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Mitt Romney’s Plan for the Suffering 12 Million
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By Llewellyn King I jumped on an airplane for London this week. I could do it because of something of inestimable value in my pocket: a passport. Most people take passports very much for granted, except those who have ever been without one. They know how confining it is to be without the right paperwork. They know what it's like to take the first step into the ghastly limbo of statelessness; a ghoulish existence outside of the law and its protections, outside of normal society, and outside of the right to earn a living. This sub-societal life, where at least 12 million people reside in the United States, is a place too far for Mitt Romney to comprehend. His immigration proposals have the irrationality of ignorance and the cruelty of those who are committed to not knowing. Evelyn Waugh, the British writer, talked about the morbid lack of curiosity of colonial settlers in Africa to the indigenous populations. Romney and his cohorts have a morbid lack of interest in the 12 million or so illegal immigrants who live on the fringes of our society, often doing its dirtiest work. Statistics never tell the story; in their way, they obfuscate it. They don't tell of decency, generosity, kindness and nobility or despair, hurt and suffering. They tell us that 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis, but that is just a statistic. To comprehend the horror, you must walk around Auschwitz or some other camp to see where the deeds were done; to see the hair and shoes of the children; and to know, in my case, that these toddlers were my contemporaries. You have to extract the individual from the data, and look him or her in the eyes. Not for Romney and other Republican savants. For them, the 12 million are just people who have broken laws – laws they choose to treat as immutable. They are less than human and should be denied education, employment, medical treatment. These people live in the fear of being rounded up and deported, often to countries they don't know and sometimes where they don't speak the language. The children, a small minority of those who are here illegally, who the DREAM Act sought to help, are among those that the immigration fanatics would punish for a crime committed by their parents: wanting a better life. The sins of the fathers will be vested on the sons. The life of the illegal, the stateless person, is one of degradation, exposure to exploitation and fear. My late friend, Johnny Prokoff, who was a much-loved bartender at the National Press Club in Washington, used to tell his own life story of the vulnerability and suffering of the stateless. Prokoff left Lithuania at a time when there was so much poverty that there was a small industry in killing lice in garments with a hammer. The trick, he told me, was to kill the vermin without damaging the garment. It was a necessity induced by poverty. The young Prokoff stowed away on a ship and began a seven-year odyssey as the property of various ruthless captains. Sometimes they would demand sex, always they would make stowaways work, and never would they let them land on any shore. Also, they would sell them to other captains – slaves, in fact. Eventually, Prokoff jumped ship in Mexico, made his way to the United States, married an American and was able finally to live a legitimate life. Multiply him by 12 million. Some walked here, some came on visitors' visas and never left, and some were brought by lovers, parents or spouses. If they cannot find low-grade work as domestics, chicken-factory employees, dog washers, they must contemplate a life of crime or prostitution; creating a statistic that politicians can advertize to prove that these people are no good. I went through a period of not having a passport, although I had a green card. Other journalists romped around the world — I stayed at home. It's a violation that one doesn't forget. Tell the 12 million about Romney's cruel and innovative idea: self-deportation. Walk to where, Mitt? – For the Hearst-New York Times Syndicate
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Is candy good for US?
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Click to Watch! Guests Larry Graham, National Confectioners Association - no responses
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Taxes and the U.S. economy
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Guests Peter Rush, author; Darren Gersh, PBS “Nightly Business Report”; and Jim McTague, Barron’s.
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Hearing from Those Who Suffer Mostly in Silence
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“There have been some medical schools in which somewhere along the assembly line, a faculty member has informed the students, not so much by what he said but by what he did, that there is an intimate relation between curing and caring.”
So remarked Ashley Montague, the British-American anthropologist and humanist.
The millions who suffer from what is termed Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in the United States, and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis in the rest of the world, await day that the medical establishment cares enough about the disease to cure it.
They await that day with an anxiousness that is unimaginable to those who have not been afflicted by the disease.
The two commentaries on CFS/ME that Llewellyn King wrote for the Hearst-New York Times Syndicate (and posted on this Web site) have elicited a terrible cry from the afflicted, including a woman who called herself “an unburied corpse.”
These cries called out for a special edition of “White House Chronicle” on CFS. That edition, featuring Deborah Waroff, a New York author, and Dr. Paul Plotz, a National Institutes of Health clinician scientist, first aired on television Oct. 8, 2010.
“I hope the television special and my syndicated columns push the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control, and its political masters, to take action on this life-robbing disease,” said King, executive producer and host of “White House Chronicle.”
Here are some of the viewer responses to the CFS/ME special that we have received so far:
From: Terry
Thank you so much for your broadcast featuring ME/CFS.
I am a Canadian ME/CFS patient who has suffered from this disease for over 12 years. I am involved in research looking to see if there is a connection between the newly discovered XMRV retrovirus and neuropsychiatric disease in my child. The thought is XMRV may have been passed onto my child by me and played a role in expression of her condition.
I am waiting for general XMRV research to learn if the retrovirus played a role in cancer I was diagnosed with four years ago as well. I am wondering if I will develop other cancers and wait anxiously to learn more about ME/CFS and cancer.
I would like to state here, in my experience, CFS/ME is not biologically benign, and highlighting CFS/ME on your show is significant. Perhaps you may help move research forward and thank you in advance for this.
I am immensely appreciative, since as you can imagine, I am anxious for research to help my family understand our poor state of health.
I am a most grateful U.S. neighbor.
From: Melinda
I can’t thank you enough for the attention you have brought to ME/CFS suffers.
I have had to deal many times with the ignorance and intolerance towards this illness. It is such an isolating illness and it is well and truly about time that more attention is given to it.
It would be so much easier to deal with if we had understanding and support.
Again thank you!
From: Cheryl
Thank you so very much for your willingness and openness to bring new light to ME/CFS on your show.We need you. We are desperate to have our voices heard. I can only tell you from my experience that no one would want to have this horrible, life-stealing illness.
I was a very active social worker and church and community volunteer before contracting a virus in 2004 that never went away. It took so long to get an accurate diagnosis that by the time that I did, I was completely bedbound, not being able to leave my home for weeks at a time.I have to travel over 1,000 miles for medical care, since I am unable to find a doctor here that believes me.
In January of this year, I had to crawl out of my bed to fight breast cancer. With a compromised immune system, I worry about it coming back and not being strong enough for more treatments.Cancer was a breeze compared to the battles of ME/CFS–and I do not say that flippantly.
Please continue to bring this horrible illness and the injustices to the public. It is a crime against humanity to be made to suffer like this with no answers.
God bless you, Mr. King.From: Karen
How is “epidemic” defined at the White House?
When is National XMRV Testing Day?
How much longer do you think I can hold out before Chronic Fatigue Syndrome induced dysautonomia shuts down a vital central nervous system?
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The lost art of debate — and other wordy topics
February 6th, 2012
Guests: Aram Bakshian, author and critic; Atul Singh, Fair Observer
Obama’s strengths and weaknesses; the Internet
January 23rd, 2012
Guests: Tim Farley, Sirius XM Radio; Adam Clayton Powell III, University of Southern California; Wayne Madsen, Wayne Madsen Report
A discussion of Shirley’s book, “December 1941: 31 Days That Saved America and Changed the World”
January 16th, 2012
Guest Craig Shirley, author
World events as the U.S. elections get fully underway
January 9th, 2012
Guests Arnaud de Borchgrave, Center for Strategic and International Studies; Andrei Sitov, Itar-Tass; Al Leeds, The Washington Post
The Joys of Transportation
January 2nd, 2012
Guests Bill Gouse, Transportation Consultant – Originally Broadcast October 16, 2011