PERHAPS WE OUGHT TO BRING DOWN THE STATUE OF LIBERTY!

This sorrowful photograph of Alberto Martinez Ramirez and his daughter, Angie Valeria, who drowned recently trying to cross the Rio Grande to enter the United States, published by the New York Times, triggered renewed sympathy for the migrants but criticism by others. 

The New York Times, June 26, 2019

The critics viewed the photograph as “thoroughly humiliating [and] (disrespectful)…too…[for] transmit[ting] a message, perhaps convey pain and trauma, [to] make us feel shame and sadness, and thereby ignite change.” (See “’These Are Not Easy Images to Use,’” The New York Times, July 1, 2019, page A2).

Indeed, it ought to ignite change!!! How dare they! Hear ye, ye!

To condemn the photos as “disrespectful” is head-in-the sand nonsense!!! We need to change our country’s immigration policies to prevent the human crises that have been mounting at our southern border. If our reporters didn’t remind us of what is transpiring there, we would never care! Most of us Americans are too far from our own immigration experience, generations away, and we would care little if we weren’t reminded!

So, I congratulate the New York Times editors. I can believe they took a lot of pain and engaged in studied determination to publish this sad photo. And, they did right.

Our immigration policies do indeed require intelligent and humanitarian reform but all we seem to care about right now is to build walls and scare people away from the border by terrorizing them with gestapo tactics. How truly sad this is happening in America! Yes, we need to be reminded of all this! Perhaps these critics, along with our benighted president, should call to bring down the Statue of Liberty! What’s it up for, then???

“Give me your tired and your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be freed…” (Emma Lazarus)