Evil is hard to confront.

“A Trump administration lawyer has disputed in court whether detained migrant children are entitled to toothbrushes and soap.”

This breaks my heart. This level of cruelty sends a chill up my spine.

I think of these kids, separated from their parents, traumatized, in cages, sleeping on concrete floors, and if that is not enough, the Trump administration sic their Justice Department lawyers to deny American grown concentration camp children, soap and toothbrushes.

Yes, you got that right: our government is using Justice Department lawyers, our taxpayer money, to do research, write briefs, go to court, all for the purpose of denying innocent, incarcerated children soap and toothbrushes. Imagine being a five year old kid, extracted from your parents, a traumatizing event in and of itself, (reminds me when slave mothers were sold, and the kids would never see their mother again); made to sleep on concrete floors, susceptible to diseases, hunger, and if that wasn’t enough, if that didn’t break their spirit, they are denied soap and toothbrushes.

Have they no shame?

How degraded must one be to think up such cruelty? How degraded must one be to follow such directives? It’s true: silence is a special kind of violence.

And this evil has multiple layers.

“In a 218-page motion filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Southern California, ACLU attorneys contend the administration has removed numerous children, including babies, from their mothers and fathers based on offenses as minor as traffic violations and misdemeanor charges dating back more than two decades.”

Do we really have to remove babies from their mothers?

Is this really necessary?

We used to embrace immigrants coming into this country—why: their work ethic, their rich cultural heritage, which in turn made America deeper, richer, stronger; and their embrace of the American dream, which helped build America into a global leader. Except for native Americans, we all sprung from immigrants. It’s the secret sauce that made America great.

“More than 200 people the US deported back to el Salvador have been killed or seriously abused, including sexually assaulted and tortured, a report from Human Rights Watch says.”

I’ll tell you a little secret: the immigrants that seek asylum, that risk their lives in order to come into this country, fleeing executions, fascist dictatorships, sexual assault and torture, escaping religious persecutions: these are some of the most courageous people on this planet. These are the people we want in this country; courageous, resourceful, with a dedication and passion to make a better life for their children. The stories of mothers carrying infants 400 miles to avoid death squads, fathers going days without food in order to give their kids what crumbs were left: this level of courage is humbling. You see, the people who stayed home, who didn’t fight, who succumbed and fell in lock step to the repression, are the weak ones. We are being offered the warriors, the 1%ers in courage, souls who would die if it meant a better life for their children. We shouldn’t be sending these heroic souls back to their countries to be executed, tortured or raped: we should be embracing them because immigrants are what makes America great.

This brings us back to the original question: who is so degraded that they would inflict this level of horror and trauma on innocent children? Who is the ultimate bully here, in other words, who’s the coward that conceives the idea of denying innocent children soap and a toothbrush?

I give you Stephen Miller, Trump’s main advisor, avowed white nationalist. I think all you need to know about Mr. Miller is this: when in high school he ran for class president on a platform that janitors should pick up trash left behind by students. In other words, in the lunchroom, Mr. Miller encouraged fellow students to leave their lunch trash behind for the janitors to pick up. Miller went so far as deliberating throwing his trash on the floor.

• “Am I the only one,” Miller asked in a campaign for his high school class government, “who is sick and tired of being told to pick up my trash when we have plenty of janitors who are paid to do it for us?”

This is the guy who has fashioned America’s immigration policy. Trump embraces it because it resonates with his racist, white supremacy world view—gotta stop those four-year old terrorists, no telling what they will do when they turn five…

As New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie writes:

• Miller praised Calvin Coolidge’s 1921 Immigration Act: Like his former boss Jeff Sessions, Miller is apparently a fan of Calvin Coolidge and the racially exclusionary Immigration Act of 1921 that the 30th president signed. The 1921 Act all but excluded immigrants from Asian nations and was praised by Hitler as the type of policy he sought to implement. In 2015 Miller wrote about Immigrant Heritage Month as, “a good opportunity to remind people about the heritage established by Calvin Coolidge”.
• Miller apparently was in communication with leading Islamophobe: Miller suggested that he was in contact with and pitching political stories to leading Islamophobe Pamela Geller. Geller once falsely claimed “Muslim immigration is tied directly to Islamic terror.”

A few more Miller quotes:

“Continue to worship at the alter [sic] of multiculturalism and we may come to see that we are participating in the sacrifice of the one culture which binds us all.”

“Miller has advocated for changes to “public-charge” rules, possibly forcing some 18 million noncitizens and 9 million children who are U.S. citizens, to choose between basic nutritional and housing needs and a continued ability to stay in the U.S. Similarly, Miller has proposed to evict families with undocumented members from public housing, even though this might lead to homelessness for 55,000 U.S. citizen and legal resident children.”

Miller: “I would be happy if not a single refugee foot ever again touched American soil.”

I will end with this abomination: “The Trump administration is making immigrant parents pay $800 for DNA tests to get their kids back.”

As Americans, are we really doing this? To children???? Are we going to continue to remain silent on this, as did the German people whose silence aided, and abetted atrocities committed by fellow citizens?

PART II

I have grand kids, one of whom is turning nine in a couple of months. What that means is that he will soon be studying history, specifically our Presidents, and probably our current President. Our current President is a man I don’t want my grandson to admire, or look up to, or emulate in any way. Let me count the ways….

1. He spews lies, instead of the truth.
2. He lacks a moral compass, devoid of integrity.
3. He belittles, instead of validates.
4. He creates chaos, instead of order.
5. He divides, instead of unites.
6. He degrades women, instead of respecting them.
7. He promotes violence, instead of peace.
8. He lacks compassion, instead enacts cruelty.
9. He worships money, not the goodness in people.

Do we really want our kids emulating the values put forth by our President?

Part III:

Our President is now unhinged. Any rational voice has been purged from his administration. What’s left is an army of sycophants and enablers, people who validate and parrot Trump’s evil impulses.

In other words, the filters are all gone.

And guess who’s back on the team: the convicted felon Roger Stone who we know has Trump’s ear. Here’s the latest from Stone:

“Trump should use his powers to declare martial law, arrest anti-Trump public figures like Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple’s Tim Cook, former Sen. Harry Reid, President Bill Clinton, and former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, and “seize” voter ballots.” Daily Kos

What’s at stake in this election is whether Democracy will survive.