JANUARY 21 TUESDAY
And so it Begins: The Era of Governing by Fear Mongering and Selective Enforcement
My heart goes out to the families that today begin a life of government repression by fear if not practice. While our personal concern about this autocratic government is mostly philosophical, theoretical, and distant, for many families in our community, neighbors and friends the impacts of governance by fear mongering is real, with real daily practical negative consequences. This includes – among many others – people here from Central America, federal workers, and LGBTQ+ folks.
CENTRAL AMERICANS
Many of our Central American neighbors will have to live with the uncertainty of not knowing whether their TPS (Temporary Protective Status) will be overturned. Others will have to be excruciatingly careful of being pulled over because their immigrant documentation is not in order. some of the 20-something Dreamers – brought to the US as small children – are thrown into the insecurity of not knowing what is next.
Can you possibly put yourself in their shoes? How would it feel to wake up in the morning not knowing if you, your parents, or your friend will face deportation today, next week, next month, or sometime over the next four years? How could you plan for the near future, much less plan for retirement, make that addition to the house, or simply plan a vacation? Even a visit to the hospital for a minor injury would bring angst and anxiety. You’d be living in fear, a fear mercilessly imposed by a mean-spirited government that dehumanized you and wants you outta here. What respect can you have for that government? What energy would you have for community involvement or civic engagement? You’d just want to get by without any incident, make sure you make no noise, hoping you get to see another day in this land.
FEDERAL WORKERS
Making federal workers the scapegoats of the exaggerated claim of government inefficiencies is another mean-spirited narrative of this Administration. Of course there are plenty of examples of the federal government bureaucratic blunders and mismanagement. Yet, to convey that federal workers are all a bunch of leeches abusing their government jobs is another fear mongering tactic.
To impose on the federal workforce a real or implied allegiance requirement to the President is nothing short of the implementation of an autocratic State. To mess with the promised retirement plans and contractual commitments of these workers is a direct low blow to people that joined this workforce in good faith, many compromising the high salaries they could have gotten in the private sector for the privilege of working for the collective common good. (And yes: I know what I am talking about here – it is personal).
LGBTQ+
Imagine after years of a generally welcoming cultural environment to be fear-mongered into getting back in the closet. Imagine being happily married and being scared into thinking the unthinkable, that your legal marriage may be invalidated. Imagine being the parent of a child that expresses ambiguous sexual orientation and having to deal with elected officials that despise your family and want to make your child into what they are not.
The attack of this Administration on the LGBTQ+ community is abhorrent. It is beyond the “don’t ask don’t tell” policy of the past. It is another example of their mean-spirited, self-righteous, misguided Christian principles. It is yet another example that they will govern without regards to the aspirations of those that disagree with them.
And so it begins: The era of governing by fear mongering and selective enforcement.
And so we will resist, we will protest, and we will be empathetic and in solidarity with our friends and neighbors that are being selectively abused by a government led by a convicted felon who is a useful idiot of the world’s richest man.
JANUARY 22 WEDNESDAY
THIS is a Christian Nation?!? In case you missed it, the Trump Administration has directed ICE to no longer respect schools and houses of worship as spaces off-limit to immigration raids. Early this morning Trump demanded an apology from the Episcopal Bishop that simply reminded us of our faith-based calling to be emphatic of all people, calling her – among other derogatory language – ‘nasty’. What did she say? Watch the video:
https://youtu.be/mI4h4zbkNMU?si=_vQSaMmOidhXmTpb
JANUARY 23 THURSDAY
Today I began listening to Pope Francis’ new autobiography. It was simply jarring to listen to the first two chapters of his own immigration story while riding the F4 bus being the only white person on the bus, accompanied by people all evidently from somewhere else – mostly Central Americans – and others who are descendants of slaves – African Americans.
Keeping it real. This is what I overheard as the bus meandered its way through Montgomery County and Prince George’s County, Maryland:
A conversation between two Latina women sitting on the seat in front of me: One nervously says to the other, “I don’t know what I will do with my children if my work is raided”. The other – equally nervously – responds, “My Jewish neighbors have offered to take in my kids in case something happens to me”. That, my friend, is the reality of Trump’s America. Thankfully, we live in the State where people of goodwill are empathetically standing up and accompanying and helping these victims of State sponsored violence. These arbitrary raids are instilling fear in the Latino community to the point of having to plan what families will do when they are rounded up and shipped away from their children as if they were disposable trash. Neither schools or churches are beyond the wrath of these raids.
Want to do something but can’t figure out what? We are fortunate to have in our own backyard an organization that is at the front line of the resistance: CASA. Please donate. https://wearecasa.org/donate-2/