Kent Johnson, the CEO of children’s magazine “Highlights,” on Tuesday torched the Trump administration’s “unconscionable” policies of stuffing child migrants in squalid detention centers and separating them from their families.
“Our company’s core belief, stated each month in Highlights magazine, is that ‘Children are the world’s most important people,'” Johnson said in a statement posted on Highlights’ Twitter account. “This is a belief about ALL children.”
“With this core belief in our minds and hearts, we denounce the practice of separating immigrant children from their families and urge our government to cease this activity, which is unconscionable and causes irreparable damage to young lives,” he continued.
Johnson wrote that the denunciation was about “human decency, plain and simple,” not a political statement about immigration policy.
“Let our children draw strength and inspiration from our collective display of moral courage,” Johnson wrote. “They’re watching.”
The overcrowded child detention centers, a result of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on asylum-seekers, have recently been exposed as filthy with rotting food and no soap given to the kids. Despite the children being held in such poor conditions, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials have been rejecting donations of food and humanitarian supplies.
Meanwhile, Trump continues to blame Democrats for the crisis, saying that the problem could be fixed if they agreed to tighter immigration restrictions.
At Highlights, our core belief is that children are the world's most important people. In light of the reports of the living conditions of detained children & threats of further deportation & family separation, here is a statement from our CEO Kent Johnson. #KeepFamiliesTogether pic.twitter.com/CNF5LTv4az
— Highlights (@Highlights) June 25, 2019
This will reach the kind of people who don’t read TPM. And maybe move some parents who end up having uncomfortable conversations with their kids.
I read this letter on FB earlier - someone said this magazine had a distinctly evangelical Christian bent. Not sure about that, myself, but if it does and that’s the audience, I’m happy someone is telling these people something that might help break through the cognitive dissonance.
Goofus tortures children and separates them from their families. Gallant advocates a rational immigration policy and humane treatment for all migrants. And when it comes to what the current occupant is going there’s a whole lot of things wrong with this picture.
Right wing outrage in 3.2.1…
Good for Highlights and their CEO Kent Johnson, who is clearly Gallant here.
Donald Trump is Goofus.