Into our third year

As all who read my journal know already, Portland Buddhist Peace Fellowship leads a walking meditation around the ICE Building on the second Thursday of every month: in every weather, no matter what. Today we walked in a light mist of rain.

One of the men who walked with us today said to me, "This is the most consistent demonstration of caring I have ever seen in this city.” We have begun our third year of these walks, and as we say each time, we don't expect our walks to change policy, but we know they change us. Walking silently around the immigration detention center gives us an hour of being disconnected from our devices, an hour in which we devote our mental space to witnessing the criminalization of migration being done in our name and against our will. 

In our discussion after the walk, several people were tearful and furious about the ICE raids this week that resulted in nearly 700 people being incarcerated for doing work that American citizens are unwilling to do. Many of those arrested are parents of children who were attending school, so once again children and parents are being traumatized. The mayor of Jackson, Mississippi, the city near where this raid happened, is speaking out against criminalization of immigrants who have been lured to the USA by companies that cannot attract US citizens to do the dirty work of cleaning poultry. Why, he asks, are the victims being jailed and not the corporations responsible for bringing them here? (Click on the red arrow to the left of the headline. Let me know if the sound is available outside the USA.)

P.S. There was another vigil last night, and I meant to go and document it, but I was exhausted and skipped blipping for the 7th. Sometimes I have to take a day off.