"If I were to remain silent, I'd be guilty of complicity." Albert Einstein

During the summer, I spent a bit of time reading about the lives of the many women who worked as British SOE agents during WWII.  The research was heartbreaking. These women were carefully trained to be able to be parachuted into France, or other Nazi occupied countries. Their job was to blend in, to look, and to act normal. But, they were anything but normal. They operated radios, helped resistance organizations to destroy Nazi controlled plants, roads, and bridges. They sent messages, and linked up networks. They took terrible, life threatening risks. Many were tortured. Many ended up dying in concentration camps, being shot as spies.

I walked away from this research a different person. It's important to stand up and speak out in our world today. Currently, we live in a free country. We have been granted the right to express our opinions. For twenty years, I have worked with children, many of them immigrants from other countries. It bothers me that we are going to forget the kids that have been separated from their parents. The news cycle will move on to other train wrecks, because that is the formula of this administration. "Look over here!" We all look. Well, the kids are still waiting. The parents are still waiting. I decided to start posting comments on our vice president's Instagram page. This morning, a young man, who appears to be about age 20 or so, sent me a rude reply. He told me that I didn't care about the kids being separated during the previous administration, implying that I'm a hypocrite. He didn't know about my years as a teacher. My years of meeting with Spanish speaking parents. Had he read about the kids being molested in these centers, or drugged to stop them from crying? It's the usual blame game. Obama started it. And, because that is the rationale, it means that it's okay? 

Here's the point that I want to make, and I think that the SOE agents have given me courage. When we are silent, we imply consent. If I don't say anything, this administration thinks that they have the green light. Our president's campaign manager was interviewed on the news this morning, and he actually said that the American people don't really care about Trump paying off women with campaign funds. We are just "happy that the economy is going well". We recently heard the president's attorney declare that "Truth isn't truth." Well, I do care that we're using campaign funds unethically. And, truth is not relative. It is as constant as the North Star. Lying is lying. And, bigotry is bigotry. 

Martin Luther King, Jr. is famously quoted for saying, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter." I think it matters that our country is being taken for a ride by a lying con man. I have been writing to my representatives. But, now I'm going to write to our president and our vice president daily. I realize that it will be a shout in the darkness, but, it's a shout nonetheless. And, if everyone who believes in ethical government, regardless of party affiliation, joined with me in writing them daily, then maybe things would change. Maybe kids would be freed.