I KNOW You’re Already Following This

But I just wanted to point out that Tim Chavez has a couple more posts about Juana Villegas DeLaPaz up at his place, with more details about what happened to her while she was in custody (Here and here).

My Day

Something so terrible and humiliating happened to me today that I won’t even bring it up, except to mention it obliquely here, to remind myself in the future, so that, if there comes a time when I need to look back and wonder “When did I lose control of my life?” I will know it was today.

In other news, we went up to feed the horses some apples (and some carrots to Buddy, because he seems not to be too fond of apples) and they were way on the other side of the hill and so we were calling and calling and all they did was prick their ears up like “Is this anyone we have to pay attention to?  Oh, no it’s just those weird apes.”

So, finally, I did my best Mack impersonation, trying to sound all mean and authoritative “Come here.” and Lena looked over at me like “Oh, you poor girl, that’s really not how to get my attention at all.  Are you sure you know what you’re doing?” but she came a little closer and I yelled again and she looked back over her shoulder like “Are any of the rest of you getting a load of this?”  And then the nephew started hollering and they were all like “Well, you know, the little kid is more interesting than the far side of the hill.  Maybe we should go check him out.”

So, they came over and the kid is all “You have to feed the Queen first!  Here, let me feed the Queen first.”  And the thing that kills me is that here they are, these great big animals looking at you like “God, you’re stupid” and Lena is just so gentle and careful with the boy, just barely brushing her lips onto his palm to take the apple slice.  The boys were all “Om nom nom” like the horse equivalent of Cookie Monster and Lady ate some and then she turned her tail to us like “I have tolerated you about all I can.”

But I think Lena had a plan to gently and kindly lure the boy out into the field where she would raise him as her own and teach him to bring her apples whenever she wanted.  At least, that’s what I suspect, seeing as she was being so sweet to him.

He said, “When I come back, do you think Mack will let me ride one of the horses?”

“Maybe,” I said.

I think six going on seven is a good age.  I suppose they’re all good, but this is the first time since he was a baby that I felt like “No fair, I want to have a cool kid like this!”

An Open Letter to Robin Smith

Dear Ms. Smith,

I notice that you’ve run up against the unfortunate side of the Golden Rule–“Do unto others as you would have done unto you.”–in that people have begun to treat you how you treat others.  I’d like to say that I’m sorry about that, but I’m not. 

I’m sorry that you don’t see that that’s what’s going on–that you have, by your behavior, established a standard for what appropriate behavior around you and towards you is and that, if you find that people are treating you in an unpleasant way, it may be because of how you run around the world treating people in an unpleasant manner.

As your famous letter writer says, “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.”

Sincerely,

Aunt B.

You’d Better Hope They Don’t Vote

I’m sure most of you are familiar with the Postville raids, so I won’t go in depth into the background.  Suffice to say there was an enormous raid on a plant there and a bunch of folks were rounded up and arrested and sent to prison, after which, they will be deported. 

I’ve been following along over at The Sanctuary.  (And before I get into the meat of my post, let me just make one comment to you, America.  America, if you have to hide what you’re doing and lie about it to that many people, then what you’re doing is wrong.)

I want to highlight for you a couple of short sections of the whole post.

Postville, Iowa (pop. 2,273), where nearly half the people worked at Agriprocessors, had lost 1/3 of its population by Tuesday morning.

Businesses were empty, amid looming concerns that if the plant closed it would become a ghost town.

and

Some American parents complained that their children were traumatized by the sudden disappearance of so many of their school friends. The principal reported the same reaction in the classrooms, saying that for the children it was as if ten of their classmates had suddenly died.

Counselors were brought in. American children were having nightmares that their parents too were being taken away.

Apparently, under the Bush administration, we protect America by destroying it one town at a time.

Listen, I know that dwelling on the white folks is problematic bullshit at best, but this kind of stuff is happening because the Feds believe that the vast majority of people in America either support it or don’t care that much about it.  They believe that the people affected by these policies are leaving the country anyway, that they don’t matter to anyone outside of their families.

The reason I pulled out for you the passage I did is because I want you to see that our policies hurt Americans, too, that this is not just something that’s happening to those “criminals” who are stealing our jobs.

The federal government went in and removed a third of that town.  Businesses are empty.  The US citizens left behind are terrified that they’re going to lose the major source of income in the town and, hence, the town.  Children are devistated at the loss of their friends.  Some are having nightmares that their parents could be taken away from them.

If it comes at the cost of losing the town, just who is being served by these kinds of actions?

It’s like the feds said “Oh, Postville, you seem to have some minor arthritis in your hand, so we’re just going to hold you down and chop off your arm.  Hope you don’t bleed to death!  Good luck.”