This child will be sent to a United States government shelter where she will have a comfortable bed and toys, but caretakers will NOT be allowed to give her what a traumatized child desperately needs: human touch. Caregivers of these kids are not allowed to hug, cuddle or console these children with any touch whatsoever, according to an American Pediatric Association report. (photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
President Trump is being the Supreme Liar-in-Chief, as always.
He says repeatedly, to a base that chooses to believe the dozens of lies he spews in a day (I guess because he’s not a lyin’ Clinton or a lying’ Obama so his nonstop lies are OK?), that federal law requires families crossing the border illegally must be separated.
Federal law and the usual suspects (Democrats).
“I hate it. I hate to see the separation of families and children,” he says, lying through his teeth yet again.
He doesn’t hate to see this evil government policy at all.
He wants to rip these families apart to demonize and blame Democrats and Obama and anybody except himself for a whole new and cruel zero-tolerance policy that he and Sessions imposed on a whim. They gave no notice whatsoever for the government officials who have to prepare to detain these children and other separated family members.
So now the government is scrambling to set up tent cities for children under 5.
At least the tents are air-conditioned.
How humane of them.
Although, not allowing the children to be touched by their caregivers is not so humane at that. According to a pediatrician who was allowed to tour some of the government shelters, the kids are given beds, toys, and meals — but aren’t allowed to be touched whatsoever.
That’s a government rule. You can’t hug and console a traumatized, crying child in U.S. government detention.
Think about that.
You know and I know that human touch and consolation is the one thing every baby and child in this world needs every bit as much as food, water and toys.
In fact, we all need consoling hugs, kisses and pats on the back no matter what our age.
But to a child, consoling touch is as necessary as oxygen for healthy development. Many studies have shown that young children literally die from touch deprivation.
I know this, because it so happenings I’m researching and I’m writing a book about the healing power of the touch of Jesus, with the gospel of Mark as (no pun intended) the book’s touchstone.
So now we have traumatized children in America who are being denied any healing care by contact whatsoever. It pains me to say that is ugly episode in American history will be included in the book. I wish it weren’t so.
See here for what a prominent American pediatrician who has seen the kids reports about this.
Is this child some kind of animal? She looks much like my brown Belizean daughter Paulita McKay to me. Click on the photo to enlarge
What’s so maddening is that Trump (and Jeff Sessions of Romans 13-fiasco fame and the ever-heartless Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and everybody else) knows good and well there is no law requiring children be taken away from their parents when they cross the border.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, Trump’s ally and golfing partner who sometimes goes off the Republican reservation to speak the hard truth to Trump and everybody else, said today he plans to tell Trump that since he (Trump) hates to see these separations, he can stop them cold “with one phone call.”
And should.
He could do that, but he won’t, because he doesn’t want to end this cruel action. Approval from his rabid base trumps the need for common decency.
The fact is that crossing the border illegally is a federal misdemeanor that has almost never been enforced for a lot of good reasons.
Children have been separated from parents if the parents are referred for criminal prosecution.
The huge spike in the separation of these families in just two weeks was caused by that cruel zero-tolerance policy introduced by the Trump administration and Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and defended by the likes of my Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
Huckabee Sanders of course is the daughter of an ordained Southern Baptist preacher-turned-greedy-political-opportunist who lives in a seaside mansion on the Florida Coast that Fox News built; Fox News been very, very good to Mike Huckabee.
Trump, finally by his own admission today, is trying to force Democrats to agree to an immigration bill to provide the money to build the wall he promised that Mexico would pay for.
I’ve said before that I would never call Trump the anti-Christ, because metaphorical anti-Christs of all kinds are always with us.
People like Trump’s buddy in North Korea Kim Laugh-a-Minute, who is so funny and has a great personality and is so respected that his people run up to him in tears to bow down to him–he’s a biblical anti-Christ.
Trump himself is just another in a long line of anti-Christ figures. But this is a first. He’s the first American president who was so anti-Christian.
I’ve seen many Trump supporters on social media say Democrats and “the mainstream media” hate Donald Trump because he’s white and because he’s a Christian.
I look at him and see a man who is orange, with tanning booth eyes and a strong but craven personality. And Christian?
If Donald Trump’s a Christian, his pal the leader of North Korea is the latest incarnation of Buddha himself.
What’s sad is that it turns out Attorney General Jeff Sessions–who reportedly is a Sunday school teacher at a United Methodist Church in Mobile, Ala. — is an embarrassment to Christianity, the United Methodist Church with its Wesleyan Connection and tradition, and America itself.
It was bad enough that Sessions completely lied by omission about what the Apostle Paul really said about obeying government authorities. He’s been roundly rapped for that violence to scripture by everybody from the Southern Baptist Church to Franklin Graham and most of the world’s Roman Catholic Church leaders — especially the American Catholic leaders.
What really irked me, and irked even most of my conservative and very conservative evangelical friends upset by this zero-tolerance horror, is that Jeff Sessions said the separation of children is biblical with a shit-eating grin on his face. As if he is delighted to see these families separated and children terrorized because it’s God’s law.
I hope he and Trump and the boys have had a cheerful Father’s Day.
I’ve had a hard time fully relishing mine with my beloved America so utterly, tragically lost.
Jitterbugging for Jesus 
Paul, I’ve subscribed with my new email address. Can’t figure out how to unsubscribe from this old one. Could you send me a link or advice on how to do that?
*** Please note new email address below.***
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They probably use that rule in the same way schools do: don’t touch the kids and they can’t claim you touched them inappropriately. Seriously, when I went through training to be a sub, I lost count of the number of times they told us “don’t touch the kids”. They acknowledged this is very hard, especially in the lower grades where kids are very affectionate. Instead, they encourage the “side hug”, fist bumps, a pat on the shoulder or back. Having said that, I personally have hugged lots of kids, and their parents. I’ve held them as they wept, and hugged them in celebration.
If ever kids needed hugs, it’s these poor little ones. Trump (and his brain, Stephen Miller) can’t be gone quick enough for me.
That’s something I’m thinking through for my book, how it’s bad enough that we’re pretty much a touch-deprived culture and more deprived because of the fear of being accused. It seems in this case, where they are so tightly confined in small spaces, that wouldn’t be a problem with all the cameras watching every move anybody makes nowadays. But yeah, this is going to so stunt their development.