<p class="s18"><span class="s17">WHO IS WATCHING THE CHILDREN?</span></p>
<p class="s20">​​<span class="s19"><span class="bumpedFont20">I am certain that everyone has heard of the recent inspections of the detention </span></span><span class="s19"><span class="bumpedFont20">facility</span></span><span class="s19"><span class="bumpedFont20"> in Clint, TX that </span></span><span class="s19"><span class="bumpedFont20">is</span></span><span class="s19"><span class="bumpedFont20"> holding children in the most inhumane conditions imaginable. Underlining all of the recently exposed tragedies among these children are the reports that reveal that children are still being separated from their parents after the president signed an order to discontinue separating children from their parents in June of 2018.</span></span></p>
<p class="s20">​<span class="s19"><span class="bumpedFont20">It is shameful and outrageous enough that adults are forced to live in these overcrowded, unsanitary and deplorable conditions. It is even more appalling and inexcusable that children and babies are forced to live in these conditions. </span></span></p>
<p class="s20">​<span class="s19"><span class="bumpedFont20">As parents and family, we go above and beyond – sometimes to the point of extreme measures – to ensure that our children and family are warm, safe, comfortable, clean and healthy. Should we not desire the same for all children?</span></span></p>
<p class="s20">​<span class="s19"><span class="bumpedFont20">The </span></span><span class="s19"><span class="bumpedFont20">recent </span></span><span class="s19"><span class="bumpedFont20">report regarding the detention facility reveals the following atrocities: </span></span></p>

<div class="s22"><span class="s21">1. </span><span class="s19"><span class="bumpedFont20">The facility was originally designed for adult men and not for children</span></span></div>
<div class="s22"><span class="s21">2. </span><span class="s19"><span class="bumpedFont20">There were several outbreaks of influenza, lice and children quarantined due to other health conditions</span></span></div>
<div class="s22"><span class="s21">3. </span><span class="s19"><span class="bumpedFont20">The children’s clothing was stained, toddlers were not wearing diapers and were relieving themselves in their pants and children as young as 7 and 8 years old were wearing clothes caked with snot and tears</span></span></div>
<div class="s22"><span class="s21">4. </span><span class="s19"><span class="bumpedFont20">Teenage mothers are wearing clothes stained with breast milk.</span></span></div>
<div class="s22"><span class="s21">5. </span><span class="s19"><span class="bumpedFont20">Most of the children have not been able to shower or wash their clothes since they arrived at the facility</span></span></div>
<div class="s22"><span class="s21">6. </span><span class="s19"><span class="bumpedFont20">The children do not have access to soap, toothbrushes and toothpaste</span></span></div>
<div class="s22"><span class="s21">7. </span><span class="s19"><span class="bumpedFont20">Children said they were waking up at night because they were hungry, and reports of children daily eating an inadequate diet</span></span></div>
<div class="s22"><span class="s21">8. </span><span class="s19"><span class="bumpedFont20">Children as young as 8 years old were caring for infants who were not biologically related to them</span></span></div>
<p class="s20">​<span class="s19"><span class="bumpedFont20">Unfortunately, these conditions will continue until, first, the humanity of the children is restored. For centuries, this country has used the tactic of dehumanizing groups of people for the purposes of justifying the inhumane treatment imposed upon them. When the humanity of a group of people is taken away (to be defined, as a group, as savages, animals, rapists, murderers, etc.), people can more easily justify treating them inhumanely. Consider the treatment of the following: the indigenous people of this country; the Africans who were brought to this country in chains for the benefit of free labor, and the aftermath of slavery including Jim Crow Laws, ly</span></span><a name="_GoBack"></a><span class="s19"><span class="bumpedFont20">nchings and disenfranchisement; Japanese Americans who were forced into concentration camps after the bombing of Pearl Harbor; and Muslim Americans who were mistreated after 911.</span></span></p>
<p class="s20">​<span class="s19"><span class="bumpedFont20">Second, until Men of Valor and Women of Virtue stand up, speak up and do something. Bishop Desmond Tutu reminds us, “</span></span><span class="s23"><span class="bumpedFont20">If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality</span></span><span class="s19"><span class="bumpedFont20">.”</span></span></p>