Bean Carries On

A warm July day, the smell of barbeque in the air, traveling to a friend’s pool or even welcoming family and friends into your own home and backyard to gather around one another in celebration of our independence. That independence our American soldiers fought for, and continue to fight for in the name of Freedom and Justice for all. 

The independence so many of us take for granted, while so many more yearn for it still. 

That home you open up to your loved ones, some 2,000 miles away a person had to flee. Thousands of people living in such dangerous and distraught conditions that they walked away from their home to risk everything for a chance at a better life. The same better life Americans went to war for the right to have just 250 years ago. 

So, before you get too carried away with your 4th of July plans, and despite the fact that I should have written this a month ago because you’ve probably already blown your hard earned U.S. dollars in the form of pyrotechnics and exciting explosions at the very same time children were being separated from their families at the border…but, here I am, just two days before the holiday to initiate a CHALLENGE! And I hope it’s the biggest internet challenge the world’s ever seen.

I CALL FOR ALL INDIVIDUALS, ORGANIZATIONS, AND CITIES TO CALL OFF THEIR FIREWORK DISPLAYS AND DONATE THE MONEY TO REUNITING CHILDREN with FAMILIES! 

CHILDREN ARE SUFFERING without their families in detention facilities across the nation; Flint STILL doesn’t have clean water; hundreds of indigenous women have gone missing and been murdered; and, this is worth repeating: families are fleeing their HOMES and risking everything to find a better life for their children… and then are separated for sometimes months….and then placed in unsanitary and inhumane living quarters…All of this is going on, and how many of you are going to party this weekend, maybe even more than once, to celebrate your freedom and independence? 

And I’m not just talking about donating the money on reuniting the 5,000+  children separated from their families at the U.S. Mexico border. I am talking about ALL children. 

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Invest in ENDING  CHILD ABUSE and CHILD NEGLECT and invest in saving living children’s lives. 

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Instead of spending our money on explosives and food and alcohol and wasting our time numbing out the pain of the world, why don’t we all step up and do something REAL about the suffering? 

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 Let’s step up and open our homes and adopt the children living in FOSTER HOMES. 

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Let’s focus our efforts and money (not on explosives!) but on locating and busting up every existing sex trafficking and child trafficking ring and reunite those women and children with their families. 

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Let’s release every non-violent drug offender nationwide and reunite those men and women with their families, and while we’re at it, free every non-violent adolescent who’s behind bars and instead invest in rehabilitation and wellness. 

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Let’s truly celebrate INDEPENDENCE by giving everything we have to honoring the lives of these children. Stop the unnecessary, expensive and trauma-producing (just think of the animals!) explosions and donate your money to REUNITING FAMILIES!!!