Dick Gregory left us in August of last year. At least a year before passing away, he told me we’d soon be facing chaos. Well, naturally, since so many, including me, thought that Hillary Clinton would be our president and our nation would function normally, we could not imagine what we are seeing. Usually I believed everything Mr. Gregory said because so often I saw everything he said come true. To believe Hillary would lose, and we’d see the chaos we are seeing today, totally stretched my imagination!
When people say to me, “I wonder what Dick Gregory would say about what’s going on today,” I don’t have to wonder. I know what he would say, because he laid it out for us while he was here. We just didn’t always want to believe what he was saying.
We’ve seen the chaos he predicted since the 2017 inauguration of #45. What’s going on right now, though, is beyond what anyone could’ve imagined.
What is happening with 45’s administration and its zero tolerance policy of tearing children from the arms of their parents, while the children are screaming in protest, is too much for many to bear. We are seeing sit-ins at the offices of members of Congress, press conferences on the grounds of the Congress, picketing at various sites, men and women leaders seen with tears rolling down as they talk about this outrage and more.
We are told this tragedy is bringing joy to the White House. This cruelty to babies who may never see their parents again is so hard to witness. Parents have been detained and deported with no fair hearing. They are being sent back to the horrendous, dangerous situation from which they were fleeing and being forced to leave their children behind. This is almost too much to bear.
The psychological impact on the children who’ve been viciously torn from their parents’ arms, some who are even told lies to get them away from parents, only to find their parents have been arrested and taken away, is unimaginable in America — and yet it’s happening. Our government has no procedure to give the children back to their parents. Indeed, it is clear that #45’s strong men and strong women have no idea where many of the children are!
Reporters have been asking where the girls are. Where are the babies? Kirstjen Nielsen, secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, didn’t know where they were! She’s responsible for carrying out the imprisoning these children and — with a straight face — she can say she doesn’t know where they are! Incredible!
It is unconscionable that this administration would use babies for ransom to get a wall around the U.S.-Mexico border. #45 claims he has so much money, so it seems his conscience would dictate that he build the wall himself — but did I just say “his conscience?” It’s clear that he is a madman and he doesn’t have one.
On the bright side, many state governors, through this chaos, have taken an action that proves all politicians have not gone mad. They’ve decided not to send their National Guard or use their state’s resources to support this shameful effort at state borders. Some who have Guard already there are recalling them. This gives us some hope that gut-wrenching cries by innocent babies and the cruelties at our borders have proven that there is a shred of humanity left among us.
My question is, how long do we have to put up with this madman and his policies? Where will he go from here? What will he do next to set our country back hundreds of years?
Williams is national president of the National Congress of Black Women and a weekly columnist for the Trice Edney Wire Service.
