Melissa McEwan of Shakesville, in her Monday summary of authoritarian news lists several other protests that have happened recently. This same post lists many more reasons why those protests are necessary.
The main speaker (perhaps the local organizer) said several times that Ms. Lawrence was at that time with a group visiting one of the camps (or trying to). So she is on our side. Here is a post about representatives who visited a camp (though it doesn’t look like the visit Lawrence was a part of).
Several speakers read letters from children and teens who are stuck in these camps. A Jewish man who was a boy in Nazi Germany and hidden by people like us compared the actions of Nazis with the actions of ICE.
A woman read the poem, “Home” by Warsan Shire. She was born in Kenya to Somali parents. They moved to Britain when she was one year old. This poem captures the anguished dilemma refugees face. The first couple lines are distinctive enough that I could find it online. Some excerpts:
no one leaves home unless
home is the mouth of a shark
you only run for the border
when you see the whole city running as well
you have to understand,
that no one puts their children in a boat
unless the water is safer than the land
no one chooses refugee camps
or strip searches where your
body is left aching
or prison,
because prison is safer
than a city of fire
and one prison guard
in the night
is better than a truckload
of men who look like your father
no one could take it
no one could stomach it
no one skin would be tough enough
no one leaves home until home is a sweaty voice in your ear
saying —
leave,
run away from me now
i dont know what i’ve become
but i know that anywhere
is safer than here
After the speakers there was a suggestion (not well organized) that we protest along the major street and over to the nearby highway exit ramp and overpass. So we did, or at least some of us did. Here are a couple photos, one along the curb at the highway exit ramp, the other of the group on the overpass.
After I had been there about 75 minutes in the heat the rally didn’t seem to have any more direction, so I went home.
McEwan adds some important context to the refugee issue:
One of the (many) things that is absolutely enraging me about the public discourse around the obscene mistreatment of migrant children is that it utterly lacks this notion: We can afford to welcome every last one of those children and their families into this country.
We have the resources. We have the space. We have need for workers who are looking for stable work, if we can muster the political will for infrastructure and green jobs. The only reason to pretend we don't have these things is because it's politically expedient to exploit fear.
Please, if you talk about this subject today and I hope you will, make sure to include in that conversation the fact that the crisis is a lack of empathy and welcome. We do not lack the ability to integrate migrants and refugees. We lack the compassion.
We have to change this conversation. We cannot keep talking about it using the dishonest frames of the nativist wrecks who are driving policy. There is no need to detain children and/or their parents indefinitely. NONE. That is a fact.
This rally was therapeutic for me. It was wonderful to be around people like me (though I didn’t know anyone) who believe in equality, believe in acting humanely, and are as disgusted with the nasty guy and his malice as I am. After so much time hearing about news of the nasty guy I was glad to be among people who could clearly say this is not normal, this is not appropriate, and we want to make sure you know we don’t agree with it.
McEwan understands that too. Yes, when faced with the relentless malice from the nasty guy administration and the GOP that protects him, it is reasonable to feel thwarted, demoralized, and that effort is futile.
Do not let your interactions with your representative and senators be guided by who they are. Let them be guided by who you are.
They hope that their relentless malice will change you. Resist that above all else.
Badger the absolute fuck out of your Republican reps and senators, not because they can be moved from their intransigent malice, but because YOU cannot be moved from your decency, from your empathy, from your compassion, from your expectations of MORE.
...
I expect resistance against tyranny, institutional bigotry, dominionism, and war-mongering, because it is my duty as a citizen, as a human being. I expect more from myself, and from all of us, as oppressors careen toward obliteration of all that I value, because complacency is complicity.
...
That's who I am. Who are you? Make your calls and write your emails and resist in every way that you can from that place. From the place inside you that cannot be changed, cannot be cajoled or compelled or convinced to acquiesce to any of this.
This is resistance.
As I’ve mentioned before I have a poster I’ve taken to rallies in opposition to guns. One of those was just a few weeks ago. But a slogan against guns wasn’t appropriate for this rally. So I turned to the internet for ideas. I turned my gun poster over and wrote on the back, “Will trade racists for refugees.” The phrase is not original with me. Several people asked to take a picture of it.
Here are some of the other protest phrases I found online. Many are from the page of protest posters on Pinterest. The first few are appropriate for today’s rally. The rest succinctly summarize a current issue.
No human is illegal
Keep Families together
Racism is not patriotic
I love my country, I'm ashamed of my government
Will Swap 1 Donald Trump for 10.000 refugees
Hate won't make us great
If people working full-time jobs still need food stamps to get by, they're not the ones leaching off the government. Their employers are.
The only minority destroying America is the rich
Stop pretending your racism is patriotism
(Looking like a tree is holding it:) Need money for my family in the rainforest
If someone tells you they got rich through hard work, ask them, 'Whose'?
Fox News: rich people paying rich people to tell middle class people to blame poor people
You said you needed your guns to fight a corrupt government. So... where are you?
I support helping the needy. I oppose subsidizing the greedy
Equal rights for others does not mean for fewer rights for you. Rights are not like pie.
For I was hungry and you cut my food stamps. I was a stranger and you deported me. I was sick and you denied me healthcare. I was a child afraid to go to school and you voted with the NRA. (This is a twist on a passage from the book of Matthew in the Bible)
At the start of every disaster movie is a scientist being ignored
The hardest decision a woman can make isn't yours
The paradise of the rich is made out of the hell of the poor – Victor Hugo
Super
callous
facist
racist
sexist
bragga
docious
No comments:
Post a Comment