1/13/23
By Barry Zavah
Amen ... For spreading the word and holding our elected officials accountable!"
My Letter To the Editor, holding Abbott's feet to the lump of coal he left at VP Harris's door dropping-off about 100 migrants (including children) in the freezing cold of Christmas Eve 2022, made the January 9th edition of the Brownsville Herald. They are part of My RGV including the Harlingen Valley Morning Star and McAllen Moniter in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas. They've also published others, carrying on the tradition established by my dad when my parents were Harlingen residents*, https://myrgv.com/?s=Rev.+Barry+Abraham+Zavah.
Closer to home, the Big Bend Sentinel in Marfa, TX published it in their January 12th edition, https://bigbendsentinel.com/. Just before the end of the year, the San Antonio Express-News published a much-redacted version, https://www.expressnews.com/.../Letters-Jan-1-Nation....
Count on it, I didn't hold back in holding Abbott's feet to the lump of coal he left on Christmas Eve. From the letter:
"Was Abbott as militantly anti-migrant on Christmas singing his political-theological out-of-tune rhetoric in church? As a professed Christian, “Belonging to the party of Christ” or “A follower of Christ” and 17-years ex-Texas Attorney General, Abbott knows full-well much better than his actions portray. Under the misguided notion Non-Governmental Organizations ‘encourage’ them to come North accused NGOs of illegal border activities. AG Paxton is to investigate.
Being there helping people in-need is touted as criminal? That’s akin to red states restrictive voting measures intentionally creating long lines in minority/Dem precincts.
Where cruelty becomes a blood sport, they’ve prohibited providing food or water, though waiting in longer lines than in white districts. Bear Witness: Gov. Abbott's farther removed -- literally and figuratively -- from that of the three Magi greeting the Christ Child in unseemly manger hay. His charitable spirit isn't that of a Tyrian shekel compared to those in NGOs helping ameliorate horrible boarder migrant conditions."
*In the mid-1980s, with GOPers' President Reagan's reversal of President Carter's human rights initiative created a wave of migrants fleeing for freedom and their lives impacted the Lower Valley, my dad cried. He'd recount his work with a church group assisting people then seeking asylum, fleeing their home countries with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
Anyone of the mindset Abbott's going to skate with his particular twistings of the knife hasn't been paying attention. Giving a damn comes in the gene pool!