The Vote That Stole Breath
It is not too late to start working feverishly to undo the harm your vote inflicted and keeps inflicting.
A Two-Month-Old’s Agony in ICE Custody
Trigger warning: rage, baby torture, futile pleading to deaf ears
Ice detained a 2 month old baby boy. They have left that baby in respiratory distress for half its life (the entire month in ice custody). If you voted for this, did this baby scare you personally such that you want them struggling for air?
This baby was reportedly choking on his own vomit on Sunday. Do you rejoice that you voted for this two month old, not yet alive when you voted, to have to fight drowning on his own sick now?
If you voted for this, and also go to church, do you imagine God smiles on you for choosing for this baby to choke and struggle, to wheeze and hurt because ice predictably provided no doctors in the medical area where they held this newborn? Do you really think this precious little one, born innocent, is the worst of the worst and do you want them to be tortured in your name? Killed in your name?
Is this the greatness you have wished our country be lowered to? Do this infant’s lungs flooding with fluid make you feel good? Feel safe? Feel powerful and respected? Honorable or righteous? Do you thank God for giving you the power to hurt this child with your vote? With your indifference? Do you smile knowing whatever else you have done in life, you have cast your vote for his pain to grow, for his little lungs to burn and scar, for his tiny body to roil with terror and fear? Nothing else in your life will ever undo that vote (unless you start right now changing your ways, today, this very instant)?
Or do you think you owe this baby, and other babies, and yourself and the world, and God for having made the choice you made that lead directly to this and will lead to worse? Do you have any decency left within you, any glimmer of good, any spark of the divine, that could now fed your rage and regret to behold the wages of your choice, your actions, and could you now fight to make your past wrongs hurt the world less? Or do you revel in the suffering of that little boy who just wants to breathe? Do you wish you could suffocate him yourself?
It is not too late to start working feverishly to undo the harm your vote inflicted and keeps inflicting. Not too late to fight for redemption, to fight for that little boy, and your soul. You wrought this, and you can and should dedicate yourself to unmaking these horrors.
Start now. Or please, I invite you to go choke on your guilt for rest of your miserable life.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/choking-infant-juan-nicol-ices-201649159.html
© Copyright February 17, 2025, David August, all rights reserved davidaugust.com
David August is an award-winning actor, acting coach, writer, director, and producer. He plays a role in the movie Dependent’s Day, and after its theatrical run, it’s now out on Amazon (affiliate link). He has appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live on ABC, on the TV show Ghost Town, and many others. His artwork has been used and featured by multiple writers, filmmakers, theatre practitioners, and others to express visually. Off-screen, he has worked at ad agencies, start-ups, production companies, and major studios, helping them tell stories their customers and clients adore. He has guest lectured at USC’s Marshall School of Business about the Internet.
