Skin is a complex body organ and not wrapping paper. When the child gets the first deep scratch and the skin releases that emergent bit of blood many children follow their instincts and scream. But it seems now as adults we treat skin like an ornament or a drawing pad.  We invite the sun to burn various shades into that organ, hopefully any color other than beet red.  We lost our beloved Jimmy Buffet to skin cancer.  As we get older so does our body organ called skin and it treats aging as a reminder of how it was treated in youth

When a child is born it is skin-to-skin as soon as possible. Skin is a major player in sealing the bond that will join mother and child for a life at the very edge of soul.  Skin is the transmitter of pleasure in life at every level. Skin warns us of all dangerous or unwanted incursions on the body. Skin is the first cousin of memory delivering memories without prejudice that serve, for better or worse, a lifetime.  If a person’s skin is abused, the battering and bruises become a sequence of life’s grim markers that can be denied but continue underground in their relentless impact on the decisions of life. The point of this ‘song-to-skin’ is to say what I see in the news with these immigration raids and physical abuses is we are creating through the skin-to-skin violent arrests of men women and children, generations of hatred and resentment with these brutal tactics. The skin marks the event with burning permanent memories that are embedded in family stories passed down to successive generations.

A Modest Proposal for Good

Abuse, mental and physical, perpetuates itself.  Skin-to-skin abuse bonds people in lasting hatred just as skin-to-skin bonds love.  When this writer sees this administration almost recreational pleasure in the abuse shown plainly on every media outlet in America I wonder about the family history of our leaders. Police forces have been in the past trained to avoid unnecessary skin-to-skin confrontations and police officers, believe it or not, were once called Peace Officers.  We need to treat skin contact as touching the gift of life’s last layer.  We need to support our peace officers and get the bullies off the streets.  The damage being done right now is lasting and generational.  Policing is a skill set and not a blunt instrument.  If you are a right-to-life person, remember the skin is the equivalent to a national border.  The skin and what lies under are sovereign and sacrosanct.  Actually revering life and love would be good.