Somewhere among those refugee kids is a writer

This guy wants to be president of the United States. One Facebook commenter

called this FULL METAL JACKASS.

Somewhere among those children making their way from Central America north through Mexico and into the United States, there is a child who someday will sit down and write the story of his or her journey to what is hoped to be refuge from the violence and poverty of the homeland.

If the child survives the journey through hunger, Mexican bandits, those coyotes who guide people across the border, crosses the Rio Grande hoping to find an American Border Patrol officer to surrender to, and is allowed to stay in the country, or even if sent back, and somehow lives to adulthood, the description of the journey may be told. Then, too that 5-year-old will have to survive the Texas governor, flying overhead in a military helicopter, machine gun at the ready apparently to mow down these dangerous interlopers seeking the American dream.

One of those kids will survive to tell the story and only then may the United States show some sympathy for their plight, at least those Americans who can read and choose to, because by then the way things are going with education these days, even basic reading let alone access to truth may become problems in the near future.

It is the history of such events that this country, supposedly founded on some principles involved with embracing refugees from all manner of atrocious situations, attempts to stop new emigres at the border. I am here, now close the gate. There are several memes floating around the Internet with photos of Native Americans saying something like "oh you don't like immigrants? When are you leaving?"

But that same internet seems to be overwhelmed with those who spew hatred toward these innocent children and spreading fears of such things as criminals among them or deadly diseases they will spread into our population. Perhaps we should all be taking notes for that writer who probably doesn't even know yet that it is his destiny.

 Those notes should include progressions like this: In the Texas budgeting process this year Gov. Rick Perry cut funding for border protection.  Then two days ago he sent 1,000 Texas National Guard soldiers to protect it from these kids. But today, today, he found it necessary to patrol that border himself in a helicopter, his itchy trigger finger ready on what looks like a door-mounted 7.62 mm  machine gun. Does anyone really believe he will use that if the helicopter happens to encounter a group of kids crossing the Rio Grande in an inflatable raft? That's doubtful considering the operators of the helo didn't allow him to have any ammunition. Put all that in the notebook for the aspiring novelist.

A week or so ago a U.S, Representative joined protesters attempting to stop an anticipated bus bringing some of those kids to a town in California. When a school bus approached he joined the others showing their signs of hatred toward who they thought were children who probably could not read them. The congressman even said he saw the fear on the children's faces as they  peered from the bus window at the demonstration. When the truth came out, it was a busload of American kids on the way to summer camp, and those fearful kids were actually laughing at the demonstrators and taking pictures with their smartphones to post on Instagram. It took about six tries for that congressman to back away from his original statement. One more for that notebook.

Perhaps the most telling meme around says something like "if your religion says an embryo is life to be protected, but living refugee children are not, then you need to rethink your devotion." Put that in the notebook as well. But these are only asides, footnotes, perspective. Only someone experiencing the journey first hand is going to be able to tell the true story of what these kids are going through.

One can only hope in time the U.S. will find a way to accommodate these kids, bring them into the fold,  save them from the horrors in their homelands and in the process, liberate the mind of that youngster who survives the journey to write the story. That has been the way of the world; the stories of what refugees endure never surfaces until the child grows into an adult and with that perspective tells it all too late to save many of those even now enduring the journey. One can only hope that writer isn't killed by starvation, or Mexican criminals or gunned down by the governor of Texas. Even with those obstacles, one of them is bound to make it and then we will maybe come to understand what we have done.


What remains to be seen is, when that child of today sits down as an adult of tomorrow to write the final chapter will it describe opportunity and success in the new country or will it chronicle another disappointing step along a tortuous trek toward eventual tragedy?

There is a book called "Enrique's Journey," written by a woman who made the trip.

Stories by two former refugee children.

Look at this picture and ask yourself WWJD

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