Landmark legislation: Support For The People Act

Senator Joe Manchin Alert! Echo opinion published in the West Virginia The Register-Herald, in Beckley, WV.  

"Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) has announced that the Senate will take an initial vote on the For the People Act legislation next week; Senator Manchin said he did not know what changes Schumer and other Democrats would be willing to make to win his support."- Washington Post

Dear Editor:

Some people would have you believe that legislation dubbed the For the People Act is a solution in search of a problem. I wish that were true. Unfortunately, it is not the case whatsoever if you look at widespread efforts to restrict access to voting.

On May 11, Senator Capito authored an op-ed claiming that “Democrats want to politicize our elections.” 

There are some serious issues with saying this (oxymoron 101!) – especially falsely alluding to the idea that the For the People Act is a partisan bill. 

Although the bill has been introduced by Democrats, 76 percent of registered Republican voters in West Virginia support the For the People Act. Senator Capito and I agree: Republicans and Democrats want to see more people voting and that is why she should support S. 1.

Right now across our country, we see state legislature after state legislature—including here in West Virginia—considering and even passing legislation that would make access to the ballot box more difficult. The For the People Act is a remedy that seeks to combat restrictive measures to voting.

The For the People Act does three things. The first is that it would make it easier to vote, address challenges voters faced in casting their ballots, and protect the security and integrity of our elections. It also would end the predatory and harmful dominance of big money in politics. Finally, it would restore ethics and accountability in government by ensuring public officials are working in the public interest.

After the (seditious) attack on our capitol on January 6, and the spread of mistruths (aka "lies!"- The Big Lie) following the 2020, election, we know that the sanctity of our democracy is under threat from actors both foreign and domestic. The only way we will preserve our system of governance is if we stand up and demand it and further make it more inclusive for all to participate. The best way to stand up for our democracy is to demand passage of the For the People Act. Join me and let’s show both Senator Capito and Senator Manchin that we support this landmark legislation.

Zachary Fancher, Fairmont, West Virginia

Cages described - Somebody needs to draw a picture for Secretary Kristjen Nielson

Cages are cages and Secretary Kirstjen Nielson denies this reality.

MaineWriter- In another brazen attitude of hypocrisy, the pro-life Republicans are somehow immune to the cruel "anti-life" Trumpzi policy of ignoring the tragedy of separating immigrant families.

This echo guest editorial was published in the Times of West Virginia newspaper (Fairmont, West Virginia) and originally it appeared in the Miami Herald. Interesting note- this editorial was published on February 14, 2019, before the Secretary Kirstjen Nielson gave an incredulous testimony where she vainly attempted to describe to Congress how a "cage" is not really a cage. Yet, children are kept in these cyclone fenced structures, i.e., "cages".

When is a child worth less than a suitcase? When the child in question is an immigrant at the U.S. border, and the Trump administration exercises its “zero tolerance” policy.

In a ruling last summer, U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw summed up the administration’s utterly immoral and cavalier attitude toward immigrant children that it had separated from their parents: “The unfortunate reality is that under the present system, migrant children are not accounted for with the same efficiency and accuracy as property.”

The administration didn’t even attempt to keep track of many of the children being torn from their mothers’ arms as part of its inhumane and unnecessary family separation policy.

Now, incredibly, the administration says that thousands of migrant children shouldn’t be reunited with their families — ever — because it would take too much effort and might traumatize the children.

If only the administration had worried about traumatizing children before it began taking them from their families, putting them in camp cities and then farming them out to “sponsor” homes.

The Department of Health and Human Services was so incompetent in its administration of this policy that Ann Maxwell, assistant inspector general for evaluations, said a precise count of the number of children separated is impossible, though it’s estimated to be thousands more than the 2,737 the government has claimed in court documents.

Thousands of children — some as young as 18 months — taken from their parents, possibly never to be returned.

In a court filing ordered by Sabraw in response to the inspector general’s report, HHS Deputy Director of Refugee Resettlement Jallyn Sualog said it could take 100 employees working more than a year to review all the cases, and that taking children from their sponsors would be “disruptive and harmful to the child.”

“Disrupting the family relationship is not a recommended child welfare practice,” she wrote, apparently with no sense of irony.

The tragic thing is that the Trump administration, in all its callousness and overwhelming indifference to the plight of these children, might be right. Separated from their parents for months and months, the children might well be traumatized by the disruption of their new normal.

Even their parents, who risked so much for an opportunity at a better life, might prefer their children have that opportunity even without them — a Solomonic response to a cruel and unimaginable circumstance manufactured by the U.S. government.

The brutal reality is that the administration clearly had no concern about the human dimensions of its cold-hearted policy. This abominable outcome was foreseeable had anyone in the administration, anyone at all, given a damn.

At this point, it’s hard to imagine how this can end in anything other than tragedy for thousands of children and their parents. Perhaps the American Civil Liberties Union can win some measure of justice in its ongoing litigation. Maybe Congress can force some action on the administration.

But it seems likely that thousands of parents are likely to never see their children again. They might go through the rest of their lives never knowing what happened to their kids and whether their attempt at seeking asylum was worth such an awful sacrifice.

So, too, thousands of children will grow up not knowing their real parents and not understanding their sacrifice.

— Miami Herald