The Problem is identified

Huzzah!

The President has come in and cleared up a problem of his own creation!  He does have a heart!

Well, not really.

He did very little, other than to jail future families together indefinitely.

He did nothing to help the families already separated.  He has increased the penalties for crossing at the wrong point from civil to criminal.

The zero tolerance policy continues, basically unabated.

He didn't make his policy change because of any sympathy for the children and their parents.  He did it because the optics looked bad for him.  Our television President didn't like how it made him look on television.  Nothing else moved him.  Well, maybe Ivanka, but I'd rather not get into that.

So, Trump is nasty and cruel.  We knew that. No one should be shocked by that.

What it did identify, what it made crystal clear, is identify those who would support him no matter what.  Those who bought into the whole thing, those for whom being tough on immigration justified any measure, any cruelty.

For some of us, it was friends, neighbors, sometimes even relatives, whom we realized were too far gone to help.  People who otherwise seem kind and rational, who had no problem justifying this cruelty.  It helped identify the persuadable and the incalcitrant.  There may be some people who are never coming back.  And the rest of us have to find a way to live with those people.

For those of you who live in more liberal, progressive places, this may not be a big problem.  But for us living in rural areas and small towns, particularly in the South, we have to learn to cope somehow.  We still have to go to work.  Many of us go to church.  We all have to go into environments where we are outnumbered by madness.

There seem to be two objections to immigration, illegal or otherwise.  One is economic - fears of losing jobs that should go to Americans, and to the social welfare cost of sustaining them.  The second is cultural - that the naturally superior white culture will be drowned by people of different colors and faiths.  A Corollary to this is that this is a nation founded on Christianity and that accepting people of other faiths will dilute that.

The first problem I can address.  Some say there are jobs Americans won't take, therefore we need migrants to take them, who will be willing to work for substandard wages and tolerate substandard conditions.  Every single human being has a right to be treated with dignity and paid a living wage.

So, here's what we do.  For every job, no matter how crappy, employers offer a living wage to do the job (right now, that would be somewhere between $13.50 and $15.00 an hour).  If Americans don't take the jobs, then offer the jobs to migrants, but do so AT THE SAME LIVING WAGE.  Pay them what you would an American.  No more under the table and underpaying crap.    BAM!  Immigration problem solved!

The second problem I can't address.  Bigotry often knows no cure.  We can pray that bigots change, but we can't just hold our breath.  Cultures change and move on.  We are not a prehistoric fly preserved in amber glass.

Every immigrant group that has come here has eventually merged into the melting pot of America.  Well, except maybe Southerners, but that's another discussion for another time.  Eventually, blue jeans, rock 'n' roll, and the mini-mall rule us all.  Eventually, English wins.  Maybe with a few new colorful phrases added, but that is one of the strengths of English - it's ability to adapt and absorb.  We have more culinary dishes to choose from.  The combination of diversity and unity makes us the greatest nation on Earth.  When we behave and not give into nativism, we do it better than any other country.

When you consider immigrants. illegal or otherwise, something less than yourself, when you dehumanize them, you turn your back on this nation.  You turn your back on humanity.  You turn your back on God.

But, tragically, these people may not be moved by reason, as they ruled by fear.  There may be nothing we can do, except to make sure there are more of us voting than them.

The Age of Trump. It's exhausting, I know.  It's depressing.  We lose sleep.  We're heartbroken over our family and friends that are still onboard his terrible train.

But I can't stop.  I will continue tilting at the windmill.  You never know.