I have tried to stay out of the politics for a while now. Don’t feel like arguing with people that are not interested in learning or informing their position. Mostly it is like getting snakebit, starts out as a tiny little wound, and ends up threatening your health and life.
But, there is currently a broad conversation going on in the social media world, about whether or not to blame the lawyer from DOJ that argued for the government that the conditions for the people detained at the border were safe and sanitary. This is contrary to any real information or reporting that we in the general public have seen.
The argument ranges from “she is just doing her job, it is her responsibility and it does not reflect anything on her,” to “she is descended of Atilla the Hun and bathes in the blood of dead migrants.” With every shade of outrage and venom in between, and it dawned on me that I was actually a subject matter expert in this arena, and that 90% of the public has zero informed opinion on this matter.
I spent 22 years in the Navy, operating and maintaining nuclear power plants on ships. My signature certified the custody and control of radioactive material. My signature certified the record of radiation dose for the entire crew of aircraft carriers from the propulsion plant reactor. My signature verified that high energy systems were deenergized and safe for maintenance and repair. My signature verified that the propulsion plant status was known and safe for startup. My signature certified chemistry results for the radioactive, service and potable water on board the ship.
I do not have the experience of leading troops into close quarter combat, but I have years of experience with fires and other emergencies on ships. It was my orders and directions that people followed in truly potentially deadly situations. It was my responsibility to be trained and knowledgeable enough to direct them correctly so that the remainder of the crew was safe and able to continue on with their warfighting priorities. The crew, from the Captain down to the juniorest boot sweating in their shop, all relied upon me, in my individual assigned role, to do the right thing and refuse to do the wrong thing.
I was blessed enough to be initiated as a Chief Petty Officer. Of all the good and valuable life lessons I gained in that process and being in the Chief’s Mess, none stood out more to me than these:
Speak truth to power, always.
Take care of your sailors, and any other sailors you can.
Both of these apply here, in this time. And I will broaden it beyond a lawyer arguing for the government in an appeals court. This includes CBP agents, police officers, DHS employees, DOJ employees, state child welfare agency employees, and citizens as well.
The truth is that this persistent and unrelenting abuse of children and families is wrong, illegal, immoral and monstrous.
There is nothing that mitigates what we have been doing to those people at our southern border. I don’t care about why they crossed or how they crossed that border, America should not treat people in this manner, and American citizens should not tolerate treating people in this manner. Most of the places the ships I served aboard went and acted were about providing oversight for correction of human abuses, until 2003. But every deployment I made, even during the ongoing wars, included air patrol and interdiction to provide safe zones for refugees and endangered people.
That the conditions described can exist within an American facility makes me physically ill. The brothers and sisters I knew that died protecting this country did not do so, so that we could become the same kind of regime they died fighting against. But, I know how we have gotten here.
Americans, government servants, all charged with the same responsibilities and legal framework I served under, no longer speak truth to power. They do not tell their superiors “I will not pour out water left for people in danger of dying from dehydration.” “I will not put children into cages or unsanitary facilities.” “I will not continue to work here if the people detained are not adequately cared for and kept safe.” “I will not go to court to argue for the adequacy of this inadequate system that is harming and traumatizing thousand of humans.”
It would be wrong for them to refuse to detain those crossing the border illegally. It would be wrong of them not to track, update and process residency status on foreign nationals in our nation. It would be wrong for them not to execute court approved deportation orders. It would be wrong for them to refuse to man and protect border crossing stations. There is nothing illegal, unlawful or immoral with those responsibilities.
But, to enter any of these facilities described in the court orders that are currently being argued, and not call out the mistreatment and abuse, is wrong. Continuing to show up and participate in mistreating and abusing these people is wrong. Arguing for the legality of these actions is wrong. And it is wrong enough to quit your job over. In fact, if that is your job, and you continue to do it, you are aiding and abetting crimes in the name of the government. You are violating the law you are charged with upholding and enforcing.
When told to violate clear directives in operating procedures in the Navy, I refused. Not that I am trying to portray myself as a hero, but I am saying I faced the exact same situations. And I refused. I was okay with being discharged for not violating what I knew to be right. When it came down to that point, it was clear that if I did this, I was in the wrong. Did not matter to me about the person giving the order. Did not matter to me about the ease and ability to fake it, so that it never would be found. What mattered to me was the guy I was going to look into the mirror at for the rest of my life. I had bills, kids, debt, mortgage and all the rest, just like everyone else. What I did not have was the ability to violate my core belief in what was right and wrong.
When you can make the choice to knowingly do the wrong thing, and daily continue to choose doing the wrong thing, you are no longer just a cog in the machine. You are a willing participant, an accessory, a villain in the story. You, your choice, your actions. It is no longer a huge government wide issue, or some detached, murky idea. You choose, and it is you. It is not about being Democrat or Republican, it is not about conservative or liberal. It is all about your choice. Defending it, demanding it, enabling it is a choice as well.
Taking care of your fellow man is all of our responsibility, and failing to do that is wrong, illegal and immoral.
If you are “Pro Life”, because of abuse of the unborn, you cannot stand for or defend what is happening to the born at our border. To take care of the unborn and not the born is to not be “Pro Life”, it is to be duplicitous and false. I won’t quote the Bible, Torah, Quran about it, because they all have the same books and condemnation of being false in any part your faith and actions.
Working to continue a government that creates these conditions is not only illogical and a contradiction, it is evangelical, because the term is just about proclaiming a belief system to convert others to your beliefs. There are evangelical Muslims. There are evangelical Satanists. If you want to substitute the word recruiter, in usage and context it would almost always work. If you are evangelizing the continution of this treatment of fellow human beings under the control and custody of our government, you are not in keeping with Matthew 28:16-20. And if you are not going to follow that commission, you are not evangelizing Christianity. You have confused Christianity with propaganda.
Our fellow man is our business. When our fellow man breaks a law, it is our business to stop the illegality and protect all our other fellow men from being victimized by that crime. So, don’t make the mistake of assuming I think that people illegally entering our country should not face penalties, or cannot be detained. But to keep them in conditions worse than we provide to death row inmates is monstrous. Show me the quality of your facilities for those that violate the laws of the community and I will show you the quality of your nation.
If your neighbor kept their kids in a house with no furniture, made them sleep on the concrete slab, did not give them medical care, kept their lights on all night to watch them, did not give them clean clothes or soap, and you knew it, what would you do? The folks running and working in these detention facilities are your neighbors. They see the conditions, they see the abuse, and they go to work every day anyway. If it happened in the house next door to you, my hope is that you would call CPS and the police. If it happened in the government you control and vote on, it is not okay to just let it go.
Because if you enable this, if you vote for those that will continue this, you are part of this. If you found out this is how child care was treating your child, would you keep going to that child care center? But, these kids (and adults for that matter) do not have a choice about going to that child care center. We mandate they stay there.
If you work in this system, and you have first hand knowledge of these conditions, and you keep going to your job, and not fix the conditions, you are not caring for your fellow man. Contributing to that, serving it willingly is all about you.
You cannot serve with honor, if you do dishonorable things and look away from dishonorable conduct.
So, the attorney for DOJ, Sara Fabian, becomes a lightning rod. She does because you can see her, you can find out her name. You have evidence of her actions that came from your own eyes and ears. The CBP agents “guarding” the detainees are faceless and we therefor tend to leave them out of the blame/fault/wrong conversation. The local police and CPS that knows these conditions exist, and do nothing are left out of the blame/fault/wrong conversation. The reporters and producers that have first hand accounts and evidence and do not publish them, knowingly, to serve an agenda are left out of the blame/fault/wrong conversation. Those that overstate and exaggerate the conduct and conditions for political gain are left out of the blame/fault/wrong conversation.
We talk past each other, and argue about minutia that does not educate or improve our lot, or the lot of our fellow man. But, the people that are the most monstrous are not all those that are actively participating. No.
The worst people in this sick and inhumane insanity are those that refuse to listen, refuse to engage, can’t focus on it.
Because, those are the people that are infected with the same sickness that let the Spanish Inquisition, the IndianWars on the Great Plains, and the fascists take over their systems. They just ignored it, because it was unpleasant to talk about, required forming an opinion on right and wrong, and meant that the system they were an active participant in was immoral and inhumane. It meant that they, themselves, were part of the dishonor. If they can ignore it, they can always say, “well, I just had no idea.” It is a lie, but it is an easily told one. It salves many souls.
If you are going along to get along, in a car with three friends that stop and commit a burglary, and you don’t get out, and don’t refuse to participate once you suspect a crime has occurred, if caught with them, you are an accessory to the crime.
If you know someone is going to build a bomb and destroy something or someone, and you do not speak, you are accountable for some role in that crime.
If you see signs of abuse on a child, have evidence it is occurring, but do not say anything to anyone, and that child dies, what then? How do you live with that?
Because we have had at least six of those detained kids die already this year, while in custody. And that information is readily available to all of us. If you are not involved in making this stop, calling it out, condemning it, refusing to vote for those that sustain it, can’t be bothered to even form an opinion about it; you cannot live with honor.
Don’t be that kind of American. Live with honor, and if it applies, refuse to serve, because you cannot serve with honor doing what you are told.
There is nothing we can control, but ourselves and our decisions. And no one will likely know, except you. The only person in the world you cannot keep a secret from is you. Don’t try, it will consume your life and make you miserable.
What Master Chief says? You can’t really have anything, if you give away your honor. It is the only thing that you can judge value against. It aint much of a life living without honor.
