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The Lincoln Logue | Five-Year-Olds and the American Experiment
Liam Ramos was used as bait for ICE, indulging the whims of a President who possesses all of childhood’s worst impulses and none of its grace.
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The brutality of the Trump regime is remarkable, and the visuals coming out of Minneapolis are gut-wrenching. This week, I want to focus a little bit on five-year-olds. If you’re reading this, you’ve been one yourself. It’s possible that at some point in your life you have been responsible for taking care of one. Five-year-olds are incredible creatures. They aren’t toddlers anymore, but they aren’t quite big kids.
Generally speaking, they are curious and bold and weird and hilarious and emotional. They have more control over their wiggles and outbursts than they have ever had in their lives, but that doesn’t mean wiggles and outbursts don’t happen. Their eyes are opening to the greater world around them, and they can be kinda spellbound by it. They are innocent by nature (although often guilty of some shenanigans, as you’ll see below).
I could probably make the case that at least one way to measure the health of a society is to measure the health and well-being of its five-year-olds.
So, how are our five-year-olds doing?
Liam Ramos
A 5-year-old boy named Liam Conejo Ramos was taken by ICE in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, last Tuesday. It appears that agents then used him as bait to lure his parents out of their homes.
Of course, DHS insists agents were only targeting the father. They were acting on behalf of the child’s safety, they said.
His detainment produced what I think will be one of the most iconic, resonant photographs of Trump’s years-long siege of America.
It’s a devastating image. His hat with the ears. His little backpack and cute winter coat. And the dark figure hovering over him.
When I first saw his scared, brave face, I couldn’t help but imagine some masked, armed man pushing my own children into an unknown SUV. I thought about how scared they would be, and how we never thought we would have to prepare them for this eventuality.
Of course, Liam had no idea what to do. That’s the thing about five-year-olds. They are still dependent on the adults around them, and because of that, they are forced to have faith that those adults are acting in their best interests.
Maybe you thought about your own children, too. Or maybe you thought about this image:
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