“When you see something, say something” applies to all areas of our life. How we respond to what we see defines who we are—we continually assess what is right or wrong, good or bad, fair or unfair and true or false. There’s no escaping it: as human beings we constantly filter, and we choose who we are in each moment. Now, in the swirl of issues in the news, I wonder who are we becoming. For example,
- After his three-year-old son was taken from him at the border, a detained Honduran man committed suicide. Border patrol agents actually have a technical term for his action: “suicide in custody.”
- Each day, 67 children, including nursing infants, are taken from their families and warehoused in tents and formerly abandoned buildings—detention centers in the United States of America? As of May 29, over 10,000children are in U.S. custody. And what happens to them? If placed in foster homes, what is the likelihood of them being
abused? Is this OK? - At home, women and children who live in subsidized public housing face a different peril. Ben Carson at HUD has announced that rents will triple which means that one million children are a risk of homelessness.
The typical household affected by the minimum rent increase would be a single mother of two, earning a median income of $2,400 a year — or $200 a month, Sard said. After paying $150 for rent, that would leave just $50 to stretch for the month for diapers, toiletries, bus fare and other necessities not covered by food stamps.
And, remember that this housing initiative is being driven by a man who in his first week in office compared African slaves to immigrants seeking a better life. Is this who we are?
Is this what we want? Has our moral compass gone haywire? When we know that the working poor in this country live pay check to pay check and that an unexpected $500 medical bill, car repair, or refrigerator replacement will send their lives into a tailspin. Although the recent tax “relief” policy was billed as helping the middle class and the poor, the fact is that it benefits the rich and will leave our children and grandchildren witha mountain of debt.
There are countless examples that cause me to ask “who are we becoming?” and I am certain that you have your own hot button issues that cause you to go apoplectic. Examples can be found in the actions, policies and rhetoric of almost every government agency, the judiciary and Congress. They can also be found in the actions and inactions of business leaders. Why are they silent? Where is the leadership?
All I can say is, thank God for the 300 Roman Catholic bishops. They note a rift in our moral fabric and they don’t like who we are becoming. The bishops, like Pope Francis, have stepped in to fill the leadership vacuum. They are making their voices heard:
“Separating babies from their mothers is not the answer and is immoral,” and it must stop. “The United States is now openly before the world using children as pawns to enforce a hostile immigration policy…. This strategy is morally unacceptable and denies the clear danger weighing upon those seeking our assistance.”
The archbishop of Chicago declared that “This is a new moment” and I wholeheartedly agree. And, I applaud Senator Joe Kennedy and marching to protest the in humanity of separating children from their parents. Joe Kennedy seized the moment and now it is up to us. It is the moment — to true-up our moral compass.