Immigration policy betrays America’s values
Two Wednesday mornings ago, 89-year-old Debbie Sherman got up after a sleepless night, heartbroken and angry at the news that officials of the United States of America had, by force or trickery, taken hundreds of children away from their parents at America’s borders.
“I decided that I would try to do something,” Sherman said. What she did was to print 250 flyers announcing the formation of “Grandparents for Immigrant Children,” and distribute them to her fellow residents of Orchard Cove, a senior living community in Canton, inviting them to an organizational meeting. Within hours, 40 Orchard Cove residents, many in their 80s and 90s, met to discuss how they could use their advanced age to shine a spotlight on the pain being inflicted in the name of the United States government on innocents just beginning their lives. “We are prepared to fight and march with our experience, signs, canes and walkers,” said co-organizer Susan Mulliken, an 82-yearold retired psychoanalyst.
The image of presidential press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders in front of the White House seal defending the unnecessary cruelty visited upon the most vulnerable among us and asserting — falsely — that separating children from parents was legally required was made worse by her jawdropping line that this practice was sanctioned by the Bible. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York, could barely conceal his disbelief at this bit of hogwash. “You would take a baby, a child, from his or her mom?” Cardinal Dolan asked rhetorically. “I mean, that’s just unjust. That’s un-biblical. That’s unAmerican. There could be no Bible passage that could for “grandmother” for alliterative purposes in order to make their point publicly, which would involve marching with signs that say, “Bubbes for babies.”
As that group has demonstrated, amid the coldness and the snideness that seem to have gotten the better of some of our countrymen, the reaction of many senior citizens to the plight of immigrants and refugees has provided hope that America’s core remains intact.
Debbie Rambo, president of Catholic Charities, says that retirees form an important part of the volunteer base of that organization’s People Organized to Welcome Refugees, which has sites across Massachusetts. These volunteers secure housing and furniture, and ensure an array of services, for needy families. Jerry Rubin, president of Jewish Vocational Services in Boston, reports that dozens of retirees have responded to JVS’ call for help. “Whether it’s teaching English, doing mock interviews, tutoring students preparing to enter college or helping our clients better understand the American work world,” Rubin says of these retirees, “they are using their skills and their spare time to help hundreds of refugees and immigrants find their American dream.”
“Protest is both for the moment and for the future,” observes Judi Hindman, a social worker who has counseled immigrants and refugees. The visceral response of so many seniors to the vulnerable souls who have arrived in this country also reflects their having lived through the past, and their hope that we learn from it, as well as their understanding of what happens when people sit on the sidelines. And it isn’t merely protest. It is an affirmation of what the best of American values has always been.