By Allen R. Gray
NDG Contributing Writer
What is that fuel that feeds American politicians’ benevolence—that emotional thrust that causes politicians to be so caring to some yet so cruel to others?
That is the question voters should weigh as political candidates are kissing babies and making campaign promises. Voters must judge whether their candidate pursues the greater good for humanity or if their candidate is merely a charlatan seeking to be reelected.
The cause of humanity should transcend which side of the political aisle one finds him/herself when it comes to human issues that stare America squarely in the face. After all, the value of human life is why the issues centered around a woman’s right to an abortion shall never die.
We have witnessed our humanitarian virtue in action in the past, so America’s far-reaching goodness is not an anomaly. One needs to only look at what American politicians working in concert have done for the besieged nation of Ukraine.
Only six months ago, with the hint of Russian/Ukrainian war looming, Republicans and Democrats—standing together—did not hesitate to comment on $13 billion in assistance. American politicians not only provided monetary support but also more tangible resources in the form of weapons and military training.
To aid the Ukrainian fight against “Russian aggression,” America supplied that nation with major weapons such as:
• High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and ammunition. …
• 1,500 Tube-Launched, Optically-Tracked, Wire-Guided (TOW) missiles. …
• 155mm Howitzers. …
• 105mm Howitzers. …
• 120mm mortar systems. …
• National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS); …
• Phoenix Ghost Tactical Unmanned Aerial Systems
• And, some other modernized weaponry it would take a general to explain.
Just in case those big guns were not enough, in late August the U.S. announced that it would supply an additional nearly $3 billion in assistance to Ukraine—and politicians proudly did so because we “value all human life.”
That brand of American munificence is not just in Ukraine, America has maintained its role as provider and protector the world over…then over again, and all because Americans place such a high value on human existence.
It is at its own shores that American largess is hard to spot, and within the boundaries of its own lands that American politicians demonstrate that charity does not begin at home.
Hopeful and desperate migrants are at America’s virtual shores, but now everyone—on both sides of the aisle and both ends of the abortion debate—are flat broke.
To witness America’s crueler nature take a purview of the disparate people stuck on the other side of the river.
Recently, a mortician in the border town of Eagle Pass, Texas requested the use of the county’s refrigerated truck trailer. Towns all along the Texas border are recovering the drowned bodies of desperate but hopeful men, women, and children. One child was as young as 3-months-old, who drowned along with her 3-year-old sister.
Del Rio is averaging over 1,000 unlawful migrant encounters a day. Customs and Border Protection numbers show that the entirety of the Texas border has witnessed over 2 million migrant encounters over the past 11 months.
This drastically increased number of crossings means an unfortunate increase in the number of bodies to be recovered. Maverick County alone predicts a year-end total of 300 recovered bodies. These staggering number of bodies, which represent our failure as American benevolence bearers—is causing the firemen who are doing the recovery work to break down.
Eagle Pass Fire Department Chief Manuel Mello III told The Washington Times that the daily body toll is having a “very traumatic” effect on his firefighters and medical personnel. Chief Mello said his staff is experiencing emotional trauma, resulting in a high number of absences.
“These are young gentlemen, young women are seeing more than any normal person would see in a lifetime,” Mello stated. “It’s almost like a war zone.”
The border situation might be as traumatic and inhumane as a Ukrainian battlefront. the start of September saw the recovery of 13 unlawful migrants. Chief Mello hope that American politicians would mend their divisions and offer a measure of relief to the border predicament.
“If they (politicians) could at least stop this migration, what would be awesome.”
The only obvious difference between Ukrainian lives and those migrant lives might be found in the pigmentation of their skin.
Even if migrants legally enter America’s land of milk and honey, they are greeted with a handshake lie, before being railroaded by bus or plane to some strange place that they know not.
One must admit that people are seldom so disgusted with their birthland that they would leave for greener pastures. It is not the land that drives them away, it is the lack of opportunity and modern-day human living conditions that cause migrants to undergo that perilous journey that is in search of a better way of life.
If American politicians were to show the same generous goodwill it is showing to Ukraine to the nations of South America or Haiti, we might find that a huge number of those migrants, both legal and illegal, just might decide to stay put in their own land.
Never overlook the fact that an American politician’s main goal in life is to get reelected, so the way they vote in Congress and the nonsensical rhetoric they pontificate in public is based solely on the feedback from American voters (or the silence of non-voters).
Much to his credit, from day one of his presidency, President-Elect Biden understood that the issue of legal and illegal immigrants was a matter that needed to be addressed, so he took the humanitarian route. President Biden sought to do so by addressing the underlying causes for mass migration by proposing the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021, whose aim was to responsibly manage and secure our border and to better manage migration across the Western Hemisphere as well as to keep families safe.
The Citizenship Act falls well short of what was done for Ukraine, but it would have been a step in the right direction.
Biden purposed a four-year inter-agency plan that carried a price tag of $4 billion.
The Act would have meant increased monetary assistance to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, with the proviso that those nations reduce endemic corruption, violence, and poverty that causes people to flee their birthlands. The Citizenship Act would also assist in placing refugees from impoverished third-world nations in the U.S. or other partner countries.
The Citizenship Act of 2021 died in Congress in March of 2021 primarily because voters in favor of the bill did not speak (i.e., vote) loud enough.
If we are the America that truly cares for “all human life” our first step is to monitor the way our elected officials are voting when our backs are turned.
To see how an individual Democratic or Republican politician has voted on any past bill or major issue, refer to the website:
https://www.congress.gov/congressional-record
