{"id":1926,"date":"2018-06-17T10:23:15","date_gmt":"2018-06-17T14:23:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/?p=1926"},"modified":"2018-06-15T11:38:15","modified_gmt":"2018-06-15T15:38:15","slug":"these-arent-concentration-camps-but-that-doesnt-mean-theyre-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/2018\/06\/these-arent-concentration-camps-but-that-doesnt-mean-theyre-good\/","title":{"rendered":"These Aren&#8217;t Concentration Camps (Yet)\u2014But That Doesn&#8217;t Mean They&#8217;re Good"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\">I strongly urge you to watch this video:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">\u201cThe kids here don\u2019t get out much \u2013 spending almost 22 hours a day indoors.\u201d- <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jacobsoboroff?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@jacobsoboroff<\/a> is one of the first journalists invited inside America\u2019s largest detention facility for migrant children <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/g6EiwFBdBY\">pic.twitter.com\/g6EiwFBdBY<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 TODAY (@TODAYshow) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TODAYshow\/status\/1007220138867875845?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 14, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" async=\"\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">and read this article (&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2018\/06\/14\/us\/family-separation-migrant-children-detention.html\">Inside the Former Walmart That Is Now a Shelter for Almost 1,500 Migrant Children<\/a>&#8221; ) all the way through, then <a href=\"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/2017\/01\/calling-your-reps-a-guide-for-the-timid-with-quick-start-and-power-user-options\/\">call your reps<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">My point here: This is not a &#8220;concentration camp&#8221; by any modern conventional standard (in that &#8220;concentration camp&#8221; connotes harsh conditions, overcrowding, and general neglect if not outright abuse). Here&#8217;s a <i>New York Times<\/i> description at what they saw at this specific migrant internment center:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\">Most of the boys are from Central America. Many of them smiled, waved at or shook the hands of the reporters touring the site. They were asked by the reporters and Southwest Key executives, in Spanish, \u201cHow are you?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The constant reply was \u201cBien, bien,\u201d meaning \u201cOK, OK.\u201d The media was not allowed to interview the children.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Some were leaning back, getting a shampoo at the sinks in the shelter\u2019s barbershop, where a striped lit-up barber\u2019s pole spun outside the door. They lined up in the cafeteria for dinner \u2014 chicken, mashed potatoes, mixed vegetables. Some played pool, or joined a tai chi session in the rec room. One teenager sat at a cafeteria table with his head bowed and hands clasped, praying silently. Another told the cafeteria worker who served him dinner, \u201cGracias, Miss.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Everywhere, some of the shelter\u2019s more than 1,000 employees hovered nearby \u2014 they sat at the ends of the cafeteria tables while the boys ate dinner, watched \u201cMoana\u201d with the children in the old loading docks and escorted lines of boys in the hallways.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">\u2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The vast majority, Southwest Key officials said, crossed the border unaccompanied.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\">That said, these certainly fit within the broad dictionary denotation of &#8220;concentration camp&#8221;\u2014in that they are <a href=\"https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/concentration%20camp\"><i>&#8220;a camp where persons (such as prisoners of war, political prisoners, or refugees) are detained or confined&#8221;<\/i><\/a>.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>(And we have no idea if other such centers are better, worse, or about the same).<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Still, calling these &#8220;concentration camps&#8221; runs the risk of continuing to erode the general American understanding of the heinous magnitude of suffering endured by<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>the Jews and others interned and enslaved by the Third Reich, or the Americans of Japanese descent imprisoned by the U.S. government, or the countless others who have been confined, reeducated, absorbed, and exterminated by the smooth-grinding wheels of governments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">On top of that, calling these &#8220;concentration camps&#8221; is a disservice to progress and to these specific children.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">That said, saying that &#8220;these aren&#8217;t concentration camps&#8221; is in no way meant to suggest that what&#8217;s happening here is good; it&#8217;s getting overcrowded, it&#8217;s unsustainable, they&#8217;re starting to set up tent villages (in Texas, in the summer\u2014lack of rigid shelter and HVAC is a huge drop in livability outside El Paso). This is precariously close to starting the inevitable slide into what we <b><i>all<\/i><\/b> would recognize as concentration camps.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">But, goddamit, right now we are very close to doing the Right Thing<span class=\"s1\">\u2122<\/span> here: Most of these kids are showing up at the border without parents or guardians; it is right and good to shelter them, feed them, protect them, show them <i>Moana<\/i>. That&#8217;s what a country dedicated to the huddled masses yearning to be free <i>should<\/i> be doing.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>With proper action, there is an opportunity here for these centers to level up to being well-run refugee centers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">We should call our reps, and say as much: I want unaccompanied minors to be sheltered and fed.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>I want those who&#8217;ve been abused, or whose home places have been made unlivable by gangs or failed governments, to have access to asylum.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span>Kids who have braved the elements and the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, they&#8217;ve got True Grit; I want to know how they can become my neighbors and fellow citizens.<span class=\"s1\">&#x1f1fa;&#x1f1f8;<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I strongly urge you to watch this video: \u201cThe kids here don\u2019t get out much \u2013 spending almost 22 hours a day indoors.\u201d- @jacobsoboroff is one of the first journalists invited inside America\u2019s largest detention facility for migrant children pic.twitter.com\/g6EiwFBdBY \u2014 TODAY (@TODAYshow) June 14, 2018 and read this article (&#8220;Inside the Former Walmart That &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/2018\/06\/these-arent-concentration-camps-but-that-doesnt-mean-theyre-good\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;These Aren&#8217;t Concentration Camps (Yet)\u2014But That Doesn&#8217;t Mean They&#8217;re Good&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_share_on_mastodon":"1"},"categories":[11,75],"tags":[323,30,324,59,322,53,43,56],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1926"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1926"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1926\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1930,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1926\/revisions\/1930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davideriknelson.com\/sbsb\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}