This is the day when we should remember the famous statement by Martin Niemöller, “First they came for the … but I did not speak out because I was not a …” Nor, instead of the groups that Niemöller spoke of, it’s the Haitians. Starting today, thousands of Haitians are now here in the United States without authorization, and ICE will target them. And what about their U.S. born children? Shall we send them to hell as well?
A proposal: take all those children and put them in front of the White House so its occupants can care for them. Surely a man who has managed to gain over a billion dollars while President will be able to afford their food, clothing and other necessities.
Instead of making fraudulent tax deductions so he paid only $750 in taxes, he would make a real charitable deduction by feeding and clothing these US. Citizen children, sparing their parents the worry of how they would survive. Of course, there is the other alternative, the one proposed by Jonathan Swift regarding the surfeit of Irish children.
Prayer for the Day
We confess, O Lord, that we are unsettled,
For we chafe at the words of Jesus;
We know that thousands will be hunted down,
Thrown into detention and deported
Can we be forgiven if we sit idly by,
Watching those who cared for us so treated?
In the name of the One who overturned the tables, `
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
I have been assured by a very knowing American of my acquaintance in London, that a young healthy child well nursed, is, at a year old, a most delicious nourishing and wholesome food, whether stewed, roasted, baked, or boiled; and I make no doubt that it will equally serve in a fricasee, or a ragoust.
Jonathan Swift, from A Modest Proposal for preventing the children of poor
People ln Ireland from being a burden on their parents of country (1709)
Say this city has ten million souls, some are living in mansions, some are in holes,
Yet there’s no place for us, my dear, there’s no place for us.
W.H. Auden, from Refugee Blues (1939)
Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud, be gracious to me and answer me!
“Come,” my heart says, “Come and seek God’s face!”
Your face, O Lord, do I seek, do not hide our face from me.
Psalm 27:7-9