Belonging

Belonging.

I’ve been thinking more about belonging to each other, to God, to ourselves. There is a debate in America about who belongs. It’s not worded like that. It’s worded as Black Lives Matter or “immigrants go home.” How we answer the questions, “who belongs” or “who counts as an American” underlies how we will see others. And how we see others informs our answer to those questions. It’s a vicious circle. The idea that there are some who do not belong is behind the president’s executive order to not count immigrants here without papers in the census. He doesn’t think anyone but white people should belong. Ideally, only white men. However, that is an illegal order and has already been addressed by the Supreme Court. The constitution says “persons” not “citizens.”

A bigger demonstration that some Republicans think that some people don’t count as Americans is Acting DHS Secretary Wolf’s sending unmarked police to Portland and kidnapping citizens as they walk down the street. That may sound overly dramatic, but these agents didn’t actually arrest anyone. They held them for a few hours and let them go. This is kidnapping. This is a violation of our 1^st amendment rights to protest peacefully. It’s a violation of our 4^th amendment rights to not be searched or seized willy-nilly. It is dangerous and illegal and the secretary is doubling down.

This is not only kidnapping; it is also terrorism. It is how many immigrants and people of color have been living in this country since it’s inception. It’s time to stop the government’s war against its own citizens. First, we have Black people killed with impunity. Then we have immigrant families separated and thrown into unsanitary and overcrowded cages. Now, we have secret police, who are terrorizing people in the name of protecting property. That’s right, property is more important to these people than actual people. Or they’re just drunk with power. Or both.

Martin Niemoller’s poem, “First They Came …“ is a confession, a lament that he did not speak up sooner when Hitler began his own reign of terror. It’s a warning to us of what is to come if we just sit back and let this $#!t happen. Here’s an update for 2020:

First they came for the Black people, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a Black person.

Then they came for the immigrants, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not an immigrant.

Then they came for the protestors demanding justice, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a protestor.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Who will speak for you? Who will speak out against this illegal, inhumane, and immoral war against all of us? I will, and I hope you’ll join me. It’s time to choose which side we want to be on. The side which treats people differently depending on their ideology or color of their skin, or the side that recognizes we all belong in America.

We belong to each other.

Let’s work to make that a reality.

B