Last night attended Lights for Liberty with my parents and about 12 fellow church members. We assembled for snacks and poster making and had a loose itinerary of where to attend an event at Saltwater Unitarian Church http://saltwaterchurch.org/ in Des Moines in conjunction with the national Lights for Liberty event. We encountered gracious hosts, convenient rest rooms and stood side by side with lit candles, voices raised in song and prayer to right the wrongs of this administration's policies.
We listened to people who are watchers and reporters who have spent time in a detention camp in Florida - just validating that the children there are seen and cared for by waving to them from a stepladder over a fence at a distance imposed by government regulations - which change daily.
#Don'tLookAway from refugee mistreatment.
We heard from a young woman who fled from Nicaragua without her child for her own safety - the mother's and the child's.
We heard from a group AidNW www.aidnw.org that mans (persons) a donated RV to receive newly released detainees in the warehouse district of Tacoma with literally only the clothes on their backs that they have been wearing for up to 6 weeks without benefit of shower.
This group has an Amazon wish list, takes donations and would prefer several small to one large donation as they exist purely on donations. Volunteers are on site from 2-7pm daily to welcome, provide care, compassion, food and clean clothing and toiletries, opportunity to communicate with family, make plans for their transition to freedom and whatever else is needed. TO VALIDATE that these people MATTER and that the policy of our government is NOT the will of our citizens.
Otherwise, these detainees would be released in an area of Tacoma that is bleak, unpopulated and without resources nearby and without a clue of what their next steps should be. AidNW is working in cooperation with Tacoma Police and ICE to exist and is dedicated to peacefully coexisting in the area they serve to KEEP serving for as long as they are permitted.
AidNW serves ALL detainees being released - not just those from Latin America and Mexico as all refugees and asylum seekers are being detained prior to being allowed to start legal processing to remain in the country.
Would you go to a country by choice to be detained for an undisclosed amount of time before being permitted to apply for asylum if you did not have to?
Could you sleep with the lights on among 1200 other unwashed persons?
Could you relieve your biological needs in those conditions?
Could you manage without human contact of those you love? No communication?
We have no clue what kind of situation made the decision necessary and cannot in good conscious judge until we've walked 800 miles, 120 days and countless losses in their shoes.
We HAD MONTHS to prepare a program and policy to receive the caravan of people headed to our borders. And THIS is the best we could do? It's abhorrent conditions are Making America Ghastly Again in the eyes of the rest of the world. This is not greatness, this is not even remotely appropriate. This needs to end.
Ever feel like an organization was put on your radar for a reason? I'm feeling compelled to get involved and support the efforts of AidNW in case that is not apparent. I explored the location today, plan to deliver non perishable food snacks later this week and if I still feel so moved, to take steps toward volunteering in the RV as appropriate.
Many of us feel that there is nothing we can do about the current refugee detainment crisis.
I may not be able to solve the problem everywhere on my own with one action, but collectively, together, my ONE action may be THE one action that makes a difference in one LIFE.
There is no way I can NOT do this.
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