We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Saturday, June 28, 2014

Why Are Honduran Children Leaving?

Click here to access article by Suyapa Portillo Villeda & Gerardo Torres Zelaya from CounterPunch.

Because corporate media omits so much about what corporations and their ruling class agents are doing in Honduras in their news coverage, most Americans have no idea why Honduran children and many adults, not only from Honduras but most of Central America, are fleeing their countries. These authors are trying to fill that gap with this article which most Americans will overlook in the plethora of dumbed-down corporate news coverage.
While the Honduran president enjoys World Cup soccer games in Brazil, over 50,000 children, many Honduran, are detained in detention centers and warehouses on the U.S.-Mexico border. U.S. Republicans and even Hilary Clinton have called for immediate deportation and for these children to be “sent back.” Politicians claim these children are migrating because of DACA or the possibility of gaining legal resident status. While the U.S. media has focused on wild sensationalist stories about kids being told to migrate, their reports obscure that crossing Mexico is perilous and most Central American immigrants face rape, assault, dismemberment, hunger and even death.