We have an active listserve within the American Academy of Pediatrics, the fabled SOAPM listserve (Section on Administration and Practice Management.) Here, as elsewhere in the country, there has been much discussion on our current problems at the border, which probably should be labelled Adventures In State Sponsored Child Abuse. Here's what I wrote:
Budd Shenkin
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On
this topic of immigration and refugees, it is not surprising that we
should see controversy here on the listserve. I agree that many issues
are intermixed. I reflected on what was said, and I divided myself into
parts.
As
a citizen (and, I guess, as a Jew who knows Nazi and Communist history)
I feel pretty much the way Sonia does; no need to go through that in
detail. I would prefer to be welcoming to refugees fleeing failed
states in Central America, which unlike European and African refugee
states, is on our doorstep, is in our neck of the woods. If they want
to become Americans, I would set up ways for them to become Americans
and adopt American culture, while bringing their own culture here to
enrich us, but to learn and use English, for example. Most would
welcome as a gift classes, support, and jobs. If they don't want to
become Americans, they can be provided with support with the intention
of their returning to the homeland when safe. This is basic
humanitarianism. I would say that the US could support the return to
lawfulness in the home countries, but our militarized foreign policy
(see, for instance, Ronan Farrow, War on Peace: https://www.amazon.com/War-
Other
citizens may feel differently on this issue and still be within the
bounds of reason. Much of it probably has to do with the size of their
amygdalas, their surroundings, their personal history, and many other
factors.
As
a pediatrician, however, I think I know child abuse when I see it, and I
think I know abuse of families. If tearing children from parents is
not child abuse, if preventing ongoing connection among family members,
if producing and tolerating ongoing anguish is not abuse, what is? As a
pediatrician, and as a member of the AAP, I am outraged at ongoing
immorality that to my mind constitutes crimes against humanity (I guess I
just veered back to politics with that.) As a pediatrician and a
member of the AAP, I fully support what officials and individual
pediatricians have done to point out that clean beds and toys don't
constitute sufficient care, and that individual psychological health is
much more important than meeting objective bureaucratic government
standards. As a member of the AAP and as a pediatrician, I feel so
terribly strongly about this issue that I will join any march I can,
hold signs when I can, and I would hope that the AAP would have
contingents in every march, emphasizing that holding children hostage
and separating them from their parents is child abuse, a crime against
humanity, and even (I would say) state sponsored terrorism (it's hard to
keep politics out of this.) I will do whatever else I can also -- we
all have different things to contribute.
Finally,
as a student of history and political science, I can only deplore what
Trump and this administration are doing to the country. A recent book
is good: How Democracies Die (https://www.amazon.com/How-
I
am doing my best to be objective, and this is about as dispassionate as
I can get. Seeing children cry and be torn apart just breaks my heart,
and I am furious with those who institute and perpetuate the conscious
policies intended to bring anguish, basically for their own selfish
ends.
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8:53 AM (1 minute ago)
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