Dear America: Do You Like What We’ve Become?

I just want to talk about what America has become, these past few months.

I have a friend who is, most definitely, an American. She was born here in the United States of America, to citizen parents. She is Caucasian and looks Caucasian, grew up in Michigan and has a Michigan accent. She has several children. They are natural born citizens, but they are Latin. They have dark brown eyes and black hair, and have been to Mexico and lived there for a bit, and speak Spanish as fluently as English. She lives in a big city, where ICE has been prowling daily since Trump’s inauguration.  You can imagine how she feels right now.

Her children are citizens, but does that matter? Because ICE has swept up citizens.

One of her sons is autistic, at a tricky place on the spectrum. What if, one day while they’re leaving their apartment building, she says “vamanos!” and the wrong person sees, and there’s a misunderstanding? Imagine what could happen to them.

Do you like living in an America where citizens are afraid for their citizen children?

I’m not asking whether you want immigration laws enforced or whether you’re afraid of South American gangs. I’m just talking about this: American citizens living in America, doing nothing illegal, who are terrified that their children might get swept off the street by men in masks. Do you want them to be terrified?

If so, why do you want it? Because their children are brown and bilingual? What does that say about you?  Or, do you want it for another reason?

Let’s talk about the fact that others, not citizens, have been abiding by the law as best they can, and have gotten caught up in these raids as well. People who were showing up at their court date as the law required, have been punished for showing up. They’ve been arrested by men in masks who don’t identify themselves and shoved in the backs of trucks. Is that what you want?

I’m not asking you if you like law and order and want to get rid of “illegals.” We can talk about that later.  I’m talking about law-abiding immigrants being arrested, for the crime of obeying the law. Do you like that? If so, why?

Now, let’s talk about Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

Let’s talk about the fact that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was in America legally and was kidnapped to an El Salvadoran prison by mistake. Everyone agrees that he was taken there by mistake. The government admitted as much. He was trapped in that hell hole for two and a half months, and only now has he been brought back to America to be charged with a crime. I’m not saying that gangsters shouldn’t be punished. I’m not saying that Kilmar isn’t a gangster; I don’t know whether he is or not. I’m just asking you if you like the fact that a man can be forced onto a plane to a prison in a foreign country, and not see his wife or his disabled son for weeks, when he has not been convicted of any crime at all. Do you like that?

Why?

Now, let’s talk about Los Angeles.

And I know this situation is changing hourly, so I’ll say that I’m writing this post at one o’clock on Sunday morning. By the time you read this, it may all be outdated.

Let’s talk about the fact that the LAPD  said the protests against the ICE raids happening in Los Angeles on Saturday were peaceful, and the governor of California has said that the National Guard would further inflame a tense situation. But ICE deployed so much tear gas that local businesses had to close, and bystanders reported that ICE agents hit some protesters with their car— and the president is sending the National Guard in anyway.  As I’m writing this just now, no one seems quite sure which law President Trump is invoking to send the National Guard to Los Angeles, nor are we sure that he’s acting lawfully at all. He might be. But we have no reason to expect that he’ll act lawfully, because we all know he doesn’t care about the law, only about getting his way. And the Secretary of Defense has threatened to send in the Marines, which is preposterous, but there’s no reason to think he wouldn’t do it. Do you like that?

I’m not asking you if you want to crack down harshly on illegal immigration in California. We can talk about that later, and I don’t think we’ll see eye to eye. But for now, I’m asking if you like that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is allowed to lob cannisters of tear gas in a civilian neighborhood. I’m asking if you like the government deploying the military like this. I’m asking if you like having a president and a secretary of defense who enjoy shows of military bravado far more than they enjoy rules and regulations. Do you like it?

Do you just not care if other people are hurt, as long as the hurt never trickles down to you?

Do you realize that it will, eventually, hurt you?

I’m not going to quote you that poem about “first they came for the such-and-such” because we’re far beyond that point now. Do you like that?

However bad our country was before, do you like living in a country which is governed by an authoritarian thug, instead of by the rule of law?

Why?