Prime Question: How do we resist?
Amazingly, this just might be THE answer.
As we gradually accept the fact that our democracy and our neighbors are under attack, the question of how to resist becomes essential to our well-being. However, we here in the US are ill-equipped to know how to deal with a dictatorship determined to deliver spirit-crushing cruelty.
Wanting to deliver something hopeful about what we can do to resist this evil, I took my ignorance walkabout through the electronic halls and found this:
Worth reading in general with it’s recommendations for organizing, what shocked me … what might be the answer … was this discussion of why some people risked everything to help the Jews in World War II:
Protect Our Communities … Resistance + Support
Each of us has to find our own path, however here are some reminders of what’s happening in our own communities:
San Diego recently experienced ICE agent raids on two local restaurants. The community pushed back with resistance and support for the restaurants and the arrested. One neighbor says, “We’re organizing.” Here’s what the San Diego mayor said:
Family with 4 children detained outside courthouse in San Antonio.
Whatever happened to the idea that they were getting rid of the “worst of the worst,” the bad guys, the gang members, the rapists and criminals?
“In what legal experts have derided as a bid to boost deportation numbers, the Trump administration has recently launched raids at immigration courthouses in multiple cities, targeting migrants and asylum seekers who show up for scheduled immigration hearings. Last week, more than a dozen people were detained by ICE agents in Phoenix, shortly after federal prosecutors filed to dismiss their cases, effectively leaving them open to deportation.” — AZMirror
BROKEN PROMISES … Imagine being someone who came here legally … promised protection by the United States government, and then … “ICE raids are sweeping across Florida just as the Supreme Court allowed the Trump administration to revoke the temporary protected legal status for some migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.”
And, suddenly, they’re paying attention to Puerto Rico!
SAN JUAN: “What for years had been the beating heart of the Dominican community in Puerto Rico is now a city under siege. At ten in the morning on a hot, idyllic May day, the streets of Barrio Obrero — located in San Juan, the capital of the U.S. territory — are nearly empty.” — El País
Are local police working with ICE agents? Basically, yes!
What are 287(g) agreements? It’s how this administration is turning the US into a police state.
“There aren't nearly enough federal agents to meet President Trump's unprecedented deportation goal of deporting a million immigrants a year.” — Axios
287(g) agreements are partnerships between local or state law enforcement agencies and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Under these agreements, designated law enforcement officers receive training and authority to perform certain immigration enforcement functions, such as identifying and detaining undocumented immigrants, essentially acting as federal immigration agents within their communities.
The next week, months, and years will (unfortunately) provide a multitude of opportunities for us to demonstrate our care for our country and neighbors. I view it as more like a rabbit trail than a forced march … where each of us is one day may not be anything like where we will be tomorrow.
Remember: we are all in this together … we need each other and the world needs us.
Life is hard for so many Americans and I doubt things will not improve anytime soon
Best to do is to call to our better angels. A madman comes along every once in a while but not only don’t we permanently get on his wavelength, we become the better for it as it shows us what evil we still have to transcend in the evolution humanity is in.
Oh how I wish America had a suggestion box. The closest thing I can think of is YOU. The suggestion is about how to behave on the day of that parade.
It would be PEP TALKS everywhere, cheering humanity on. "We can do it. All we have to do is cooperate. We can enrich our lives by enriching each other. We are lucky to be human. Look at the wonderful things humanity has done. Bla bla bla."
Everyone from everywhere would be calling humanity to our finest. Good speakers and open mikes. Let many voices be heard. A celebration of a better future that we will create.