After months of separating immigrant children from their parents, Trump has finally decided to put an end to the horrific policy that he started by signing an executive order (though we all know what his word is worth, so don’t hold your breath. We can just pray that the worst is behind us).
He predictably blamed it on his lackeys, as he always makes sure he has dozens of scapegoats around him to avoid at all costs any responsibility for his impulses and actions.
He’s like a child in a candy shop, expecting to be lauded for his integrity on returning a chocolate bar which he was the one to steal in the first place.
Although it is good news that the next wave of refugees won’t have to face similar trauma and injustice, it’s unknown how many families will ever be reunited. Thousands of families will still remain torn apart, and this aftermath is the reality of the rest of their lives.
Maybe Trump couldn’t empathize enough because his own family would gladly throw him under a bus, if one day all of his power vanished. Well, you reap what you sow . . . Perhaps he misses the love and approval he craves and tries to snatch the warmth that does exist in other families.
While psychoanalyzing this dictator might be a lot to unpack, and some might argue even irrelevant, the comparisons between Trump and Hitler aren’t actually that far-fetched. They both started unimaginable wars based on their own insecurities, fears of an Other that didn’t fit with a nationalistic identity.
And though people might think the parallels drawn between separating refugee families at the American border and the Kindertransport of the Holocaust are a stretch, they’re not. Separating parents from children occurred daily in the Holocaust, reminding us that history only feels shocking when we have years of distance from it. The only thing preventing this from continuing to cause irreparable damage and a second Holocaust is the fact that enough people spoke up on his tome.
It’s a reminder that we always need to add our voices to the outcry against injustice, and it’s not futile. The social consciousness of our collective voices in 2018 make it clear that the battle for democracy and peace today isn’t over, and we hope it continues – there’s still a mountain to conquer.
