Photograph Source: The White House – Public Domain

Many Americans have been gripped for weeks by the terrifying abduction story of “Today Show” host Savannah Guthrie’s mother. A beloved family-member snatched by strangers and stolen away to who-knows-where? It’s a horror, and no wonder it’s grabbed our attention — especially the attention of Savannah’s viewers and colleagues in the media. Through her work on TV, Savannah’s been a comforting part of many people’s daily lives for years. Now, the ransom notes are coming in and the coverage continues: will the Guthries pay? How much?

It’s a tragedy on its face, but it’s also a teaching moment – or it could be. Hundreds of thousands of Latino, Black, Asian and other marginalized families have seen their loved-ones snatched and stolen under our criminal deportation machine. (Trumpism’s made it cruel-ler, but it didn’t start with him. Research summarized by the American Immigration Council estimates that nearly 500,000 U.S.-citizen children experienced the deportation of at least one parent between 2011 and 2013 alone.)

Those people, too, have been part of our daily lives. Disproportionately, they’ve done caring work: comforting the sick, feeding the hungry, tending to fields, and gardens and homes. The ransom’s unclear, but in blood and sweat, surely it’s already been paid.

Thousands of Palestinians have seen their beloveds not only stolen, but “vaporized” by US supplied thermal (and thermo-barbaric) weapons according to an investigation by Al Jazeera. Where’s the empathy for them?

Some helpful teaching could be happening at this moment. But that would require making connections. And that would break the money media machine’s divide-and-silo rules. (And, oh yes, we’d also have to be less white-obsessed and racist.)

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