A California Mexican-American voter responds to the Central American children who are being terrorized by Tea Party people who are verbalizing racial slurs.  The Mayor of Murrieta, California, is instilling unnecessary fear of children who are bused to California detention centers.  Does the Mayor feel the same about Cuban amnesty?  Cuban refugee immigrants have been receiving Cuban welfare and government benefits for the past 40 years. 

This picture is much greater than politics or anyone's position on immigration or immigration reform. It portrays the measures parents take in order to give their very young and innocent children a fighting chance at life. Most of these children come from South America and have had to travel on top of trains, through very dangerous parts of Mexico, in order to reach the American border. Many times their innocence is robbed from these children as they are robbed, beaten, sexually assaulted, go days without food and water, are confronted along the way by gangs who try to recruit them or worse, many die in the voyage to the US border. Not to mention they go through this all ALONE with NO family, No one to care for them, NO support group.

If they make it to the US-Mexico border crossing they have to hope the Coyote who is going to smuggle them into the US isn't going to exploit them in the various and despicable way the often do.. And then at such a young age they have to cross the extremely harsh conditions of the Arizona desert or the unforgiving tide of the Rio Grande. We Americans can't understand why parents would make their children go through this, and I understand this concern, but we fail to realize that things are so bad in parts of the world that parents rather have their children try to come to America to seek a better life than stay home. Think about how tough a decision that must be for a parent to make; knowingly sending your child into danger in hopes of a better future for him or her.

Here in America we too often take for granted the opportunities we have while families across the world are dying trying to come to America to have a small taste of hope and the American dream.

To see this manifested in a picture where a child is clearly shaken up is what breaks your heart and is sad, because ALL children of the world are innocent and to think what this kid has probably gone through at such a young raises a feelings in my heart of compassion and empathy wishing we could make a better world for all in which people can at least have their basic human needs met and live in dignity .