I wonder what will happen
when the children of today
grow old enough to realize
what our nation is doing
to other people’s children:
taking them from their parents,
putting them in camps,
justifying abuse.
I wonder what that revelation will do
to American children’s relationships with their parents,
to whatever religion allows this,
to their opinion of this flag and country.
I wonder what those religions have become,
and where the honor of “people of faith” has gone –
people who ironically suffered the same in the past
and today look away when it’s someone else.
I wonder if it will bring the end
of the politicians who turn away, silent,
accepting this abuse, torture and neglect,
accepting the destruction of families and people
all done in their name –
done in our name.
I wonder.
And if anger follows those revelations,
I wonder what form it might take.
And I wonder about those children
taken from their parents
by armed men and women
for being a “national security” threat.
I wonder what they will think
about “law and order;”
about America’s morality;
about the idea of “liberty and justice for all;”
about their “family values;”
about the worth of democracy;
about the god that Americans claim to worship.
I wonder.