„But we have to do more than say ‚this isn\u2019t who we are…'“<\/b>
\nSpencer Platt\/Getty Images
Former President Barack Obama weighed in on the ongoing separation of families at the southern border with a lengthy Facebook post on Wednesday.
\u201cIf you’ve been fortunate enough to have been born in America, imagine for a moment if circumstance had placed you somewhere else,\u201d Obama wrote, framing his comments around World Refugee Day. \u201cImagine if you’d been born in a country where you grew up fearing for your life, and eventually the lives of your children.\u201d
That’s the reality for so many of the families whose plights we see and heart-rending cries we hear. And to watch those families broken apart in real time puts to us a very simple question: are we a nation that accepts the cruelty of ripping children from their parents\u2019 arms, or are we a nation that values families, and works to keep them together? Do we look away, or do we choose to see something of ourselves and our children?
\u201cAfter all, almost all of us were strangers once, too,\u201d he wrote.
Citing waves of immigration from around the world throughout American history, Obama added that \u201cwe’re only here because this country welcomed them in, and taught them that to be an American is about something more than what we look like, how our last names sound, or the way we worship.\u201d
Former first lady Michelle Obama had previously praised an op-ed penned by fellow former first lady Laura Bush, calling for an end to the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy:
Sometimes truth transcends party. https:\/\/t.co\/TeFM7NmNzU
\u2014 Michelle Obama (@MichelleObama) June 18,2018
Notably, former President Obama rejected an oft-heard refrain from some of President Donald Trump’s critics.
\u201cBut we have to do more than say ‚this isn’t who we are,’\u201d he wrote in closing. \u201cWe have to prove it \u2014 through our policies, our laws, our actions, and our votes.\u201d<\/p>\n

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