Yesterday, we marked World Refugee Day, and we did so under surreal circumstances. The uproar over the current administration’s policy of forcibly taking migrant children from the arms of their parents and sending them en masse to shelters far away continued to burn, despite the president’s signing an executive order supposedly stopping the practice. The same day, the administration’s Secretary of State praised the “strength, courage, and resilience” of refugees.
Update: About a day after I posted this piece, Barbara Bush passed away. I pray for comfort for those close to her.
It’s truly sad news: former First Lady and longtime Houstonian Barbara Bush, surely one of the quickest wits to ever grace the White House, has decided to forego further medical efforts to cure the illnesses that will end her life. She is 92 years old.
Many of you don’t remember her, given that she last was First Lady 25 years ago. So I’d like to share my own Barbara Bush story.
Based on what I’ve heard in conversations, and on what I’ve seen on news sites and social media, the grown-ups of America have been really surprised and super-impressed by the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. That’s the Parkland, Florida, school that experienced 17 lives lost, dozens of others injured, and countless others traumatized due to one man’s violence on Valentine’s Day. Baby Boomers, Gen Xers (of whom I’m one), and Millennials have all marveled at the courage, eloquence, savvy, and passion demonstrated by the Gen Z teens who, having seen their friends and teachers killed in front of their own eyes, are taking the fight for gun reform to politicians beholden to the National Rifle Association – and even to the gun lobby itself.
