I don't know what the future holds. My daughter works for the USDA. She tests for animal diseases. Last night the Trump administration sent an email to all civil service employees. The email had a pre-written resignation letter and the threat that if it is not accepted, the government can't guarantee their future employment. Trump is sending fear throughout the country. Americans don't realize all the great things these government works to improve their lives.
Deport the undocumented male and legal wife goes. And, the children? Who knows where they might land--or fall? It's not good for the children to be missing a parent, or even their siblings. We want families to thrive, don't we?
Fear has all sorts of consequences, including a loss of trust in the police in general.
But some in high places, and others in front of their televisions, are surely pounding their chests at the prospect that working people will suffer.
In my early years of union organizing back in the '80's, employers faced a $50 fine for knowingly hiring undocumented workers. But we organized immigrant workers and gave them power, if only for a while. Let's ask new questions like you often do Art - Why do meatpackers hire immigrant workers? What happened to the wages and working conditions in packing plants in the late 1980's? Why is the union a fraction of the strength it was back then? Let's not let these robber barons turn us against each other any longer. THEY are the cause of all this pain. No one else.
Just threats to evoke fear. Thus the good Christians, squirming at the Bishop’s pleas for mercy, (I’m thinking of you, Mr VP) can shrug their shoulders and submit they didn’t do anything to the immigrants.
Art: A slight correction about the Polk County Courthouse situation from last week. According to reports that I have read the individual was detained/arrested outside the Polk County Courthouse, not inside.
Otherwise, as is usual, your observations are spot on. The bigger boys are going to get the breaks. The little guys are going to be taken for a ride (perhaps some of the little guys on an airplane for who knows where).
The fear is all around us - the fear is the point. Even is all of these "executive orders" are struck down the fear will still be with us. The fear will always be the point.
Trump is following Hitler's playbook exactly. Start by deporting the undesirable, but when there aren't enough countries to deport them to, the the Final Solution begins. I've been saying for the past year that we are living in 1930s Germany and he's proving me right. But yes Art, the billionaires behind Big Meat and Big Dairy will not see their slaves deported. That will only happen in Blue states.
I attended a rally against immigration last Saturday at the state capitol. There were at least 300 young people present who were organized by the Party of Socialism and Liberation. I know nothing about this party except that they successfully organized young Latinas and Latinos. I’m sure I was the oldest white guy present. (Perhaps some mistook me as an ICE agent). A young female spoke eloquently and loudly about the need for farm workers. Last Sunday’s gospel lesson was Luke 4: 18 – “The spirit has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.” Then, after Jesus preached from this text, he was removed from the temple to be thrown off a cliff.
“Who is most threatened if oppressed peoples are liberated? Answer: the oppressors who have built their own prosperity out of the exploitation of others.” Robert McAfee Brown, liberation theologian who wrote Unexpected News.
I don't know what the future holds. My daughter works for the USDA. She tests for animal diseases. Last night the Trump administration sent an email to all civil service employees. The email had a pre-written resignation letter and the threat that if it is not accepted, the government can't guarantee their future employment. Trump is sending fear throughout the country. Americans don't realize all the great things these government works to improve their lives.
Deport the undocumented male and legal wife goes. And, the children? Who knows where they might land--or fall? It's not good for the children to be missing a parent, or even their siblings. We want families to thrive, don't we?
Fear has all sorts of consequences, including a loss of trust in the police in general.
But some in high places, and others in front of their televisions, are surely pounding their chests at the prospect that working people will suffer.
In my early years of union organizing back in the '80's, employers faced a $50 fine for knowingly hiring undocumented workers. But we organized immigrant workers and gave them power, if only for a while. Let's ask new questions like you often do Art - Why do meatpackers hire immigrant workers? What happened to the wages and working conditions in packing plants in the late 1980's? Why is the union a fraction of the strength it was back then? Let's not let these robber barons turn us against each other any longer. THEY are the cause of all this pain. No one else.
Just threats to evoke fear. Thus the good Christians, squirming at the Bishop’s pleas for mercy, (I’m thinking of you, Mr VP) can shrug their shoulders and submit they didn’t do anything to the immigrants.
Art: A slight correction about the Polk County Courthouse situation from last week. According to reports that I have read the individual was detained/arrested outside the Polk County Courthouse, not inside.
Otherwise, as is usual, your observations are spot on. The bigger boys are going to get the breaks. The little guys are going to be taken for a ride (perhaps some of the little guys on an airplane for who knows where).
The fear is all around us - the fear is the point. Even is all of these "executive orders" are struck down the fear will still be with us. The fear will always be the point.
Trump is following Hitler's playbook exactly. Start by deporting the undesirable, but when there aren't enough countries to deport them to, the the Final Solution begins. I've been saying for the past year that we are living in 1930s Germany and he's proving me right. But yes Art, the billionaires behind Big Meat and Big Dairy will not see their slaves deported. That will only happen in Blue states.
I attended a rally against immigration last Saturday at the state capitol. There were at least 300 young people present who were organized by the Party of Socialism and Liberation. I know nothing about this party except that they successfully organized young Latinas and Latinos. I’m sure I was the oldest white guy present. (Perhaps some mistook me as an ICE agent). A young female spoke eloquently and loudly about the need for farm workers. Last Sunday’s gospel lesson was Luke 4: 18 – “The spirit has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.” Then, after Jesus preached from this text, he was removed from the temple to be thrown off a cliff.
“Who is most threatened if oppressed peoples are liberated? Answer: the oppressors who have built their own prosperity out of the exploitation of others.” Robert McAfee Brown, liberation theologian who wrote Unexpected News.