Spare a thought this New Year for Carlos Gregorio Hernandez Vasquez, a 16-year-old Guatemalan boy you may have never met and now never will.
Carlos was seriously ill when U.S. immigration agents put him into a south Texas holding cell with another sick boy on May 19, 2019.
Earlier a nurse who had examined him recorded his temperature at 103. He has the flu, she told border agents, you should check on him within the next two hours to see if his condition gets worse she said.
But no agents ever checked on him and all her recommendations were ignored. Concerned the boy might give flu to the hordes of other locked up migrants at the massively overcrowded processing facility they moved him to a quarantined cell in a different border patrol station, where he was reportedly neglected as soon as he arrived.
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Honduran asylum seeker, Christopher, 6, stands with his father on the international bridge from Mexico to the United States on December 09, 2019 in the border town of Matamoros, Mexico.
Videotapes show Carlos squirming on the floor in a high fever, then they show him staggering to the toilet and later collapsing face-first on the floor, where he lay unseen and unassisted for four and a half hours, dying in a pool of his own blood.
Some people’s kids are taken to hospital when they are delirious with the flu, and some people’s kids are left on a concrete floor to die a lonely death unseen and uncared for.
Which kids they happen to be, depends on things that they have no control over like the color of their skin and the place of their birth.
It’s sad that I have to say this but Carlos Gregorio Hernandez Vasquez was a kid, not a criminal. He had a legal right to seek asylum here but he was the sixth migrant child to die under Border Patrol custody in less than a year. (During the Obama administration, not a single migrant child died in custody.)
John Sanders, former acting Customs and Border Protection commissioner (the Trump administration can’t seem to appoint dedicated staff for long) resigned in horror shortly after Carlos’s death.
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A family of Mexican asylum seekers walks to the center of the international bridge between Mexico and the United States to officially request political asylum from U.S. immigration authorities.
He blamed unprepared agencies and a hand wringing Congress for the tragedy. He said he was haunted by the tape he had seen of Carlos’s needless death.
When Carlos began his long journey to the United States he was healthy his parents said, what happened to him to make him so ill they asked?
The answer to that lies in the vastly overcrowded cells and appalling conditions that migrants are being kept in, which poses a risk to the lives of both the detained and those guarding them.
Carlos was reportedly the second youngest of eight children and the best student in his school. He was captain of the soccer team and could play any musical instrument he picked up including the bombo drum, lyre and trumpet his proud teacher told the press.
When he was a boy he and his friends would pretend to cross the U.S. border as a game. They used guava leaves as play money to send back to his struggling family at home.
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Hundreds of people gather in lower Manhattan for a “Lights for Liberty” protest against migrant detention camps.
If you live in New York you see and may even know half a dozen boys like Carlos working in construction (that was his plan) or bussing tables or working as a prep chef or sweeping out bars and restaurants in the early morning. You know how hard-working boys like Carlos are when given a chance.
But Carlos was not given a chance, he was not even afforded the minimum care we show our own. So this Christmas I hope we will all think about that. About who gets a chance and who doesn’t.
Because if we can decide that other people’s children are not worthy of our concern then other people can come to that conclusion about ours too. It’s dangerous to lose your empathy in other words because by doing so we give others permission to do the same.
“I really think the American government failed these people,” former acting commissioner Sanders said after the brief investigation into his death. “The government failed people like Carlos. I was part of that system at a very high level, and Carlos’ death will follow me for the rest of my life.”
McCord to be back again with Fr. Mc Manus on Capitol Hill
CAPITOL HILL. Wednesday, January 1, 2020. In May 2009, the President of the Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus, Fermanagh-born Fr. Sean McManus, brought legendary victims’ campaigner Raymond McCord, Sr. to Washington, DC, to highlight the case of McCord’s son, Raymond, Jr. who was murdered on November 9, 1997, outside of Belfast. Because those associated with the murder were British Government agents and police informers, the murder has been covered up.
Fr. McManus escorted Mr. McCord around the halls of Congress introducing him to many key Members of Congress—and obtaining a commitment from the then Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Human rights, Congress Bill Delahunt, to hold a Congressional Hearing on the murder and cover-up of young Raymond. And, then, Fr. Mc Manus brought him and Mrs. McCord (young Raymond’s mother) back for the Congressional Hearing which was held on October 22, 2009 —http://www.irishnationalcaucus.org/raymond-mccord-oral-and-written-testimony-to-u-s-congress-october-22-2009/
That Congressional Hearing, together with the report by the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, powerfully exposed to the world British government collusion in the brutal murder of Raymond McCord, Jr. (Operation Ballast: investigation into the circumstances surrounding the murder of Raymond McCord Jr. Nuala O’Loan. January 22, 2007. https://www.policeombudsman.org/Investigation-Reports/Historical-Reports/Operation-Ballast-investigation-into-the-circumsta).
And now, again, the Irish National Caucus is bringing Raymond McCord, Sr. back to Capitol Hill —Sunday, February 9 until Sunday, February 16, 2020—to be escorted around Congress by Fr. McManus.
The alliance of a Belfast Protestant Unionist and a well-known Fermanagh priest— who has for years been raising in the United States Congress the issue of British collusion in murder and human rights violations— made compelling impact on Congress. Fr. McManus simply says:” Ecumenism and reconciliation are at their truest and best when Protestants and Catholics not only pray together but also work together for social justice. One of my favorite quotes is from the American Protestant Scripture scholar Walter Brueggemann, ‘In Biblical faith, the doing of justice is the primary expectation of God.’ And the official teaching of the Catholic Church is:’… Action on behalf of justice [is] a constitutive dimension of the preaching of the Gospel…and [a constitutive dimension] of the Church’s mission for the redemption of the human race and its liberation from every oppressive situation.’ (Justice in the World. 1971)”
Mr. McCord, Sr. said: “The Unionist politicians, including David Trimble and the Rev. Ian Paisley, refused to meet me or speak out after the murder of my son, and they both ridiculed and rejected the Ombudsman’s report. (Paisley did meet me briefly nine years after my son’s death). The two leaders of Unionism refused to meet a Unionist father whose son was murdered (as does the current DUP leader, Arlene Foster). They didn’t even offer sympathy or support or visit our house or attend young Raymond’s funeral. They betrayed my son, family, and my community. In fact, the only well-known person to come to my aid was Fr. McManus.”
Mr. Mc Cord concluded: “I don’t want pity. I want truth and justice. Every impediment to my quest for justice is because of the continuing cover-up by the State. Every obstacle created by the State causes me more delays. Young Raymond has never even had an inquest in over 22 years since his death. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and the State—if they can get away with it— have no intention of bringing those responsible to face justice. That’s how Northern Ireland is for many victims. But I am not quitting; I will never cease my campaign for justice for my son and for all victims from both communities. And that’s the message I am bringing to Congress, with the help of Fr. McManus. I am deeply grateful for his enduring support, and for that of Congress, and of Irish-Americans in general. And let me stress this: Achieving justice for victims, also, greatly strengthens the Irish peace process.” END.
It’s amazing how the experience of Christmas changes with age. I’m sure this is true whatever your religious holiday tradition is, but I can speak with authority only about Christmas. When we’re little, it’s all magic: Santa, reindeer, a gift-laden sleigh soaring through the stars, bounding from rooftop to rooftop, the purifying snow, festive dinners, families visiting other families, people being nicer. Since at that age our whole lives are pretty new to us, strings of bright colored lights throughout the neighborhood, a tree inside the house, eggnog … everything is special. We even learn a Christmas-specific vocabulary, like carol, Scrooge, manger, Advent, creche, Rudolph, wreath, Bethlehem … words you never hear but in December. We’re at the age then when we have in abundance the sine qua non of the season: faith. We believe, not just in Santa, the Christ child, the trumpeting angels and the Three Kings, we believe in goodness and in gentleness. We believe that being good earns rewards. We’re taught, by nuns in my case, that believing in Christmas is as old as the hills, and that the Christmas message is peace on earth, joy to the world. “Do not be afraid,” the gospel writer Luke quotes the angel, “for behold, I bring you good news of great joy.” The author of “The Power of Positive Thinking,” Norman Vincent Peale, wrote that “Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.” I think we first learn faith, the power to believe, at Christmas. Then, somewhere between one December and the next, inklings of doubt shade twinklings of light. We’re not sure there is a Santa Claus. We don’t understand how he, big as he is, could climb down the chimney, especially because there’s no fireplace in the apartment. How can his reindeer really fly? And as far as the child Jesus, how can God be a baby? We want to keep the faith, but our believing needs help. Enter the theology of Advent. Roughly from the Latin, “ad” and “venire” mean “to come.” Advent represents the coming, for Christians, the arrival of the Savior we had been hoping for. I think we first learn hope at Christmas. We need hope to fill in the gaps that grim reasonableness digs into our innocent faith. The whole Incarnation — God becoming Man — is essentially a personification of hope: Bethlehem’s hope of Jerusalem’s redemption. Having learned faith and hope, we grow still older, old enough to know that Christmas isn’t about getting, but giving; that it always was about giving, and welcoming, and that to truly celebrate the season we must think of others, our parents and grandparents, our siblings, our friends. Washington Irving, the New York writer, knew it. He said it was a “a season for kindling the fire for hospitality in the hall, the genial flame of charity in the heart.” And so, I think that Christmas is when we first learn charity. Along the journey from Christmas to Christmas, we learn other things. Sadness comes into our lives. Disappointment. Poor health of ourselves or loved ones. Pain. Loss. We learn that the Incarnation we believe in makes our world blessed, but not free of tears. This will be my 70th Christmas. There’s more sadness in this one than others, more empty places around the table, more regrets, more sorrow. My brother Bill died last December, and grieving is said to be the worst in the second year, so this Christmas will be tough. Other loved ones are very ill, pains become harder to tolerate, doctors become more numerous, scans see more than they used to, and the list of prescriptions grows. I find I need the lessons learned on those first Christmases to strengthen my caroling voice. I guess we return to the essentials as we grow old. Things mean less. We refocus on the virtues and lessons we learned in the beginning. We practice, again, the faith and hope and charity that sustained us. We seek out friends and relatives to let them know how much they mean to us. Because even with faith, hope and charity, there’s one more Christmas lesson to learn. At some point in life, if we are truly blessed, we share Bob Hope’s view. “My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple,” he said. “Loving others.” May you all have a Christmas filled with love.
John O’Connell is a former executive editor of the Heralds.
BENEFIT FOR A BROTHER IN NEED The FDNY Hellenic Society, along with E-258/L-115, invite you to a fundraiser for Theo Mitritzikos of E-258 on Thursday, January 16, 2020, from 7:00 – 10:00 PM at Bourbon Street, located at 40-12 Bell Blvd, Bayside, NY. Open bar, hors d’oeuvres, buffet, DJ, and 50/50 Raffles for some great prizes and sporting events. $65 at the door. Event will be on the 2nd floor and rooftop. All profits will go to Theo and his family to help ease the financial burden. Theo is currently undergoing chemotherapy at Sloan Kettering.
PUTNAM COUNTY BLOOD DRIVE Join Putnam County members for the annual holiday Blood Drive at the Daniel O’Brien VFW Hall, 32 Gleneida Ave, (Rt.52) Carmel, NY on Friday, December 27, 2019, from 2:00 – 8:00 PM. For information, please call Paul Deleo at 347-408-6052 or Denis Hanrahan at 845-225-3048. Four and a half million Americans will need blood this year. One donation can save up to 3 lives. Most blood donations go to cancer patients with the balance going to trauma and surgical procedures. The need is unrelenting but the donations wane during the holiday season.
ANNUAL FDNY SKI RACES The 47th Annual FDNY Firefighters Ski Races at Hunter Mountain will take place on Tuesday, January 28, 2020. Proceeds will be donated to the NY Firefighters Burn Center Foundation. There will be a plaque dedication honoring Firefighter Steven Pollard, L-170, Firefighter Christopher Slutman, L-27, and Lieutenant Brian Sullivan, Sq-41. Trophies for each 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place Ski teams and Snowboard teams will be awarded along with many lottery prizes. Register your team online at www.Huntermtn.com ASAP to get the discounted fee. For additional information, contact Joe Jove 518-263-4023.
