Loose Leaf Notes

-The following first appeared in The Floyd Press on June 28, 2018

Becky Belcher Osborn was so distressed about young children being separated at the border from their asylum-seeking families that she found herself crying in public. “I saw a picture of a mother nursing her young child and I’m a mother of a nursing child,” said Belcher, who also spoke of the long-term damaging effects of separating babies and young children from their parents.

Breaking down in public made Osborn realize that she had to act.  After learning that Congressman Morgan Griffith’s staff members would be holding “traveling office hours” at Town of Floyd Office building on Thursday, she decided she would go and say something.  She enlisted the help of her friend Maggie Hessinger (also a mother of young children), thinking “maybe we could we could get a few other people to stand in line with us.”   Together they posted an event page on Facebook titled Floyd to Congressman Griffith: Keep Families Together, and the word spread.

The mood of the group of Floyd Countians gathered around the Floyd Office building on the morning of Griffith’s Traveling Office Hours was upbeat. “I really like the politics of interaction and engagement. I see this as an opportunity to do that with people who have the power to move into human action and responsibility,” said Amy Slate.

Toni Lamberti spoke with more urgency when asked what brought her out. “I’m in pain over the children,” she said, adding “We’ve been given too many balls to juggle…but this is the most important issue at this point.”  Lamberti said she attended to advocate for more humane policies for people.

“I was looking forward to my voice being heard because I feel so unheard right now,” said Penny Lane when she realized that the Traveling Office was not a speaking forum.  Griffith’s staff, Angie Hall and Barbara Stafford, instructed citizens to write down their concerns, which would be delivered to the Congressman.  Attendees were also told they could speak one-on-one to the staff representing Griffith and that the traveling office convenes in Floyd every third Thursday from 9:30 to 11:00.

More than 20 people attended and most wrote out their concerns on paper.  One man who stated he didn’t write well, spoke, saying, “Who is taking responsibility for putting the families back together so there can be an accountability for family reunification?  Others spoke about their concerns amongst themselves.

It was the day after President Trump signed an executive order intending to end families being separated. Several attendees were quick to point out that the executive order could make things worse because it would make crossing the border to seek asylum a criminal offense rather than a civil one. “They’ll be incarcerated together indefinitely and then they’ll take the children (when the parents are sentenced),” suggested Kamala Bauers, who said she read that housing the separated children in tent cities cost three times more than keeping families together. Bauers also voiced her frustration that Congressman Griffith rarely come to Floyd, as Congressman Boucher did in the past.

Bill Ellis, who volunteers teaching job and life skills to refugees in Roanoke, said he planned to attend the traveling office before he learned about the Keep Families Together group. “I meet people from all over the world that have been through horrific things and have seen how tough they are,” Ellis said.  He spoke of being the great grandson of an immigrant from Lebanon, a peddler who ended up building houses in Roanoke.  Speaking of Trump’s merit-based legal immigration proposal, Ellis commented from his faith-based belief, “I’m called to see every person as having merit.”