Leonard Pitts: The day we used tear gas against children

The United States has 329 million inhabitants spread over 3.8 million square miles. In terms of population and land mass, it's a pretty big place. But these are not the only criteria that matter.

Morality matters too. And Sunday, by this measure at least, this country seemed rather small. This is of course the day we used tear gas against children.

It began at the border with San Diego, when a group of Central American refugees stormed what the Los Angeles Times called a tent city: "Sewage strongly" while They were waiting to ask for asylum, rushed to the frontier. The Times reported that a "small group of men and adolescents" had hit a hole in the border fence, where some threw stones, hitting border patrol agents, none of which was seriously injured.

The Border Patrol reacted by firing tear gas. in Mexico. While the news filled with images of poor people, including children, some barefoot, others in diapers, fleeing to escape the scathing and suffocating clouds, some of us were ecstatic. Donald Trump called on Mexico to send "waving migrants, many of whom are unholy criminals, to their country". Tomi Lahren, a pundit, tweeted that gassing was the "highlight" of his Thanksgiving weekend.

And we felt a great country contract.

Rep. Mark Pocan of Wisconsin called gassing "a new base". Senator Cory Booker called it "ugly, cruel and cowardly". The author Tananarive Due, whose mother died, suffered permanent eye damage after being gassed by the gases during a non-violent march for the defense of civil rights in 1960., l & # 39; called it "monstrous".

Not even Geraldo Rivera, who accused Trayvon Martin of committing his own murder because he was wearing a hoodie in the rain, could not believe what he was saying. saw. "This tear gas muffled me," he told Fox. He demanded that the United States stop treating "these economic refugees as zombies of The Walking Dead".

"It's absolutely painful to watch," Rivera added, her voice high and rising. "We are a nation of immigrants. They are desperate people! They walked 2,000 miles! Why? Because they want to rape your daughter or steal your lunch? No, because they want a job! "

And yes, eliminate all the hyperbole and it's as simple as that. They want jobs. They want houses. They want to be safe from political violence and gangs. In addition, most of them – with the exception of stone throwers – followed the procedure prescribed by law to obtain these things.

By treating them as, said Rivera, the zombies of "The Walking Dead", America betrays what is best. l & # 39; history. After all, we have often been – in reputation and sometimes even in fact – a nation that has done great things.

When the world needs to be saved, we saved it.

When Europe needs to rebuild, we rebuilt it. [19659002] When the Cold War needed to win, we won it.

But when a group of immigrants needed asylum, we sodded it.

For the record, Newsweek reports that tear gas was also deployed at the border under President Obama. Without knowing the details, it is difficult to be definitive, but if the conditions were the same (a largely non-violent crowd, most of them children), the same sentence must apply.

In the end, it is less about a political argument than about our national soul, about who and what we are. Yes, America is one of the largest nations on the planet. But on Sunday, America gassed children.

And it's one of the most modest things we've ever done.