By MANUEL QUIROZ JR.
You lack honesty and moral purpose. The children are watching the kind of world you are creating.
They watched how you heinously separated innocent immigrant children from their parents via the zero-tolerance immigration program.
They watch tens of thousands of war-ravaged, confused and starved Yemenis children with cholera, many dying daily therefrom. When they ask how and why; we regrettably describe how you shamelessly provide weapons and logistics to Saudi Arabia helping cause and continue that humanitarian crisis. They watched a school bus full of children being bombed by the entity that you sold the weapons to.
They watched you allow an accused sexual assailant to enter the most sacred court, presumably where the highest form of Justice and Fairness preside. We were forced to explain to them the “presumed innocent” doctrine and how you misapplied it to the confirmation process. Really, how many of us would use the “presumed innocent” standard in hiring an employee, or permitting an accused rapist to enter our home, or allowing such a person to be with our children?
They watch the weaponless individual protesters in Gaza being shot by Israeli snipers, who also shot the emergency medical personal trying to help the wounded. They frighteningly ask, why? They watch hundreds of protesters die and thousands being maimed by deliberate expert sniper fire shattering arms and legs, the bombing of the protester’s homes. They watch the protesters live in a kind of cage, with little electricity and clean water, without an ability to leave, being barely kept alive, living that way for decades. The children know you aren’t stopping it.
We teach our children the noble values of altruism, to help those in need, to respect and honor one another, to appreciate the beauty of our differences, etc. They watch the many refugees throughout the world escaping war, persecution, poverty and disaster, and the “Caravan” walking from distant lands toward the United States to ask for help because of the many atrocities taking place in their home countries. They watch our president call the refugees “terrorists” and “invaders” — as if they pose a military threat to the most powerful country in the world. They hear our president ordering our soldiers (most of which are young decent human beings — who enrolled in the military to do more than serve a selfish master) to shoot the refugees if the refugees throw rocks at them, knowing there are refugee children in the Caravan. The children ask if our soldiers are like the Israeli snipers. They ask about how many children will die. The causalities become etched in their minds.
They watch the death of countless species, unprecedented rains, winds and wildfires. They watch you refer to issues of climate as a hoax because you cannot bear what a scrutinizing examination might reveal. That indifference is very likely to cause a mass refugee crisis like never seen before in the years to come when the power of nature starts to displace many throughout the world. Ignorance is not how we acquire wisdom or prepare for the future. Such conduct is not how we protect our children and their future.
They watch the Noble Laurette, Nadia Murad’s gripping details about what a refugee experiences, the Yazidi children, especially the girls, hailed into sexual slavery, the Boko Haram kidnapping innocent children — who wait for us to save them.
Do you leaders not hear the children of the world crying? You don’t even hear their parents cry.
They watch your words of “hate,” deceitful and insidious language, fear-mongering about Us v. Them, soul-destroying pernicious misapplication of blame on people of color for our economic struggles and hardships. How dare you take such a cruel and near-sighted approach to win favor, trying to justify the unjustifiable, robbing the human race of its best qualities, ignoring the happiness of others, the improvement of mankind? Many can no longer talk about saving to buy a home; that has nothing to do with race or the color of one’s skin.
What, by the way, are you teaching our children by your conduct?
The abortion debate is an intriguing one. At the center of that debate is issue of “life,” but how much of you really care about the sacredness of the life of our children?
You follow partisanship to the point of making it a blind addiction.
We are all guardians of our health, of posterity, or our mental or spiritual well-being, of our children. I hereby appeal to the moral conscience of you elected leaders — many of demonstrate a violation of your public duty, hindering human advancement. I demand best of you. Start by going to a local child’s birthday party so the miracle of their beauty and innocence is revealed to you.
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Manuel Quiroz Jr. is a resident of Watsonville. His opinions are his own and not necessarily those of the Pajaronian.
