Philadelphia: Walking over the graves of American history
Recently 5,000 delegates from all over America attended a Netroots
Nation convention in Philadelphia -- and one of those delegates was me.
And the proudest moment of that entire convention was when all
5,000 of us took to the streets and marched on City Hall to protest the fact that
Honduran babies and little kids were being kept in cages like criminals
-- not only at our southern borders but also even right here at Philadelphia's
Berks Detention Center -- right in the beating heart of the City of Brotherly Love.
Remember back several years ago when football player Michael Vick
became a national villain when he was accused of being mean to dogs and
keeping them in cages? Nation-wide outcry! "Vick is mean to dogs!"
But now, when our very own government goes about caging human children,
where is the outcry? Vick is a villain -- and yet Trump is a hero?
Vick cages 50 dogs and get punished for it -- but Trump cages thousands
of children and gets completely away with it? Say what?
After the protest march, I trudged off through the streets of Philly,
just soaking in the ambiance of all that historic "Cradle of Freedom"
stuff. At Independence Hall, I met up with my guide for a walking tour
of where Black history also took place back during Revolutionary times
-- and right there in the very center of the Cradle of Liberty itself,
our tour group stumbled upon a sweet, idealistic and hopeful group of
young middle-school girls, standing next to the very place where John
Hancock had signed the Declaration of Independence. And these girls
were holding up signs protesting the caging of children in America
today.
Wow!
My first thought at seeing those signs was, "Geez Louise, America has really degenerated from
fighting for Philadelphia Freedom in 1776 to behaving like Nazis in
2019."
But by the time the Black History tour ended, I sadly realized that
America had always kept kids in cages. This current atrocity of keeping
kids in cages was actually nothing new. Our heroic ancestors had caged
Black children first.
Then our guide took us off to see a statue of Robert Morris, the man
who almost single-handedly financed the American Revolution. "He got
his wealth by kidnapping people from Africa, submitting them to the
horrors of the Middle Passage and then selling them on the auction block
here." And Morris treated Black children even worse than Michael Vick treated
his dogs. Much worse.
So I wrote the word "Slaver!" on a Post-it note and pasted it onto the
base of Morris's statue, telling the whole world the truth about him.
But then someone told me that there were cameras all over that area,
spying on us tourists -- so I went back and took the Post-it note down.
So much for freedom of speech anywhere near Independence Hall.
Next our tour group moved off to Washington Park. "5,000 slaves died
in Philadelphia during the infamous yellow fever epidemic of 1793. Many
of them are buried right here. In unmarked graves. You are standing
on them right now."
5,000 slaves. 5,000 Netroots Nation protestors. Maybe we have come a long way toward Freedom after all. Let us hope.
PS:
I just read where one Honduran mother had been finally reunited with her
14-month-old baby after 85 days, only to discover that her infant was
covered with -- wait for it -- lice! Yuck. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/migrant-baby-returned-to-mom-covered-with-lice-lawsuit_n_5b401388e4b07b827cc07d3c
What kind of sick storm-trooper mentality allows those in charge
of such hellholes as slave markets, Dachau, Abu Graib, Gaza and
America's southern border to even begin to think that their behavior is
acceptable?
It's the herd mentality.
"If the guy next to me is happily kidnapping babies, then it must be okay for me to also kidnap babies too." Just google the "Stanford Prison Experiment" to see how that works -- or never mind. I've googled it for you. https://www.psychologistworld.com/influence-personality/stanford-prison-experiment
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Stop Wall Street and War Street from destroying our world. And while you're at it, please buy my books. https://www.amazon.com/Jane-Stillwater/e/B00IW6O1RM
