When I pen these columns, I usually try to think of a different angle. After all, national columnists much more accomplished than I are probably writing about the same thing, and who wants to be known as a rustic imitator from the soybean belt?

 
Occasionally, however, it is important to be on record as saying something, no matter how unoriginally it is said.

 
This country is no stranger to separating families.

 
From colonial times to the Civil War, slave families were frequently broken up with some members being sold “down the river” and others kept or sold elsewhere.

 
I suspect Jefferson Beauregard Session III’s remote ancestors could quickly cite biblical support for the “peculiar institution” with passages such as Colossians 3:22: “Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything, and do it not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord.” (New International Version.)

 
Citing the Bible is a cheap trick because in it you can find support for just about any proposition you might want to advance.

 
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Native American children, even young children, were separated from their families and sent to “Indian Schools,” often run by religious denominations.

 
The primary purpose of these schools was to assimilate Native American children and youth into Euro-American culture. As part of the process, they were often given Christian names to replace their Indian names. (Thus, Wa-Tho-Huk [“Bright Path”] became Jim Thorpe.) They were given “western”-style haircuts. They were forbidden to speak their own languages or practice their own cultural traditions. Conditions in many of the schools were harsh, and children lived with the negative consequences of the experience for the rest of their lives.

 
Finally, on a wave of World War II hysteria, American citizens of Japanese heritage, after being given a very short time to get their affairs in order, were rounded up and transported to remote “internment” camps for the duration of the war.

 
Children were not separated from their families, but the families were separated from their rights as American citizens, which was equally abhorrent.

 
What these events have in common is that each is now recognized as a stain upon our nation’s honor, and a denial of everything for which we like to think our country stands.
The “zero tolerance” policy currently being enforced on our southern border, with its forced separation of mothers and fathers from their children for an indeterminate period, is the newest addition to our national hall of shame.

 
It is morally reprehensible.

 
I understand that a legalistic construct can be cobbled together to rationalize “zero tolerance,” but even Nazi Germany was meticulous when it came to masking its abominations behind a cloak of legality. They were still abominations.

 
In any case, we are not talking about a law that requires ripping young children from their parents. We are talking about a policy that just might be permissible under current law, but was instituted by, and could be ended by, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, and his master, Donald Trump.

 
Although a goodly number of godly men, in exchange for having an additional sympathetic ear on the Supreme Court, have compromised their moral authority by being complicit with this administration’s questionable acts in the past, when evangelical bodies such as the Southern Baptist Convention, or evangelical leaders such as Franklin Graham, a staunch Trump ally, come out in opposition to the policy, and are joined by other groups such as the U.S. Conference of Bishops, not known for its progressive politics, it can be concluded this is not just another case of bleeding-heart liberals having a whine-fest.

 
This is about political blackmail:

 
Congress (and anyone else having conniptions about what’s going on), give me the money for my wall, accept all my other immigration proposals, and anything else I might think of between now and then, and all this will end beautifully. Believe me.

 
The children, especially the youngest among them, are nothing more than pawns in a much larger game of political chess.

 
Maybe Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, and his master, Donald Trump, should pick on someone their own size.

 

End the policy. End it now.