To the editor,
Now that 2018 has drawn to a close, we can pause and ponder how history might remember us and these past months. I fear that history will not be kind. I fear that history will record that 2018 was the year that the once-mighty United States of America built prison camps along its southern border specifically to hold children.
I was trying to think back over the year, but it was difficult. My grandchildren were running around and being very loud. I looked at them, a 6-year-old girl and a 3-year-old boy, and suddenly my thinking became very clear. They are far too young to be separated from my family for even a long weekend.
The cages in which we keep these refugee children look like kennels purchased at the larger pet stores for larger animals. The symbolism is not lost and the photos won't look more humane with time. The camps have razor wire on the top of their fences. Razor wire to keep the family out or to keep the children in? Either shows a total lack of morality.
Now some will want to speak towards the issues that brought about these prison camps. However, like the Japanese Internment camps of WWII, history will not be interested in our excuses. Others might like to discuss who is to blame for building these prison camps. Again, that is inconsequential. Just like the internment camps, history will say that "we" built them and "we" are all stained with the same national sin.
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Issues with our southern border are complex and numerous. Solutions that balance security, humanity and treaty obligations seem to be elusive. Yet none of that matters. We built prison camps for children. That is what history will record.
Ben Tucker
St. Thomas, N.D.
