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Cruelty Is Not Cool [1]

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Date: 2022-09-20  

The long road from Venezuela to Martha's Vineyard mirrors many other migrant stories

I’m an immigrant and so last week’s Ron De Santis’ Martha’s Vineyard political stunt perpetrated on Venezuelan migrants angered me.

I might be a pale-skinned, blue-eyed, English-speaking dude, but I do know enough Irish history, and how my people were treated on their arrival to American shores, and that it mirrored the ugliness of what I saw playing out in Martha’s Vineyard last week at the behest of the Governor of Florida

In the 1840s, the Irish left a million dead behind them and another million were forced to immigrate because of economic callousness resulting in what is known as The Great Hunger. The Venezuelans may not be starving in droved but they are fleeing dire economic privation that is driving them from their homes in the hope of a better future.

Only the worst kind of politician exploits the vulnerable for political gain. Just as the Irish were vilified for their Catholicism and impoverishment, so too are the 48 Venezuelan migrants being exploited for their otherness because of their skin color and the language they speak. Almost all Americans are descended from impoverished migrants fleeing political repression or dire economic circumstances. How have so many forgotten their own family history so completely that they think Ron De Santis’ behavior is anyway acceptable?

When do we all stand up and say Cruelty is Not Cool, that we all have a Venezuelan story in our family tree and recognize that these new migrants have displayed immense courage in leaving their homes behind and taking a harrowing trip so that they too can have the opportunity to live the American Dream. A dream that most of us have inherited from ancestors with similar stories.

Why would anybody think that Ron De Santis is an acceptable candidate for President or Governor of Florida? How did we get voters to opt for compassion rather than cruelty, to understand that kindness is strength and not a weakness, that anger and spite does not deliver a better America?

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/9/20/2124082/-Cruelty-Is-Not-Cool

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