Dialogue Is Not the Answer for Our Problems
Perhaps nothing is more core to liberal beliefs than the idea that dialogue will bring people together. If only we can come together and talk out our problems and if only we can educate people about the world, they will make decisions based on tolerance. The Trump administration has in part been an exercise in seeing liberals realize their core beliefs don’t reflect American reality. I don’t brag in noting this, even if I don’t consider myself a liberal. I’d like things to be this way. But they aren’t. This Jimmy Kimmel piece where he introduces Trump supporters to an actual Dreamer family, a woman with a baby married to a conservative law enforcement officer, is useful primarily in demonstrating that knowledge of reality does not change people’s minds. The people in this video just don’t care. They tell her to her face that she should be deported. That’s what we face. These people simply are indifferent to the life of this woman and the fate of her family.
That doesn’t mean that education and dialogue lacks value. There are lots of people on the fence about issues or who simply don’t know what is going on that it can help. But it’s no answer in the face of evil. Only power will defeat these ideas. Unfortunately, Democratic leaders seem unwilling to use what power they have to help these people because they fear the political backlash. I will have more on this tomorrow, but this is a real problem and I am highly disappointed in Senate Democrats.
Meanwhile, ICE continues with its ethnic cleansing.
When Simone Dannecker met Harry Pangemanan, she didn’t know his immigration status or that he had nearly been deported for living in the country illegally.
She came to know him as a popular church volunteer who delivered drywall, paint and other supplies free of cost as her husband, a licensed contractor, rebuilt the family’s Union Beach home. For two years, Pangemanan visited the house weekly to help the Danneckers. Sometimes, he came with a team of volunteers from across the continent, ready to help in the aftermath of superstorm Sandy.
Now the mother of two is speaking out on Pangemanan’s behalf as he faces imminent deportation to Indonesia.
“If it wasn’t for Harry, we wouldn’t be where we are right now, back home,” said Dannecker, 47, who has lived in Union Beach all her life. “Harry is an absolute blessing.”
The Danneckers are one of more than 200 families who Pangemanan helped and part of a growing list of Bayshore residents coming to his defense after learning that he was targeted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents last week.
“I am not for immigrants who are milking the system, but that’s not all of them. He was a hardworking, compassionate, law-abiding guy,” said Laura Traynor, 71, who says Pangemanan and his volunteers insulated and cleaned up her Union Beach house.
“I call him my angel,” she added.
Yep, better get rid of that guy.