Things are so bad that fucking Highlights is speaking out against family separation at the border
You remember Highlights. They had them at the dentist’s office. There was a comic strip featuring Goofus and Gallant, two kids who helped illustrate the difference between wrong and right. They taught easy-to-understand lessons about why it’s bad to steal, lie, or forcibly separate migrant children from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border. Okay, you got us, there isn’t a comic about that last one, but there is a statement from Highlights CEO Kent Johnson, who, as the publisher of a 73-year old apolitical children’s magazine, felt the need at this time to speak out about how completely fucking inhumane our government is.
“As a company that helps children become their best selves—curious, creative, caring, and confident—we want kids to understand the importance of having moral courage,” Johnson wrote in a statement posted to the magazine’s Twitter account. “Moral courage means standing up for what we believe is right, honest, and ethical—even when it is hard.”
He goes on to write that the magazine denounces “the practice of separating immigrant children from their families,” calling the practice “unconscionable” and capable of causing “irreparable damage to young lives.”
“This is not a political statement about immigration policy. This is statement about human decency, plain and simple,” he continues. “This is a plea for recognition that these are not simply the children of strangers for whom others are accountable.” Johnson goes on to encourage people, “regardless of your political leanings,” to speak out against family separation and call for “more humane treatment of immigrant children currently being held in detention facilities.”
Read it in full below.