Some are able to empathize sympathize relate to those whose experiences do not match theirs. Others are incapable of it. Are you capable/in?

I think some people care about others and some don't. Simple as that L. It is the "why is that?" I don't understand. Is everything based on DNA? If so how do you "blame" folks for whom they are since they had no control or choice? Of course you have choices but what determines the ones you make? T'is a puzzlement. Thank you for your reply and Happy Saturday to thee sweetie. I don't know if it is very simple or very complicated. Imagine fleeing to a foreign country so that your children can stay alive and be greeted with hostility animosity condemnation and then having your children taken from you, placed elsewhere and maybe never seeing them again? How can anyone not feel for these people? :(

I cannot imagine having to flee my country and, having done so, being separated from my children.  I have to imagine these people thought that their children would be well cared for - this is, after all, the United States.  I suppose in some perverse way, if their children would have been subject to being harmed or killed wherever they come from, being here, even in less than good conditions, at least keeps them alive.  Yes, i know that several children have died while in "custody," but I also think that one or two of them had underlying problems when they got here.  That is not to say they shouldn't have been medically treated.  

This is a complicated issue.  As much as we may feel for them, there are only so many people we can have enter this country at one time.  Who will care for them; where will they live; how will they earn a living and support themselves or will we have to do that, too?  Back in the day, when your people and mine came here, they had to have someone to sponsor them so that they didn't become wards of the state.  I don't know how many of these asylum seekers have family or a support system here.  There are far too many people who need a safe place to live for us to take in everyone.  Sad though it may be, that is the bottom line.

Thank you for your thoughtful and heartfelt reply L. All immigrants who came through Ellis Island were treated shabbily. All were targets of hatred from the locals. All had very difficult times trying to assimilate. The Irish and the Chinese and every ethnic group from every place including my people..Armenians. From the beginning many "Americans" didn't like the idea of "foreigners" coming here though all of them were the issue of foreigners.  This is supposedly the richest country in the world. We spend BILLIONS and BILLIONS on graft and corruption and lining the pockets of the obscenely wealthy and think nothing of it. But "foreigners"? Outsiders? Why should we spend anything on them? I've heard it before L. It has always been the same mantra of "we can't do it". Sigh. I don't fault you for your assessment at all. I don't know how many years your people have been here but I am FIRST GENERATION AMERICAN. Yes I am old now at 81. But I honor what my parents and grandparents did and their bravery those many decades ago. Had they not done that I would not be here. My father would have died on a FORCED death march set up by the Turks. So I VALUE my life and why I have it and I would like to extend that to everyone who is fleeing from certain death whatever they call it. In my grandparents'/parents' time they fled the ARMENIAN GENOCIDE. The US turned away a ship filled with Jews during the second world war. I expect all of them died for lack of being welcome here. Among them might have been the person who found a cure for cancer. We will never know. Good people can disagree and I think you are a very good person. My views are different from yours.  It matters not what I think. The powers that be will do what they want to do to service their own interests. Ever it shall be thus. Sadly.

I do appreciate your opinion and understand your reasoning.  I am second generation paternally and third generation maternally.  My dad's mother came from Russia and his father from Poland.  They were unwanted, I'm sure, but they persevered, their children got educated and moved up the economic ladder much the way many of their peers did.  They made it a point to learn English as quickly as possible and to try and assimilate knowing they would never see their homelands again.  I think that is part of the difference here, too.  People think the U.S. is so open-hearted (which in many way it is), that they don't feel the need to learn English or become Americanized because I think many feel that at some point, they may actually be able to go back.  Yes, the Europeans came in droves at the turn of the 20th Century, but in a legal manner, with sponsors and in relatively good health.  Many did not come because of extreme poverty, but because the regimes in their countries were run by despots.  I understand your background - it's much like the Jews in Europe.  

At one point, Mexico was offering asylum and work to the Central American migrants.  Many refused that offer and a few went back to Central America and the rest are clamoring for entry in the U.S.  If what they wanted was refuge from deposit regimes, work and a safe haven, Mexico was offering it to them.  Yes, we will never know what may have become of those turned away in any generation, but we are also a country of laws and we have a right to expect that newcomers will respect the rule of law.  It is the lack of adherence to that principle in their home countries that has moved them to leave.  

Look how many legal Americans are suffering in poverty and ill health.  Seniors are facing the possible end to Social Security as we know it.  In some cases, Americans have to decide whether to spend their pittance of an income on food or lifesaving medicines.  Yes, there is plenty of waste in government spending, graft and other illegal activities, but if that was to change, don't we owe it to our own citizens to make their lives better before we seek to make the lives of others better than our own?

Charity begins at home. Having the cobbler's children go barefooted because he is so busy making shoes for other people's children is horrendous. However the powers that be are only interested in what benefits the obscenely wealthy. They have already gotten their reward by simply being rich. $1.5 trillion in tax cuts. The current administration is literally raping the citizens of our country without any consequences. Not allowing asylum seekers in will not change the dynamic of what is going on here. I'm not talking about folks who simply want a change of scenery L. I'm talking about asylum seekers who will DIE if they have to stay in their countries. I don't know what the percentage of immigrants who are asylum seekers is. But it is hard for me to believe we can't find a place for people who simply want their children to live and grow and get educated and contribute to a country that won't punish them. This country is not that country. It used to be. Perhaps one day it will be again. But right now it is not.  I know my words will change nothing. I have no real power. I do have the power of my words and the power to say what I think even if it is unpopular to do so. It is my OBLIGATION to my parents and grandparents who fled certain GENOCIDE. They did not take the voyage for the thrill of it or to boast of it. They fled to save their lives. Most Americans have no clue what that means and worse than that they do not give a sh** ! But that doesn't dissuade me from talking sweetie. I know it falls on deaf ears but I want my folks to know (just in case they're listening) that I went down fighting and speaking out and not rolling over and being silent. It's my duty to them. I hope you understand. Thank you for your thoughtful reply and Happy Monday to thee my sweet friend! :) ((hugs)) This post was edited by RosieG at June 17, 2019 2:00 PM MDT

I do understand, Rosie - I very much understand.  I agree that our politicians are raping the taxpayers over and over again, which may have put many people who were on the cusp of poverty over the edge.  I understand your empathy and I am also empathetic, but to have the taxpayers paying for the 1% of this country and then be asked to kick in even more to take care of thousands and thousands of people who live in the upheaval in which most the world finds itself in, is a but much.  Happy Monday. :)

SIGH. Realistically my friend do you think this current state of being in America will have an end or has it changed forever into what it is now? A Justice Department that is a joke. A Senate majority leader who is a joke. A fake Attorney General who is a joke. A prez who gathered together the scum of homo saps to work with him to pillage and destroy who is  joke? Thank you for your thoughtful reply and Happy Tuesday L! :) ((hugs))

I hope that this current state we're in will end with the end of the Trump presidency.  How much damage will be done between now and then is anyone's guess.  Now I'm reading that Trump has ordered ICE to make wholesale arrests of people who are illegally here.  That is reminiscent of the Nazis rounding up Jews.

Sigh. Yes. Millions of people. Of course the extremely stable genius sb prez is a bigly admirer of Nazi Americans so I expect we can extrapolate that admiration to include Hitler. It's not much of a stretch. Thank you for your reply L and Happy Thursday! :) ((hugs))

I hear you.  AOC said the holding areas at the border are no different than concentration camps.  She took a lot of hear for making that comparison, but she has a point.  Happy Thursday. :)