It’s Tuesday, July 2, 2019.

Now, for sure, the year is half over.

It’s the 55th anniversary of President Lyndon Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964. 

Here’s a fact: While the act outlawing discrimination was pushed by two Democratic presidents – John F. Kennedy and LBJ – the final vote garnered a higher percentage of votes from Republican lawmakers than Democratic ones.

Something else that might seem strange: The fierce opposition came from southern Democrats. Democratic leaders, the majority, with the minority leaders among the Republicans to get a bill that could overcome the filibuster.

In the end, the Civil Rights Act passed the Senate 73-27 and the House 289-126, a truly bipartisan achievement.

I doubt that’s what the Trumpsters mean when they want to make America great again. Given where we are at this moment, Trump and the Republican acquiescence to his madness makes that kind of unity toward progress seems like a fantasy.

So consider this question:

Who do you think is more likely to eventually be the researcher who helps find a cure for Alzheimer’s? 

A Honduran girl currently sleeping on a concrete floor in one of the Border Patrol’s concentration camps in Texas?

Or a grey-haired lardass in a MAGA hat planning to attend Trump’s masturbatory July 4 rally?

Try this one:

Who is more likely to risk his life your son, the soldier, in a war zone of Trump’s making?

The Salvadorean boy being made to drink water from a toilet?

Or the pontaloon chanting “Lock Her Up” in Pavlovian response to her master’s voice?

One more:

If you’re in Target looking for the inflator needles for your kid’s soccer ball, who is more likely going to be the one to find it?

The Guatemalan girl getting a thumbful of shampoo to wash her whole body and that of the toddler whose care has been thrust upon her by Customs and Border Protection?

Or one of those idiot CBP guards too busy depicting congresswoman in faked sexual poses on Facebook?

My point is simple.

Refugees and migrants want something better for their lives.

And more often than not, they’re willing to take on the undesirable, the backbreaking, the mindnumbing tasks that those already settled in this country aren’t.

All to get to a life that is better than the horrors they left behind – stuff so bad they were willing to endure the brutality of Trump and the base he constantly placates.

Trump’s favorite goons at ICE and Customs and Border Protection remain pretty unstoppable in their cruelty to desperate people who have committed no crime in the eyes of the world. 

The people who will pay the price are us. We’ll never know if the person who could have lengthened and improved our life lost her or his ability to do so in the squalor that Trump and his minions created.

Instead, we’re stuck kissing up to the people sitting in some Midwest diner complaining about some phony crisis they saw Sean Hannity or Laura Ingraham gussie up. And doing nothing to solve the real problems humanity faces.

Yesterday, when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and other representatives visited the camps in Texas, they were mistreated and scorned by the people who employment depends on them. 

And there were actually pro-concentration camp demonstrators trying to shout them down. 

But they put out the word about the horrific conditions in these camps. They’re some of the heroes we should remember this Independence Day.

By the way, you and I are not helpless.

My wife and I donated money to Raices, an organization that provides aid to these desperate people seeking asylum in a country that used to be a beacon for it.

Here’s their website: https://www.raicestexas.org/

It won’t solve the problem instantly. But helping these folks help others is a good way to start. And it seems like a perfect way to celebrate the 4th.