The other night at dinner, my 12-year-old granddaughter said that she has been reading about the Underground Railroad — the secret network of abolitionists that helped slaves escape from the late 1700s until the Civil War.
She seemed particularly fascinated by how the participants used language. “It wasn’t literally a railroad and it wasn’t underground. The guides were called ‘conductors’ and the safe houses were called ‘stations,’” she explained.
This brought to mind the war of words raging over Trump’s mass deportation of immigrants. To Trump, the people he’s targeting are “illegal,” but to many of us they are simply “undocumented.” He calls them “aliens” while we call them “neighbors.”
Given that we are a nation founded by immigrants fleeing oppression abroad and seeking a better life, what Trump is doing is tearing our society apart.
Our children and grandchildren know that, at least the ones still being properly educated. They know that words matter and so they know the difference between truth and lies, cruelty and compassion, trust and fear.
Historians today look kindly on the participants in the Underground Railroad. Our future historians are watching what we do now.
HEADLINES:
Minnesota immigration enforcement surge is ending, Trump border tsar says (BBC)
Trump administration working to expand effort to strip citizenship from foreign-born Americans (NBC)
Homeland Security Shutdown Draws Nearer as Democrats Block Funding (NYT)
Lawyers of Chicago woman shot by federal agents say documents show how DHS lies about investigations (AP)
Trump Administration Erases the Government’s Power to Fight Climate Change (NYT)
‘This kidnapping violates all the rules’: Why cracking the Nancy Guthrie case has been so hard (LAT)
FBI releases description of suspect in Nancy Guthrie kidnapping (BBC)
Hard-to-Track Digital Currencies Like Bitcoin Are Common in Ransom Demands (NYT)
Top Goldman Sachs lawyer resigns after Epstein files release (Axios)
6 GOP reps defy Trump to block Canadian tariffs. (NPR)
US House votes to overturn Trump’s tariffs on Canada (BBC)
House Passes Strict Voter ID Bill, Amplifying Trump’s Claims of Fraud (NYT)
US debt forecast to hit $64T in a decade as Trump policies widen deficit (Politico)
What Is the Mellon Foundation Doing to Higher Education? (Atlantic)
Scientists Have Discovered a Protein That Reverses Brain Aging in The Lab (ScienceAlert)
Most Americans don’t pay for news and don’t think they need to (Nieman)
Donald Trump set for $10bn courtroom showdown with BBC (Independent)
Teen grabs kayak, paddles through icy pond to rescue neighborhood dog (WP)
OpenAI’s Biggest Challenge Is Turning Its A.I. Into a Cash Machine (NYT)
The writer behind the “Something Big is Coming” essay speaks out (Business Insider)
AI researchers are sounding the alarm on their way out the door (CNN)
To Stay in Her Home, She Let In an A.I. Robot (NYT)
OpenAI Introduces Premium Video Generator For White House Advisors Manipulating Trump (Onion)
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