Letters

More difficult

What is happening to this country I love? Every day our present government is making life more difficult for many people, the latest is separating children from their families at the border: and among those, 20 percent (1,500) are missing – some babies and toddlers. General Kelly reports that they are either in foster care or “wherever.”

I am outraged and saddened. Who is thinking up these terrible policies? What’s more, standing alongside of these government officials day after day is our smiling Representative of the 5th District, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, supporting most of Trump’s agenda. I am sure that CMR would not like to have her children separated from her, and most people don’t either. As a Psychology Instructor at Spokane Falls Community College, when teaching about human development, I teach about healthy development. Providing children with secure attachment is essential, and can affect an individual over a lifetime.

The effect of separation may be long-range trauma and result in considerable suffering. Of course, parents suffer too. (MaryCliff Institute in Spokane leads in research and publishes information on attachment.) The public needs to speak out everywhere against this cruelty. Compassion and empathy – “Do unto others” – is nothing new.

Nancy Street,

Cheney