This story is so rich for so many reasons that the author did not intend. It reeks of the privilege that they don’t even see.
The asylum seekers howed Stallings cell phone video taken during the journey across a remote Central American jungle, pointing out migrants who died along the way.
“It was like she was showing me cat videos but it was actually their journey and what they endured to get here,” said Stallings, a member of the Martha’s Vineyard Community Services nonprofit. “There were bodies and moms with babies trying to get through mud that was like clay.”
“The heartbreaking part is seeing these beautiful young ladies become desensitized,” said her husband, Larkin Stallings, 66, an Oak Bluffs bar owner who sits on the nonprofit’s board. “For them, they just flip and show you a picture.”
Indeed. It is heartbreaking. And it’s been happening for years. Thanks for waking up and realizing that this is a human travesty.
Martha’s Vineyard had not been expecting them but a small army of activists mobilized to help people who had become pawns in the contentious debate over America’s broken immigration system.
Notice how they paint themselves as heroes? Saviors? Another way to read this is that they mobilized law enforcement and military forces to get the illegals off their island as soon as possible. They were a 44-hour intrusion on the residents’ otherwise idyllic lives.
“I want them to have a good life,” she said. “I want the journey they experienced and the hardships they experienced to have been worth it for them and their families. I want them to come to America and be embraced. They all want to work. And I just I want their journey to have a happy ending.”
She wants that for them… just not on Martha’s Vinyard. She wants them to have all of that as long as it’s somewhere else. That’s easy, unintrusive, sentimentalism. It is not as easy when they actually stay in your community for months or years and your entire infrastructure sags under the weight of their need.
In Mexico, Torrealba said, the couple and other migrants were briefly abducted by members of the Zetas cartel, a violent drug trafficking organization. When he told them he could not make the extortion payment to allow them to continue, he said, a cartel member used pliers to pull out his two gold teeth.
Again. The is pervasive. Biden’s border policies are fueling the cartels and making casual cruelty the norm.
“We’ve got their backs and they are not alone. And to that end, I would like to specifically thank Trader Fred for donating underwear because Martha’s Vineyard doesn’t have a Walmart down the street,” she said, referring to the migrants and a local retailer who stepped up to help them.
Again with the privilege. As if they are ill-equipped to supply 50 illegals because they don’t have a Walmart. But those scratchy border towns have Walmarts, so they are fine.
“The governor of Florida got it wrong,” he said. “I think he thought we wouldn’t know what to do. And actually people here really give a damn. They really care.”
Did he get it wrong? The residents of Martha’s Vinyard gave a damn for all of 44 hours before whisking the illegals off the island. Meanwhile they pat themselves on the back for their compassion. Compassion is easy when you only have to maintain it for less than two days.
The migrants “will be housed in dormitory-style spaces … with separate spaces accommodating both individuals and families,” and families will not be separated, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker’s office said in a news release. They will have access to services including legal, health care, food, hygiene kits, and crisis counseling.
“I kept telling them it was like a dormitory. I didn’t want to say you’re going to a military base,” she said. “We want to go make sure they’re OK.”
So you lied to them. It’s not a dorm. It’s a military base.
And in the end, DeSantis and Abbot were right. The illegals have access to services in northern states too.
