Revisiting a Reagan Aphorism
The tweet below came from Jon Favreau but he is only one of many who retweeted the image.
The photo shows immigrant children being held in cages. The implication is that this was done by the current administration. The problem is that the photo is from a story published by the Arizona Republic in 2014.
We see someone post something that outrages us and our immediate reflex is to share/retweet it. We may even be more likely to distribute things that outrage when we see the icon below next to the name of the person whose timeline we are viewing:
Problem is, that is only indicative that they really are who they say they are. It doesn't mean that the things they post are any more or less accurate than those of us who aren't "verified." That's an important word. It brings us to the titular aphorism of the late Ronald Reagan.
"Trust, but verify." Even in this age of Facebook and other sites trying to separate the fake from the real I still assume that internet content is riddled with what one reporter described as "demonstrable falsehoods." I have to admit that at first when Chrissie Teigen took Maggie Haberman of the New York Times to task for using those words to describe things Donald Trump had said, I agreed with Chrissie. A lie is a lie and it should be called one. However, Haberman's point that Trump may not have known all of the facts makes "demonstrable falsehoods" more accurate is well taken.
I'm trying to be sure than whenever I share something, it is accurate. Before I share it. Facts matter. Accuracy matters. The truth matters. In an era where the truth became the first casualty of someone we refer to as #LiarInChief taking office, those of us who are part of the resistance need to be more cognizant of being accurate and truthful in our criticism.
* * *
While on the topic of immigrant children and how they are being treated by the current Administration, let's talk about conflation. The conflation of the headline about how the federal government has "lost" almost 1,500 such children and how the Trump Administration is separating children from their parents at the border when families enter the U.S. illegally.
The two are separate issues. A story in the Washington Post explains the lost children issue very clearly.
"During a Senate committee hearing late last month, Steven Wagner, an official with the Department of Health and Human Services, testified that the federal agency had lost track of 1,475 children who had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border on their own (that is, unaccompanied by adults) and were subsequently placed with adult sponsors in the United States."
The separation of children from their parents at the border is the result of a Trump Administration decision to refer every single instance of illegal crossing of the border for federal prosecution. That will result in the separation of families.
It is also worth noting that the "lost children" is based solely on phone calls made to the sponsors that those children were placed with. It is likely that many of those sponsors chose to "go off the grid" to avoid deportation of those children.
* * *
The desperate conditions that drive parents to send their children to our borders on their own, or to try to smuggle them into the U.S. are well documented. I won't fault them for making that choice. I will fault our government and the leaders we have elected to handle such things for failing to deal with this issue in the more than three decades since President Reagan's program of amnesty became the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. We can't wish this issue away. Ignoring it doesn't work. Congress needs to act.
We see someone post something that outrages us and our immediate reflex is to share/retweet it. We may even be more likely to distribute things that outrage when we see the icon below next to the name of the person whose timeline we are viewing:
"Trust, but verify." Even in this age of Facebook and other sites trying to separate the fake from the real I still assume that internet content is riddled with what one reporter described as "demonstrable falsehoods." I have to admit that at first when Chrissie Teigen took Maggie Haberman of the New York Times to task for using those words to describe things Donald Trump had said, I agreed with Chrissie. A lie is a lie and it should be called one. However, Haberman's point that Trump may not have known all of the facts makes "demonstrable falsehoods" more accurate is well taken.
I'm trying to be sure than whenever I share something, it is accurate. Before I share it. Facts matter. Accuracy matters. The truth matters. In an era where the truth became the first casualty of someone we refer to as #LiarInChief taking office, those of us who are part of the resistance need to be more cognizant of being accurate and truthful in our criticism.
* * *
While on the topic of immigrant children and how they are being treated by the current Administration, let's talk about conflation. The conflation of the headline about how the federal government has "lost" almost 1,500 such children and how the Trump Administration is separating children from their parents at the border when families enter the U.S. illegally.
The two are separate issues. A story in the Washington Post explains the lost children issue very clearly.
"During a Senate committee hearing late last month, Steven Wagner, an official with the Department of Health and Human Services, testified that the federal agency had lost track of 1,475 children who had crossed the U.S.-Mexico border on their own (that is, unaccompanied by adults) and were subsequently placed with adult sponsors in the United States."
The separation of children from their parents at the border is the result of a Trump Administration decision to refer every single instance of illegal crossing of the border for federal prosecution. That will result in the separation of families.
It is also worth noting that the "lost children" is based solely on phone calls made to the sponsors that those children were placed with. It is likely that many of those sponsors chose to "go off the grid" to avoid deportation of those children.
* * *
The desperate conditions that drive parents to send their children to our borders on their own, or to try to smuggle them into the U.S. are well documented. I won't fault them for making that choice. I will fault our government and the leaders we have elected to handle such things for failing to deal with this issue in the more than three decades since President Reagan's program of amnesty became the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. We can't wish this issue away. Ignoring it doesn't work. Congress needs to act.
posted by me at 7:04 AM
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