The Astounding Antagonists, by Rafael Chandler ~ 4.0 Stars

Tags

Action-Adventure, Adult Fiction, Diversity, Politics, Superheoes/Supervillains

 

Thanks to Shannon at Reads & Reels Blog Tours for providing an ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: Available Now

390 Pages

Synopsis: Dr. Agon, a megalomaniacal inventor with an arsenal of lethal gadgets. Motley, a wisecracking jewel thief with nothing left to lose. Chillpill, a cryogenic drug lord who just wants a normal life. Baelphegor, a demonic psychopath with an ugly score to settle.

They’re the most dangerous supervillains on Earth, and they’re about to pull off the perfect crime. There’s just one catch: if they succeed, they might accidentally save the world.

From the skyscrapers of Apex City to the gates of Hell itself, the Antagonists are pursued by violent superheroes and billionaire vigilantes. But as loyalties are tested and old hatred are rekindled, the line between friend and foe begin to blur…

I absolutely loved Rafael Chandler’s slice and dice horror novel, Mask Beneath Her Face (2017), so when I saw that Shannon from Read & Reels was offering The Astounding Antagonists for review during the month of June, I immediately requested an ebook. 

This book was written in 2014 and is as exciting as the premise promises. It’s a nice twist where the superheroes have become villains, while the er, villains aren’t exactly perfect either, but wind up being more relatable and likable. I wish the mainly Caucasian superheroes were a little more well-rounded instead of all being selfish, self-involved, corrupt, petty, homicidal jerks, but the diversity of the Antagonists mostly made up for their lack of character development. Just about every minority and gender is represented with this group of reluctant protagonists. The dialogue between the characters is sharp and witty and I found myself laughing more than once. If I had to pick a favorite character, it would be Motley the witty, snarky jewel thief. For me, she was the heart and soul of the book. I absolutely loved her and found myself looking forward to her scenes.

The plot itself is clever and fun and provides enough twists that makes it stand apart from other books in this genre. It also covers many real world issues such as government corruption, illegal immigration, misogyny, abuse of women, pollution, internet spying, religious fanaticism, and other societal woes we’re discussing now on a daily basis. While I had absolutely no problem with the political side of this, I can see where more conservative readers might. 

The Astounding Antagonists is an enjoyable read, yet also has quite a bit of thought-provoking substance to it. It’s action-packed and brutal at times, yet imminently fun and I breezed through it in two days. If you enjoy this genre, I highly recommend it.

About the author:

By day, I write screenplays for video games. I wrote the stories and dialogue for Dark District, Final Eden, Gangstar Rio: City of Saints, MAG, Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation, Modern Combat 4: Zero Hour, Rainbow Six: Lockdown, and SOCOM 4. Thus far, I’ve worked as a scriptwriter and/or story designer for Gameloft, Kabam, Sony, and Ubisoft.

By night, I’m a novelist. I wrote The Astounding Antagonists, Dracula: The Modern Prometheus (written with Mary Shelley and Bram Stoker), Hexcommunicated, and Mask Beneath Her Face. I’m hard at work on my fifth novel.

In my spare time, I design tabletop role-playing games and sourcebooks, including Dread: The First Book of Pandemonium, Lusus Naturae, Night of the Slashers, No Salvation For Witches, Obscene Serpent Religion, Pandemonio, Spite: The Second Book of Pandemonio, The Starship From Hell, Teratic Tome, ViewScream, and World of the Lost.

I’ve also written nonfiction including Fundamentals of Game Development (written with Heather Chandler), The Game Writing Handbook (which was a finalist for the 2007 Game Developer Front Line Awards), and various articles for Gamasutra.com and Writers Digest.

I’m a gamer, a gorehound, a kaijuphile, and a metalhead.

Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn.

Website: http://www.rafaelchandler.com

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/default/e/B001JRYYUA/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/797404.Rafael_Chandler

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R.I.P. Harlan Ellison 1934 – 2018

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R.I.P. Harlan Ellison

Like a wind crying endlessly through the universe, Time carries away the names and the deeds of conquerors and commoners alike. And all that we were, all that remains, is in the memories of those who cared we came this way for a brief moment.

~ Harlan Ellison ~

The Life And Death Parade, by Eliza Wass ~ 1.0 Stars

Tags

Fantasy, Horror, YA Fiction

Thanks to NetGalley and Disney-Hyperion for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: Available Now

256 Pages

Synopsis: One year ago, Kitty’s boyfriend Nikki Bramley visited a psychic who told him he had no future. Now, he’s dead. With the Bramley family grieving in separate corners of their house, Kitty sets out to find the psychic who read Nikki his fate. Instead she finds Roan, an enigmatic boy posing as a medium who belongs to the Life and Death Parade—a group of supposed charlatans that explore, and exploit, the thin veil between this world and the next. A group  whose members include the psychic…and Kitty’s late mother. Desperate to learn more about the group and their connection to Nikki, Kitty convinces Roan to return to the Bramley house with her and secures a position for him within the household. Roan quickly ingratiates himself with the Bramleys, and soon enough it seems like everyone is ready to move on. Kitty, however, increasingly suspects Roan knows more about Nikki than he’s letting on. And when they finally locate the Life and Death Parade, and the psychic who made that fateful prophecy to Nikki, Kitty uncovers a secret about Roan that changes everything. From rising star Eliza Wass comes a sophisticated, mesmerizing meditation on the depths of grief and the magic of faith. After all, it only works if you believe it.

As you can tell by my rating, The Life and Death Parade just wasn’t for me. I enjoyed the author’s previous book The Cresswell Plot and I was so excited about this when I first read the premise, but instead, it took me almost two weeks to push myself through it and at 256 pages, that’s not good.

The characters are all very one-dimensional and try as I might I was unsuccessful in connecting with any of them. Kitty and Nikki’s romance didn’t come across as believable and her love/hate relationship with Roan was annoying. While I liked the setting, the plot was sort of all over the place, leaving me confused much of the time. Adding to my confusion was that the dialogue just melded together, so half the time I didn’t even know which character was speaking. There were a couple of twists near the end that piqued my interest, but by then it was too little too late.

What I found so frustrating is that I think the concept of The Life and Death Parade had loads of potential. As is often the case with a book I wind up disillusioned with, I can’t help but wonder where the editor was. Although this was a disappointment for me, there are several glowing reviews on Goodreads, so as always, I encourage you to check them out if the premise intrigues you.

Whimsical Wednesday ~ Mr. Rogers Edition

I thought with the increasing decline of civility, (at least here in the U.S.), we could all use a little pick-me-up courtesy of Mr. Rogers.

Won’t You Be My Neighbor

It’s a beautiful day in this neighborhood,

A beautiful day for a neighbor.

Would you be mine?

Could you be mine?…

~

It’s a neighborly day in this beauty wood,

A neighborly day for a beauty.

Would you be mine?

Could you be mine?…

~

I have always wanted to have a neighbor just like you.

I’ve always wanted to live in a neighborhood with you.

~

So, let’s make the most of this beautiful day.

Since we’re together we might as well say:

Would you be mine?

Could you be mine?

Won’t you be my neighbor?

Won’t you please,

Won’t you please?

Please won’t you be my neighbor?

Quinsey Wolfe’s Glass Vault, by Candace Robinson ~ Release Day Blitz & Giveaway!

Tags

Candace Robinson, Quinsey Wolfe’s Glass Vault, Release Day Blitz & Giveaway

Last May, I had the pleasure of reviewing Candace’s book which I loved and gave it 4 1/2 stars. If you’d like to check out the review you can find it here.

https://cadburypom.wordpress.com/2017/05/16/quinsey-wolfes-glass-vault-by-candace-robinson-4-5-stars/

Since then, she’s been signed by The Parliament House and I couldn’t be more thrilled to be part of this Release Day Re-Launch, Blitz, and Giveaway which is sponsored by Rockstar Book Tours!

Book Info.

Title: Quinsey Wolfe’s Glass Vault

Author: Candace Robinson

Release Date: June 26th, 2018

Publisher: The Parliament House

Length: 242 Pages

Format: Paperback & eBook

Synopsis:

Some see it…Some don’t…

People in the town of Deer Park, Texas are vanishing. There is a strange museum, known as Quinsey Wolfe’s Glass Vault, that appears overnight. Perrie Madeline’s best friend and ex-boyfriend are among the missing. Perrie and her friend August go on a pursuit for them in the mysterious museum. Could the elusive Quinsey Wolfe’s Glass Vault have anything to do with the disappearances?

Quinsey Wolfe’s Glass Vault is the start of a thrilling duology full of magic, danger, and romance.

You can find it online at:

Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34511974-quinsey-wolfes-s-glass-vault?ac=1&from_search=true

Amazon – https://amazon.com/Quinsey-Wolfes-Glass-Candace-Robinson-ebook/dp/B07B6HGQY2/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&qid=1529441343&sr=8-1

B&N – https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/quinsey-wolfes-glass-vault-candace-robinson/1126339750?ean=9788826002521

iBooks – https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/quinsey-wolfes-glass-vault/id1400557599?mt=11&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

TBD – https://www.bookdepository.com/Quinsey-Wolfes-Glass-Vault-Candace-Robinson/9781544274652/?a_aid=twochicksonbooks

Book Trailer

Excerpt:

Maisie takes Oak Street, which I have always found ironic. The street is lined on both sides with tall trees, each one reaching toward the other as if longing for their touch. For a town called Deer Park, I have seen more trees on a street corner than actual deer. Not. One. Single. Deer.

Suddenly, Maisie slams on the breaks and my chest strikes hard against the seat belt. Then I smash back into the seat just as hard. The only thing I can think is, are my organs still intact? Seriously, they feel like they’re bleeding profusely.

“What the hell?” August and I say at the exact same time. Maisie is staring across the street to the left.

“Look!” She exclaims.

Now I see what Maisie is pointing at. Across from us stands an enormous stone building, unbelievably tall, and its walls are lined with huge rocks all along its base. Among the rocks, it appears there are absolutely no windows of any kind. The entrance has an archway that frames one of the tallest wooden doors I have ever seen. It’s creepily unusual.

“Impossible,” I breathe.

“This has never been here before.” August appears flabbergasted.

He’s right. He’s beyond right. There’s no way this place was just magically built overnight. Even if it were possible, it’s obviously old. It has to be over a hundred years old.

“Maybe we never really noticed it before.” Maisie unbuckles herself and opens the car door, completely taken by the sight of this building.

I throw my hands up hysterically and wave my hands around like a lunatic. “Never noticed it before? This giant stone mansion?”

“Perrie has a point, Maisie.” August stares up at the building in shock.

Hesitantly  I step out of the car and August follows. We walk around to stand beside Maisie, completely speechless as we continue our staring marathon at the place. It’s really an unusual structure to be sitting in the middle of our town. One would think something like this would have drawn major attention from the locals.

“We should investigate!” Maisie is moving before either of us can protest.

“Just a quick look,” I say, falling into step beside her, fingers itching with curiosity.

We walk to the door at a leisurely pace, as if we have all night to see what’s going on. As we inch closer to the arched doorway, where overgrown grass meets a block of cement, two things pop into my line of sight. First, there’s a plaque on the door that reads:

Quinsey Wolfe’s Glass Vault

It’s written in an elegant  yet outdated script.

Maisie tilts her head to the side, skeptical of the plaque. “Not sure what a glass vault is.”

I point at a sign to the right of the door. Moving closer to see what it says, I read it aloud:

The illustrious Quinsey Wolfe presents a wonder of the world, a true sight to behold in his infamous glass museum. A forewarning to onlookers and wonderers, beware of your imagination and curiosity. This is not for the faint of heart.

About Candace:

My name is Candace Robinson. I’m just your average hemiplegic migraine sufferer. My days are spent writing, book reviewing, and traveling through books for my blog, Literary Dust. I live just outside Houston, Texas, where it feels like the hottest place on Earth with the crazy weather. No, seriously, one day it’s 30 degrees and the next it’s 70 degrees! I live with my husband and awesome daughter! You can also follow me on my review blog https://literarydust.wordpress.com

Website – https://authorcandacerobinson.wordpress.com

Twitter – https://mobile.twitter.com/literarydust

Facebook – https://m.facebook.com/literarydust

Tumblr – https://literarydust.tumblr.com

Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/literarydust/

Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16541001.Candace_Robinson

International Giveaway!

1 winner will receive an Amazon Gift Card, International.

https://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/e2389ba2772

 

 

 

Go Home, Afton (Afton Morrison, Book 1), By Brent Jones ~ 5.0 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Mental Illness, Mystery, Sexual Assault, Thriller

Thanks to NetGalley and Brent Jones for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: June 25th, 2018

156 Pages

Synopsis: We all wear masks, and Afton Morrison is no exception.

A small-town librarian with a dark side, Afton,twenty-six, has suppressed violent impulses her entire adult life. Impulses that demand she commit murder.

Blending her urges with reason, Afton stalks a known sexual predator, intending to kill him. But her plan, inspired by true crime and hatched with meticulous care, is interrupted by a mysterious figure from her past. A dangerous man that lurks in the shadows, watching, threatening to turn the huntress into the hunted.

Go Home, Afton is the first of four parts in a new serial thriller by author Brent Jones. Packed with grit and action, The Afton Morrison Series delves into a world of moral ambiguity, delivering audiences an unlikely heroine in the form of a disturbed vigilante murderess.

Have you ever read a book and thought that the author seemed to write it specifically for you? That’s exactly how I felt after finishing Go Home, Afton. I first saw this reviewed on Nicole’s fantastic blog—The Bookworm Drinketh. If you’d like to check out her review, please visit: https://thebookwormdrinketh.com/2018/06/19/go-home-afton-by-brent-jones/ After reading her review I had an inkling I was going to enjoy it, but little did I know how much!

Afton is a complicated character. She’s definitely suffering from multiple mental illnesses including dissociative identity disorder, which stem from a certain incident in her past, but she stubbornly fights against her murderous impulses, before finally deciding to kill only those who deserve it. She has an alter she talks to who represents the truly violent side of her. Their snappy dialogue is one of the best parts of the book. I emphasized with Afton in a few ways, particularly her dislike of the some of the mothers who bring their children to storyhour. She isn’t a sociable individual, but she has a brother who she’s close to and reluctantly forms a bond with her young, teenage library aide, Kim. While Afton has selected her first victim, a sexual predator who has been charged several times with sexual assault yet remains free, things don’t go the way she wants them to. Adding to her troubles is the mysterious and sinister “Man in the Shadows” who seems to be stalking her. This first novella ends in a cliffhanger, but thankfully the 2nd book will be available 8/7/18.

I cannot recommend Go Home, Afton highly enough. It’s a refreshingly original thriller that I breezed through in a couple of hours. Afton is a snarky anti-hero that readers will find themselves emphasizing with and liking. And for a novella, it’s remarkable how much detail the author includes. I do warn you that while it’s not graphic, the story centers around sexual assault which could be a trigger for some. This is a fantastic start to this series and I can’t wait to pick up Book 2, See You Soon, Afton.

A Break From Whimsical Wednesday

Tags

George Takei, Internment Camps, Separation of Immigrant Families

I hope you all forgive me, but I’m taking a break from Whimsical Wednesday this week. To be honest, with what’s happening in the U.S. right now, and with Mr. Trump refusing to back down and accusing Democrats of wanting immigrants to “infest our country” (yes he actually said that), I just don’t have any whimsy in me at the moment. So instead, I thought I’d share this moving essay that actor and interment camp survivor, George Takei wrote for Foreign Policy yesterday.

I Imagine this scene: Tens of thousands of people, mostly families with children, are labeled by the government as a threat to our nation, used as political tools by opportunistic politicians and caught in a vast gray zone where their civil and human rights are erased by the presumption of universal guilt. Thousands are moved around to makeshift detention centers and sites, where camps are thrown together with more regard to the bottom line than the humanity of the new residents.

That is America today, at our southern border, which asylum-seekers and undocumented migrants alike are seeking to cross. But it is also America in late 1941, in the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, when overnight my community, my family, and I bacame the enemy because we happened to look like those who had dropped the bombs. And yet, in one horrifying way this is worse. At least during the internment of Japanese-Americans, I and other children were not stripped from our parents. We were not pulled screaming from our mothers’ arms. We were not left to change the diapers of younger children by ourselves.

Photos of children in cages and camps so strongly evoke the wartime past that former First Lady Laura Bush drew a stark parallel in an op-ed in the Washington Post. “These images are eerily reminiscent of the Japanese American internment camps of World War II, now considered to have been one of the most shameful episodes in U.S. history,” Bush wrote. She reminded us that there are dark consequences to such camps for their residents: “This treatment inflicts trauma; interned Japanese have been two times more likely to suffer cardiovascular disease or die prematurely than those who were not interned.”

When a government acts capriciously, especially against a powerless and much-reviled group, it is hard to describe the terror and anxiety. There is nowhere to turn, because the only people with the power to help have trained their guns and dogs upon you. You are without rights, held without charge or trial. The world is upside down, information-less, and indifferent or even hostile to your plight.

And yet, with hideous irony, I can still say, “At least during the internment…”

At least during the internment, when I was just 5 years old, I was not taken from my parents. My family was sent to a racetrack for several weeks to live in a horse stall, but at least we had each other. At least during the internment, my parents were able to place themselves between the horror of what we were facing and my own childish understanding of our circumstances. They told us we were “going on vacation to live with the horsies.” And when we got to the Rohwer camp, they again put themselves between us and the horror, so that we would never fully appreciate the grim reality of the mosquito-infested swamp into which we had been thrown. At least during the internment, we remained a family, and I credit that alone for keeping the scars of our unjust imprisonment from deepening on my soul.

How do politicial leaders convince themselves of the virtues of such a policy? History shows it doesn’t take much. After a Japan dropped its bombs, the political scapegoats were obvious. As America geared up for war, the administration needed some way to show it was being tough on the Japanese here in America. No matter that most of us weren’t even Japanese nationals; nearly two-thirds of those were U.S. citizens, after all. But as the Wartime Relocation Authority made clear, “a Jap is a Jap.” That was their own “zero-tolerance” policy.

But how to justify the sweeping internment of 120,000 people, when none of us had actually done nothing wrong? It was Earl Warren—the same man who as chief justice would forge a famously liberal Supreme Court—who helped move that along. Warren was the attorney general for the state of California at the time, and he had designs on the governorship, which he won in late 1942. Warren took the absence of evidence of sabotage or spying on the West Coast by Japanese-Americans as justification to declare that this we must be planning something truly hidden and deeply sinister.

It was a lie, and a big one, but it was one repeated enough, and said with enough conviction, that the rest of the country went along with it. We were the murderers, the thugs, the animals then—and since you couldn’t tell the good from the bad, you might as well round everyone up in the name of national security.

Whenever I draw parallels between today’s border actions and the internment camps of a World War II, I am flooded with comments “reminding me” that it was a Democrat, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who signed Executive Order 9066 and set the internment into motion. This only underscores my point however: The United States’ flirtation with authoritarianism is not tied to any political party. Even people of good heart and conscience can be swept up in the frenzy. Earl Warren was a Republican, and while he ultimately came to view his role in the internment to be one of his greatest follies, at the time neither he nor others in government—with rare exceptions, like Ralph Carr, the governor of Colorado—saw nothing wrong with what he’d done.

But unless we act now, we will have failed to learn at all from our past mistakes. Once again, we are flinging ourselves into a world of camps and fences and racist imagery—and lies just big enough to stick.

There are at least two big lies right now. The first is that there’s a law on the books passed by the Democrats, and that the Justice Department has no choice but to enforce it. This lie passes the buck and confuses the public, offer a diversionary talking point to dutiful lieutenants willing to toe the White House line. Like FDR, Donald Trump has wide latitude in setting the priorities of law enforcement, and there is no law that says we must have “zero tolerance” for children at our borders, just as there was nothing that said all persons of a Japanese descent, even children within orphanages, were to be rounded up and relocated.

The second lie is that those at our borders are criminals, and therefore deserve deserve no rights. But the asylum-seekers at our borders are breaking no laws at all, nor are their children who accompany them. The broad brush of “criminal” today raises echoes of the wartime “enemy” to my ears. Trump prepared his followers for this day long ago, when he began dehumanizing Mexican migrants as drug dealers, rapists, murderers, and animals. Animals might belong in cages. Humans don’t.

I wish that those, like me, who lived through this nightmare before didn’t have to sound the alarm again. But as my father once told me, America is a great nation but also a fallible one—as prone to great mistakes as are the people who inhabit it. As a survivor of internment camps, I have made it my lifelong mission to to work against them being built ever again within our borders.

Although the first camps for border crossers have been built and are now filling up with innocent children, we have a chance to ensure history doesn’t repeat itself in full, to demonstrate that we have learned from our past and to stand firmly against our worse natures. The internment happened because of fear and hatred, but also because of a failure of political leadership. In 1941, there were few politicians who dared to stand up to the internment order. I am hopeful that today there will, should be, far more people who speak up, both among our leaders and the public, and that the future writes the history of our resistance—not, yet again, of our compliance.

 

 

 

Bring Me Back, by B.A. Paris ~ 2.5 Stars

Tags

Adult Fiction, Mystery, Suspense

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Release Date: Available Now

336 Pages

Synopsis: Finn and Layla are young, in love, and on vacation. They’re driving along the highway when Finn decides to stop at a service station to use the restroom. He hops out of the car, locks the doors behind him, and goes inside. When he returns Layla is gone—-never to be seen again. That is the story Finn told to the police. But it is not the whole story.

Ten years later Finn is engaged to Layla’s sister, Ellen. Their shared grief over what happened to Layla drew them close and now they intend to stay together. Still, there’s something about Ellen that Finn has never fully understood. His heart wants to believe she is the one for him…even though a sixth sense tells him not to trust her.

Then, not long before he and Ellen are to be married, Finn gets a phone call. Someone from his past has seen Layla—-hiding in plain sight. There are other odd occurrences: Long-lost items from Layla’s past that keep turning up around Finn and Ellen’s house. Emails from strangers who seem to know too much. Secret messages, clues, warnings. If Layla is alive—-and on Finn’s trail—-what does she want? And how much does she know?

Bring Me Back is the second book I’ve read by bestselling author B.A Paris, and although last year’s The Breakdown left me with mixed feelings, I still knew I had to request this when it appeared on NetGalley. Unfortunately this book left me even more conflicted.

The beginning immediately hooked me and for the first half the fast pace made it difficult for me to put the book down. But then everything started slowing down and my attention began wandering. My main issue was with the characters. I didn’t care for Finn, the narrator, as much of what he did defied belief. Layla was so over-the-top that she became a cartoonish caricature. And the secondary characters were so bland and one-dimensional that they faded into the background. By the end, I honestly didn’t care what happened to any of them—except for Finn’s dog, Peggy. I really liked her. The storyline itself seemed predictable and soap-operish and even the big twist at the end not only failed to surprise me, but it was completely implausible.

Overall, Bring Me Back was a disappointment for me. I’m beginning to suspect that B.A. Paris just isn’t the right author for me, but I will still check out her next book to be sure. And although it’s getting mixed reviews, many are positive so I encourage you to check this out for yourself if you’re a fan of the author and genre.

 

The American Nightmare

Tags

Immigration Crisis, What You Can Do to Help

Some of you will remember a post I reblogged a few days ago from Gronda regarding immigrant children being forcibly taken from their parents as they attempt to cross the southern border to seek asylum. Below is an audio obtained by ProPublica which has just been released. On it you can hear young children crying and repeatedly screaming “Mami” and “Papa” at one of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities. Almost as disturbing is at one point during the audio, a border patrol agent jokingly says the children are providing an orchestra for them and all they need is a conductor. I want to warn you, if you haven’t heard this yet, it’s absolutely heartbreaking.

What Trump and his administration is doing isn’t just wrong, it’s evil—and I don’t use that word lightly. There has got to be a special place in Hell for the President, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Chief of Staff John Kelly, WH advisor Stephen Miller, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, and everyone else who was instrumental in putting this inhumane policy into place and continues to defend it. 

 Today, despite a groundswell of outrage from Democrats, Republicans, pediatricians, mental health experts, the Administration has doubled down, continuing to blame the Democrats and a longstanding law. They tout how wonderfully the children are being treated. THIS IS A LIE! People staffing these centers aren’t even allowed to physically comfort devastated and terrified children. Other children are having to change the diapers of babies and toddlers. Doctors are warning the stress of being ripped away from their parents can cause these children to suffer long-term repercussions like depression, anxiety, and PTSD. And down the road they could be at risk for diabetes, strokes, heart disease and even cancer. I could keep going on about the horrors being inflicted on these innocents, but I’m sure you’ve already heard the stories. So, what can we do to try to stop this? Well, as I said in my reblog the other day the first thing you can do is contact your state governors, senators and representatives, especially if they’re Republican. Let them know that it’s not acceptable to use children as pawns and hostages in a political game of chess. Write letters to the media, in particular, conservative outlets. If you can, attend a local protest. There’s a group, Families Belong Together which is coordinating marches nationally. To see if there’s a planned march near you, click here: https://map.familiesbelong.org/search.php If there aren’t any marches planned that are near you or your physically unable to join one, they’re having a virtual event on Wednesday, June 20th. 

Here are some other ways to help.

If you can, there are organizations currently looking for donations to help with legal services for these families. Here are some links:

ACLU – https://action.aclu.org

The Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES) – https://m.facebook.com/donate/490507544717085/

There are also other ways to help. The Texas Civil Rights Project is looking for people who can speak Spanish to translate for families as well as volunteers to assist with the legal intake process. Here’s their website: https://texascivilrightsproject.org

The Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project (ASAP) trys to “prevent wrongful deportations by connecting refugee families to community support and emergency legal aid.” They’re currently looking for donations, volunteer attorneys, and interpreters. You can find them at: https://asylumadvocacy.org

The Florence Project and Refugee Rights Project provides free social and legal services to immigrants being detained in Arizona. They’re looking for donations and lawyers willing to take cases pro bono. You can visit them at: https://firrp.org

And finally, sign petitions. All of us can do this and it doesn’t cost a thing. Petitions allow us to make our collective voice heard by politicians as well as asylum seekers and other people living in fear of their families being torn apart by ICE.  Here are just a few that you can add your voice to.

https://action.aclu.org/petition/separating-families

https://petitions.moveon.org/sign/tell-secretary-nielsen?source=da

https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/end-family-separation

https://act.credoaction.com/sign/no_family_separation

https://www.dailykos.com/campaigns/petitions/add-your-name-to-dhs-secretary-nielsen-stop-separating-migrant-families-at-the-border

 While we may feel helpless at times, we have more power than we realize. I hope the links I’ve provided will help give people a voice. We can do something to stop what is happening. We MUST stop what is happening!

Happy Father’s Day!

Tags

Father’s Day, Funny Music Videos

Happy Father’s Day To All the Wonderful Dads Out There!