New Bedford

I do't usually get too political on this blog, except for a couple of shots at the government, which is currently of very poor quality. There are thousands of blogs that are doing a good job of pointing out how terrible the Bush administration is, and the wide-spread consequences of its actions.

But, something has happened fairly close to where I work that must be mentioned. I am drawing attention to it as a psychologist, and to show the deep and harmful impact of a stupid act of "justice."

This week over three hundred federal agents marched into New Bedford MA and raided a factory in which many of the people working there were undocumented as to their immigration status. They arrested 350 people, almost all of them women, put them in handcuffs and shackles, stuffed them into buses, took them to an old army base, and from there flew most of them to detention camps in Texas and New Mexico. Left behind were hundreds of children, most taken into custody by DSS. Most of these children were born here, and hence are American citizens.

I wrtoe last time about how some mothers do not live up to the ideal that we think of, and that can have grave psychological consequences. But when a government, my government, decides to tear families apart, to take mothers away from their young children, it is the government that is creating long-lasting problems of abandonment, distrust, childhood anxiety, PTSD, powerlessnes and an anger that will lead to future behavioral problems.

And this was done, why? To protect us? From seamstresses? From women who had been exploited by the factory owner? Yes, the factory owner was arrested, but he is out on bail. That option was not give to the "illegal aliens."

It is a disgrace that this current administration again chooses to sweep down on the poorest and most defenseless among us. They do this again to create the sense that their is an enemy in our midst and that we constantly be on the defensive. They did this to win their elections. They scare us away from looking at what is happening.

Of course, they haven't caught the real enemy, and they haven't even told us why we are at war in Iraq. But now, in Massachusetts, they are crushing Hispanic seamstresses and ripping families apart, just like slave-masters 200 years ago.

The least we can do is be an outspoken witness to this act. Let you government know that this is not the America we are supposed to send our troops to die for.