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So this is how you MAGA?
Most Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Taoists, agnostics and atheists disagree. I hope that followers of the Clockwork Orange would have extended a helping hand to Oscar Martinez and his daughter when they tried to swim the Rio Grande River to reach the suburb of Dallas where much of their family awaited them. I'm not sure they would have though.
Oscar and Angie Valerie waited with his wife, her mom, for 2 months in Mexico to talk to the American Embassy so they could come to the US. He had sold his motorcycle in El Salvador to get there. No one from the Embassy spoke with them. Were they criminals trying to illegally enter the US? No. According to Clockwork and USCIS they became criminals when they tried to reach their family by swimming.
Some have said that Oscar was stupid, maybe crazy to try. If we are poor, desperate and struggling to give our family a decent life sometimes we act crazy or stupid in the eyes of those who aren't poor, desperate and struggling. If I were Oscar faced with not knowing if I'd ever get a chance to be heard I might take the chance he did.
I don't blame Oscar. I blame us and the Clockwork Orange. Americans live in North America, Central America and South America. Some of us have it better than others. 'Giving a helping hand' used to be thought of as an 'American way.'
Those of us who truly want to make the United States great again better forget about MAGA and reach out to the rest of America - Canada, Mexico, Central and South America - with a helping hand, not a cage and an aluminum blanket.
Published by Bill Snyder
4 years ago 
