Life just goes on for most of us, even as our
country changes around us.
The horrors hardly touch us.
We have a secret police force now, extravagantly
funded and growing.
The ICE police wear masks. And they disappear
people.
They pick our neighbors up, carry them off, and
no one knows where they take them.
They are Imprisoned, somewhere, often in a
foreign country.
As far as their families are concerned, just gone.
We used to hear about this in other countries. It
was inconceivable in America. Now, it is our everyday
reality.
The 21 year-old daughter of a New York
Episcopal priest of Korean heritage was recently
disappeared in this way. Gone.
Some are detained in this country before being
shipped off.
In one detention center, the ICE police make
migrants eat like dogs from dishes placed on the floor.
Authoritarians are good at this: dehumanization.
Look at Hitler’s bunch.
They found endless ways to dehumanize the Jews.
And when you have corruption at the very top, it
works its way down.
When the leader is an amoral bully, those below
have permission to do as they wish.
Sending a person to a prison in Libya is not the
same as sending him to the gas chamber.
But for the man’s wife and children, this loved one
is just as gone.
Still, for most of us, life goes on. But it’s not
the same. Because we know.
Under our government, people like you and me
are being fed like dogs.
Lord, hear our prayer.
saintmatthewumc.com
revmaxb@tx.rr.com