1) Last week my wife Darca gave a lecture to the Garden Club, and nicely too. At lunch before her talk she and 3 others were chatting and, as always these days, our era’s disgraceful politics slithered into the conversation. The Club President said “Our meetings used to start with the Pledge of Allegiance, but we stopped doing that a while ago…”. “You might,” Darca said, “pledge allegiance to the Constitution.”
2) NO ABRA LA PUERTA si un agente de immigración está tocando la puerta.–That’s the first order printed on one side of a red card a few of which I carry to pass around as seems useful. On its other side the card offers a script in English: “I do not wish to speak with you, answer your questions, or sign or hand you any documents based on my 5th Amendment rights under the United States Constitution…I do not give you permission to enter my home based on my 4th Amendment rights under the United States Constitution unless you have a warrant to enter, signed by a judge or magistrate with my name on it that you slide under the door.”
3) A few mornings ago I was walking Nick south on Gardens St. 50 yards ahead I saw a pick-up truck parked at the curb, facing us. Headlights on & stayed on. When we got to its house, I knocked on the door. Children scrambling indoors, some adult shushing. A woman opened the door “Yes?” “Just wanted to let you know your truck’s lights are on.” “Oh, thank you!” “Our pleasure,” I said. Nick and I strolled off. A young man’s voice called out “Thank you!” I turned, waved & hollered him a good day.–Call the less-than-incident unremarkably sociable.Takes longer to report it than it did to live it
4) ’Unremarkably sociable’ until the scene is back-lit by that wallet-sized red card: “…my 4th Amendment rights…United States Constitution…warrant to enter…my name on it that you slide under the door.” My Gardens St. neighbor—did I mention she’s white?–felt no need to read me that script through a closed, possibly bolted door.
5) Suppose the woman behind that door had been Hispanic. Would she have so immediately opened her door, or spoken at all, in Spanish or English? I ask because that evening I attended an Inland Democratic Club meeting. Topic? The current immigration crisis. A harrowing meeting. Whether from Catholic Charities or Alianza de Willits or from a San Francisco immigration lawyer on zoom, each speaker referred to families terrified by reports and rumors of ICE raids (say at Walmart), or of rumor-stoked parents fearfully keeping children home from school, or of family members afraid that parents headed for work might be snatched up and not be able to pick up children from school or even to know where they had been taken.–More than an hour of such reports, in English, in bi-lingual Spanish-to-English, in heart-breaking Spanglish.– What can we DO? One appalling answer: Fill out paperwork designating who can “sign for” children whose parent(s) have been picked up and give it to someone you trust can help on that dreadful day.
6)What can I do? Of course, give money. Catholic Services has an office in Ukiah, 1640 S. State #H4. Alianza de Willits, 291 School St. The immigration attorney (Lilianna Gallelli) is in Ukiah on Wednesdays & checks her phone (415 777-4449) 24/7. There’s also a self-titled Rapid Response Team of volunteers forming to monitor reports and, more likely rumors, of ICE activity if it occurs. Members from around the county are on call to check for rumor or fact. (The lawyer says most reports are 2nd- & 3rd-hand.) RRTs can report that soothing news of mere rumor. Any actual arrests can be visibly video-ed. Such non-confrontational witnessing usually restrains arresting behavior and establishes a record of it. The Ukiah RRT is best reached through the Inland Mendocino Democratic Club. I’m an Independent. I’m sure you don’t have to be a member to perform this community service.
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