Reflections for Independence Day - Central American Child Refugees and Our American Conscience

"These children are not immigrants, legal or otherwise. They are refugees. And when we see this exodus of child refugees, our country has a choice -- do we try to save lives, or do we callously reject their pleas for help, and send them back to the hell they are attempting to flee? America has done this before to tragic consequences. In 1939, families trying to spare their children from the oncoming Nazi onslaught sent their kids via boat to the Americas in the hopes of saving their lives. America rejected them. Supposed defenders of freedom stuck to thinly veiled xenophobic and anti-Semitic arguments to overpower a weak and cowardly political class, who rather than lead our nation, chose to be bystanders of this tragedy and sent this boatload of children back to Europe, where hundreds died at the hands of the Third Reich.

America did this. America, the country that is the light of the world and the protector of freedom globally. Now America has an international crisis equal to that, not from some far off country across the ocean, but right at its doorstep. We have a choice -- do we show the world that we indeed stand for "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," or do those words ring hollow for children from places America has no vested interest in? Shall we knowingly send hundreds of children to their deaths, kids who pose no threat to us or our nation, who are simply asking for a chance at life? Or shall we repeat the horrendous decision we made in 1939, and add another stain on the American conscious?

When I see what happened at Murrieta, and how conservative media target these innocent children with their vitriol, hate, and their thinly veiled xenophobia and racism, I wonder if they truly understand what it is to be an American, what it means to know and understand the freedoms we take for granted. I also wonder if they are capable of empathy, the quality that makes a grand society. When I see our political class of both parties be weak and cowardly, and chose to be bystanders while a crisis looms, I can see no other parallel than to those tragic days of 1939.

I turn back to my daughters, proud to be in their stars and stripes and delighted to be celebrating the 4th of July weekend -- safe and secure. Little do they understand that they are simply lucky to have been born on the right side of a manmade border. I thank God I may never have to make a decision similar to the one the parents of these child refugees have had to make, simply to save their innocent lives. And while I wonder where the conscience of this great country has gone, I am reminded of the words written below our Statue of Liberty, a symbol we hold dear during this day celebration:

Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

The world is watching to see if America still remembers these words, and to see if we as a nation, still have a conscience."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/miguel-guadalupe/reflection-for-independence_b_5556785.html