Back in the day, one of my JCC jobs was to supervise the Camping programs, Day Camp and Resident Camp. Both varieties of camp offered numerous activities, qualified staff, and the power and organization of the Jewish Community. We offered camping programs for the entire community, and no matter race, religion origin of a family all were welcome. The first day of camp was always one of magic, mystery and often mayhem for both the campers and often times the parents who for the first time were saying goodbye to their kids for four weeks at resident camp, and a whole 8 hour experience at day camp. Often times a shy child, a child who needed a little more assurance that mom and dad would be waiting for them, or that mom and dad were not abandoning them, would cry, pout, scream and resist as best he or she could to NOT, as they saw it, be taken away! It was difficult to witness this bit of trauma, and on rare occasions, the child could not muster the courage or trust to actually get on the bus and leave his family. Anyone with empathy, even though we knew what a wonderful and healthy experience this might be, had a difficult time in watching the misery the individual child was feeling and the overwhelming pain of angst on his or her shoulders and in his or her heart.
I was watching MSNBC, as happened upon Melania Trump, dressed in her usual let's go to see the ravished hurricane communities outfit, sitting at a roundtable, in Texas, as a newly contracted and very taxpayer expensive Lutheran Shelter. You know the next stop up from a Motel 8, where the kids were in cages lying on a thin mattress on a concrete floor with mylar blankets. A bevy of false smiles on the faces of very nervous employees of the Lutheran Center sitting erect and trying their hardest to understand the words coming out of Melania’s mouth which never really seemed to move nor did the expression in her eye, all were talking in hyperbole about how THIS place is HOME. They bragged that each child has his or her own room. They laughed saying that once the kids saw the art on the wall their sad little faces erupted in smiles. These folk sitting around the table all bragged that THIS care will supersede the fear and anxiety of being kidnapped, or torn apart from your family of origin and that NOW these kids are HOME.
Oh, what wonderful PR, Melania stepping out of her Ivory Tower, Oh what insidious PR pretending that separating kids from their parents who MAY NEVER see their families again is so American Pie. The guy, I guess the Director of the Center because he got to speak the most, told Melania that of course, the kids can call their parents twice a week, THAT IS IF IN FACT THE LUTHERAN CENTER IS CERTAIN THE PERSON TO WHOM THE KIDS ARE SPEAKING IS THE REAL PARENT. But what the fuck, these kids are safe and who needs parents or families when you got a Detention Center to jail them in. Of course, Melania did not dare visit the bare bones, hardcore, raunchy Concentration Camps, where the kids are crying, begging for parents or just left untouched. Nope, that is not the kind of PR Trump wants his First Lady to be identified with. KIDS ARE SEPARATED FROM THEIR FAMILIES. Some never to be reunited. FUCK you, Melania, FUCK you Ivanka, FUCK you, Sarah HUCKABEE Sanders, FUCK you, KellyAnn Conway…FUCK you and your sly PR tricks. You all are as responsible for Trump's empty soul and his evil spirited intent to hurt as many people as possible!
