I’m usually grateful to come up with a single idea for the week’s posting. This week I have two that have been doing battle in my head. They may wind up in a dead heat, calling for shared space or I may start down one of the two roads and discover that I have more to say on the subject than I realized and leave the second for another day. I’ll try that. Here goes.
From the moment the media confirmed Trump’s victory, I started thinking about what form my resistance to what’s ahead could take. In typical fashion Trump has thrown so much mess at us at one time that it’s impossible to respond to it all. To where should I turn my attention – To the environment which is about to absorb another crushing blow? To our health needs embattled on many fronts — vaccinations, Medicaid, medical research? To the ongoing assault on abortion and one that surely lies ahead on contraception? To the erosion of our legal system, including the Justice Department and our courts?
These are hugely important areas of danger in the coming years, but I’m considering choosing a different direction. Rosellen and I are looking for ways to be of help on issues of immigration and deportation. Somehow, the image of real people in communities close to mine being forced into armored vehicles and torn from their loved ones has an immediacy that I can’t turn away from. Of course, there are real people at the end of Medicaid cancelation or denial of abortion, but the sheer scale of planned deportations will have an immediate and visible effect on a huge number of families.
The decision to focus on immigration and deportation was reinforced by a recent visit to Chicago from Tom Homan whom Trump has chosen to lead the charge on this front. In his public statements he made it clear that our city would be Ground Zero for his deportation efforts, our reward for declaring ourselves a sanctuary city, encouraged by legislation at the state level aiming at protecting immigrants. If our city was going to be center stage, all the more reason to make deportation our focus.
Last week I saw online an announcement of a three-part workshop called Deportation Defense. That seemed like a good place to start, so we signed on. It turned out that we were far from alone. More than 1800 people across the country did the same, a strong indication of how the impact of this issue is being felt nationally. We were able to attend two of the three two-hour online sessions, which were packed with information about immigration law and experience culled from the clumsy and often cruel deportation efforts during Trump 1.0. One long presentation focused on Chicago as a case study for how deportation efforts and resistance to them has played out right here at Ground Zero.
Now, what we needed most were connections to local organizations with which we could volunteer. I posted a note to that effect in the chat and got an immediate response from a well-connected Chicagoan, with whom we’re now exploring options. We’re very aware that we’re latecomers to the work, which we’ve shied away from because of our lack of Spanish and our inexperience. As we could see from the incredibly knowledgeable people who presented in the online sessions, many have been engaged in this work for a long time, but the new administration is creating a crisis of a different order, for which more foot soldiers like us might be useful. We’ll keep you posted on how this plays out.
So, in fact, there’s a bit of space for the second topic I mentioned at the top of this entry. On Christmas Day, we’re heading to New Orleans with daughter Elana, son-in-law Ben and granddaughter Dalia, just days after her 14th birthday! In addition to introducing them to a place where they’ve never been, it’s a chance for us to visit with dear friends who are helping us fill the dance card for our all-too-brief stay.
This is also a nostalgia trip for us. NOLA has played a significant role in our lives at two different points. First, during our years in Mississippi (1965-68) we used the city as our r&r retreat, the way soldiers in Viet Nam used Thailand for relief from the pressures of being in the combat zone. We were in New Orleans on the day the 1964 Civil Rights Act went into effect, and we headed to our favorite eating spot, Morrison’s Cafeteria, to see whether the implementation would create any problems. As I recall, one or two Black patrons arrived uneventfully. That was hardly a surprise. The city had been transgressive in crossing racial lines for many generations. That’s why it was such a relief from the tensions built into life in Mississippi, where any challenge to the rigid separations could have serious consequences. At the Cornstalk Guest House, we could breathe easy and eat well for a few days.
Later, when we moved to Houston, New Orleans was just a long car ride away. Now the trips were culturally, not politically motivated. One of the country’s great musical events is the city’s Jazz and Heritage Festival in late April every year. We made that drive at least three times to sit in the tents set up at the local racetrack, where we could hear a good number of the best blues, jazz, soul and gospel performers alive, all for a single modest admission price. The vibe was warm and the crowd was friendly. Houston was hardly devoid of access to good music but the concentration of talent at the festival could not be matched.
I’ll have more to report on our visit when we get back. We’ll just be returning on the Monday after Christmas so that will be one of the rare Monday mornings when I’m silent. See you in the new year.
