We have taken too little care of this

A friend’s wife is a pediatric oncology nurse in Indianapolis:

One of her patients is a young Guatemalan boy who is being treated for Osteosarcoma. The boy and his family had walked to the US from Guatemala, all while he complained about his leg hurting. It wasn’t until they came to Indy that it was diagnosed.

Today the family came into the clinic in a panic. Their asylum request has been denied. They’ve been told to self-deport back to Guatemala. They have no idea what to do. All the Dr’s can do is assemble the critical treatment documents for them to take back with them.

Shelly is distraught.

This is just one example of truly evil things that are being done to people whose only crime was to seek a better life.

Now that the rest of us are beginning to be exposed to some tiny portion of the storm that is wrecking so many lives, think of the truly powerless among us, and what we as a nation have chosen to do to them.

Poor naked wretches, wheresoe’er you are,
 That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,
 How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,
Your looped and windowed raggedness defend you
 From seasons such as these? O, I have ta’en
 Too little care of this. Take physic, pomp.
 Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel,
That thou may’st shake the superflux to them
 And show the heavens more just.

King Lear