Tag: children

If the Trump administration doesn't follow the court ruling here, what are the penalties? Contempt of court? Don't people sometimes get arrested for that? Richmond,...

by Virginia State Senator Dave Marsden (D-37th District) The cruelty enacted by the Trump Administration in separating minor children from their parents is egregious on...

by Lowell Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Thursday, June 21. Trump Retreats After Border Policy Outcry ("Order...

by CPruett The voters of Virginia's Seventh Congressional District don’t need another reason to send Rep. Dave Brat (R) packing this November -- but yesterday...

by Lowell Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Tuesday, June 19. Another day that Trump, the Trump administration,...

By a member of Indivisible VA-10 and constituent of Rep. Barbara Comstock Virginia's 10th Congressional District voters have been frustrated by their representative’s reluctance to...

SPONSORED CONTENT The Virginia legislature has approved a law that will allow the age-appropriate teaching of students on the ways to identify child abuse, child...

If today's demonstration in Verona is any indication, the movement to ban migrant children from communities across the nation does not enjoy broad support. A report that such children were being administered at the Shenandoah Valley Juvenile Detention Center brought an immediate effort to organize a local protest for today.

But one story in Verona was that the counter-demonstration brought out just as many people who support following the laws regarding the processing of migrant children. Another story is that both groups got along without incident mostly by ignoring each other. They marched to the protest site, the highway 612 I-81 overpass, on opposite sides of the west bound lane. At the bridge, they kept their integrity, left and right of center.

Local tea party leader Dr. Edward Long claimed no role in organizing today's protest when contacted by the local newspaper. However, if t-shirt slogans and bumper stickers are any indication, the protesters share most of the tea party attitudes and political perceptions. Virginia Organizing member Barbara Lee indicated that group was involved in the counter-demonstration.

The press was there. The interviews were the normal shallow questions about the questions of the day. One interview with a woman who said she legally immigrated from Canada demonstrated a typical personal anecdotal depth of knowledge that is so lazily generalized. Her chief complaint seemed to stem from the requirement for her to have gone through a laborious and costly process to immigrate that migrants were managing to avoid. How quickly she has adapted the conservative attitude Lowell mentioned at the end of his piece about Senator Warren just yesterday. But the fact is that migrants who enter without application stand to face a much more laborious and costly experience with far less chance of success.

The other subject in which the protesters seem completely steeped is the human trafficking aspect of the issue. However, it seemed they were mixing and matching trafficking and transportation together so that it made more sense to them. Scratching the surface of any aspect of the current migrant situation does neither side of the debate any favors.

What should be apparent to all sides of this issue is that our current immigration system is antiquated and ineffective. They should be at their Congressional Representative's office demanding immigration reform, not grandstanding on a bridge shouting into the wind. And there won't be any progress at all if both sides continue to ignore each other.

Bear with me. I am going to share 3 paragraphs, and then explain.

In the midst of this grim summer, my faith in humanity has been restored by the saga of Rachel Beckwith. She could teach my generation a great deal about maturity and unselfishness - even though she's just 9 years old, or was when she died on July 23.

Rachel lived outside Seattle and early on showed a desire to give back. At age 5, she learned at school about an organization called Locks of Love, which uses hair donations to make wigs for children who have lost their own hair because of cancer or other diseases. Rachel then asked to have her long hair shorn off and sent to Locks of Love.

"She said she wanted to help the cancer kids," her mother, Samantha Paul, told me. After the haircut, Rachel announced that she would grow her hair long again and donate it again after a few years to Locks of Love. And that's what she did.

This is from Rachel's Last Fundraiser, a column this morning by Nicholas Kristof.   I have now quoted all I am going to quote.

You should read the entire column, then the rest of this diary will be unnecessary, and I will be more than happy.

In case I haven't persuaded you, please keep reading.  If you have read the column, feel welcome to keep reading.