhegan to stand for two hours on the bridge, ending with a candlelight vigil.

Skowhegan, Maine  July 12, 2019

It was part of the nationwide Lights for Liberty campaign to bring the demand to the streets and, where possible, to the concentration camps themselves.

50 is a lot of people at a protest in central Maine, but there was no press at the well-publicized event.

Many of my own children's retired teachers were there, as well as current teachers and several children. Organizer and educator Aliza Jones was there with her daughter who was eating ice cream -- what children should be doing on a summer night, rather than crying for their parents while laying on concrete in a cage near the border.

Skowhegan, Maine July 12, 2019

Lots of signs called on the federal government to do better. Some expressed a belief that the USA is better than this.

Waterville, Maine  July 12, 2019

I wish I could agree that our country is better than this. Built on the genocide of Native people and the labor of slaves, we do not have an admirable history. My white people always seem to be forgetting that many of us could be holding Bobby Hayes' sign above: Grandchild of Immigrants. 

But many people do not know the true history of this nation: the U.S. government turned away boatloads of Jewish refugees who died in concentration camps, knew about the Holocaust but allowed it to proceed anyway, and, after tardily "liberating" the camps, ran show trials at Nuremberg while quietly bringing Nazi rocket scientists to the USA.

Skowhegan, Maine   July 12, 2019

But we, the people of the U.S., can do MUCH better than caging toddlers and torturing them by withholding food, showers, and hugs.

Bourassa family together in Skowhegan  July 12, 2019

As the Japanese-Americans interned during WWII hysteria have said, At least we were with our parents. 

Even for adults, even if they are alleged to have broken a law (note that seeking asylum is not a crime), indefinite detention goes against the rule of law the U.S. claims to have been founded on.

It could be you or a toddler you love next.

Skowhegan, Maine  July 12, 2019

Get busy now demanding that your elected officials shut down the camps and reunite the families: 202-225-3121.