Debby Detering Wordcraft

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On Kidnapped Children

06.20.2018 by Debby Detering // Leave a Comment

An open letter to Congress, including our Congressional Representative, Col. Paul Cook:

Congressman Cook:

Separating parents and children is abhorrent and a blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.  We are ashamed of our country and of everyone who supports this policy of cruelty.

We have experienced something similar twice, something a parent never forgets, like a rape of one’s soul.

Fifty-plus years ago we had to leave one of our children in a hospital far from home for major surgery.  Staying with her was not an option.  As we left her room, we heard one wail, nothing more.  It was the cry of an abandoned child, not old enough to understand what had to happen, but knowing her parents had walked out and not knowing what would happen next.  The nurses were wonderful, the medical care the best, and she had not been snatched from equally terrified parents.

During the first Gulf War, when our daughter was stationed in Turkey, her husband and two children were evacuated back to the States.  The little girls had their father’s affection and excellent care all the time.  They lived with loving relatives or in military-paid housing for the duration, but the hastily-weaned-from-breast baby developed an infection and stopped gaining weight.  The doctor’s diagnosis: “She’s grieving for her mother.”  It was a full year after they were reunited that this child’s physical development reached normal.  This was separation from only one parent, and other than the stress of travel, in a physically optimal environment.

Furthermore, neither of those situations followed a traumatic journey with probably already-traumatized parents.

The only solution is to immediately cease (with repentance and amendment of life) this kidnapping-and-concentration-camp treatment of children.  They must be reunited with their parents.  If their parents have been deported, the only moral thing to do is to offer parents the alternative of having the child(ren) taken back to them, or asylum here while the damage is mitigated.

Legislatively, child abuse by immigration officials needs to be as illegal as child abuse by any other person(s).

Did you learn nothing from the internment of the Japanese, the forced boarding-school treatment of Native American children, or the several Trails of Tears? Do you not know about Nazi abductions or Russian exile to Siberia?  Or even the slave trade?  The fact that these things are going on in other countries does not excuse our evils.

We can only conclude that everyone responsible for this atrocity has lost the ability to distinguish between good and evil.  We grieve for the children, their parents, and for our country which has lost its moral bearings.

For the love of God, stop!

Categories // Uncategorized Tags // child abuse, immigration, refugees

Heat, by Mike Lupica

03.20.2018 by Debby Detering // Leave a Comment

Heat has it all: Baseball at Yankee Stadium–the dream of Little Leaguers who practice within sight of it; Michael and Carlos, determined to keep “Official People” from finding out why Papi isn’t home; Ellie, a girl with a secret; Mrs. Cora who knows something about angels; the Little League coach who doesn’t like kids who pitch better than his son; and Michael’s best buddy, Manny.

Manny told Michael he’d meet him at Macombs…around three o’clock. …that could mean anywhere between three and four.  He operated on Manny Standard Time, and there was no getting around it if you were Manny Cabrera’s friend.   He was loyal, funny, smarter than he let on, loved baseball as much as Michael.  There were so many good points with Manny that Michael couldn’t keep track of them all.

But none of Manny’s good points, not a single one, involved him showing up on time for anything but a real game.

When Michael is barred from Little League and Carlos no longer has a job, it’s looking bad, and suddenly, walking across the field, come the Official People:

It wasn’t just El Grande and Ellie.

Carlos was a couple of steps behind, walking with Mr. Gibbs of ACS.  And another man Michael didn’t recognize, but one who had Official Person written all over him.

Has Michael’s dream become a nightmare?

Like baseball, basketball, and football stories with real-life type characters?  Try Mike Lupica’s The Only Game, and Last Man Out, Lone Stars, Long Shot, and others–some of them New York Times Best Sellers.

Hey–I said I’m not into sports.  But I am into  Lupica’s characters.  Just give me a cozy chair and a mug of hot chocolate.

Categories // Reading Tags // friendship, immigration, persistence, sports

Trapp Family Singers–and a Fly!

02.26.2018 by Debby Detering // 1 Comment

When the Trapp Family Singers (Sound of Music) began their U.S. singing tour, they expected audiences who would be impressed by their technical skill and the difficulty of their selections.  Their audiences agreed that they were exceptionally good singers, but that didn’t mean they wanted to listen to a 45-minute-long piece that they knew nothing about!

Their manager said, “There is something you are lacking…something between you and your audience.”

Then came the fly.

The Trapps were finishing a concert of madrigals and motets, Bach and Mozart.  Maria chose a “Jodler”  for the encore.

“In yodeling, one has to take a deep breath and then hold out for long phrases at a time.  We were just in the middle of it when, oh horror!  A fly started circling around my face.  I watched it, cross-eyed, and got panicky,  I knew very soon I would have to take a deep breath, and what if…

“We took our deep breath and it happened.  In went the fly…a good cough would have helped, but to cough the right way on stage is much, much harder than to sing the right way.  I outdid myself in not coughing, but I couldn’t help turning purple.  I happened to have the leading part in this jodler, the melody; but that mountain call had to be finished without it…My brave children tried not to pay any attention to their choking mother, and when they were finished, I was too—with the fly.“

Maria felt she had to apologize.  She announced, “What never happened before has happened now.  I swallowed a fly.”

The audience laughed..and laughed…and laughed.  When they quieted down, she wanted to make up for the spoiled encore with an Austrian folk song.  She explained:  “It describes how a young hunter climbs up in the rocks for hours looking for, and finally shooting, a—”   The animal she meant was a chamois, but instead she said “chemise.*”  Not only the audience, but the rest of the family, shook with laughter.

The missing link had been found–interact with your listeners as if you are at home enjoying a musical party.

  • A chamois is a kind of deer; its hide is the chamois that polishes a car.  A chemise, for those who aren’t familiar with fashion terminology from half a century ago, is a loose-fitting garment that can be a nightgown, underwear, or a simple dress.

 

Categories // Reading Tags // immigration, Maria Von Trapp, persistence, young adult

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Debby’s fiction explores family relationships with mingled conflict and caring and reflects her experience in emergency foster care, often for teenagers abandoned in one way or another.

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