The neighborhood of my early childhood, which I honored with Every One Has a Different Story , was one characterized by an innocence of things outside the neighborhood. Every family had their own stories, some harder than others.
On the evening of July 4, as we sat on our front porch in the dark listening to the sounds of fireworks and watching them decorate the sky, I thought of that time and that kind of neighborhood. The neighborhood where I live now is not a rowhouse neighborhood like the one in which I was a child. But it has a similar simplicity. It’s not fancy. There are families of all kinds.
And our neighborhood has families who enjoy the all-American pastime of setting off fireworks on the fourth of July. There is an innocence to this. (Despite the inevitable accident to someone who handles the explosives wrong, and the terror inflicted on pets and birds.)
Boom!
As I sat in the dark, enjoying the light show, I could not keep from thinking about the other things I had witnessed this week that could not in any way be described as innocent.
In the children’s section of our local library, I meet with a young woman who I am working with through our local adult literacy program. While we are there, the librarians have cartons of milk and fruit and some packaged baked snacks for kids who show up — part of our County’s program to provide breakfasts for children when school is not in session. The librarians do this with cheerful kindness, making it a nice experience for the families.
When I asked a librarian about the funding for this program, she said it’s through the County, backed by USDA money. The very kind of programs just slashed in the tax bill that our elected leaders just passed.
Boom
And I talked to my adult student, who is an American citizen married to an American citizen, both Hispanic, about needing to carry her birth certificate with her at all times, fearful of raids that are now increasing in Central Florida.
Boom.
Am I paranoid? I don’t think so.
The new law will pour $170.7 billion into immigration enforcement—more than the military budgets of all but fifteen countries. The law provides $51.6 billion to build a wall on the border, more than three times what Trump spent on the wall in his first term. It provides $45 billion for detention facilities for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an increase of 265% in ICE’s annual detention budget. It provides $29.9 billion for ICE enforcement, a threefold increase in ICE’s annual budget.
According to Aaron Reichlin-Melnick of the American Immigration Council, the law gives ICE more funding than the Federal Bureau of Investigations; Drug Enforcement Administration; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; U.S. Marshals Service; and Bureau of Prisons combined. In fact, Reichlin-Melnick told Democracy Now!, the law will make ICE the largest federal law enforcement agency “in the history of the nation.” (Italicized text copied from July 6 report from Heather Cox Richardson, American historian)
Boom
In Florida, our governor is bragging about our new detention center in the Everglade, which they have laughingly called Alligator Alcatraz, as if the cute alliteration can disguise that it is a state-funded internment Camp. This week it received its first 500 detainee. Who are they? Brought there on what charges? Those facts so far are not forthcoming. Also still hidden are facts behind the funding and state contracting of this huge facility created start-to-finish in eight weeks.
Boom
So. Why write about this in my art blog?
First, I just need to share that I’ve been having a hard time lately feeling spontaneous and creative. I am working in my studio largely as an act of will. It’s like pushing through a dark cloud.
And because artists, I believe, have the ability to help people see things they otherwise would not see. Art can make people think about things they otherwise not think about. To feel things they otherwise would not feel.
We each choose our subject matter. But we should not forget how important this job is. Even now. Especially now.
I send my best wishes to all.
And one final thought… While I work at being understanding, compassionate, striving toward the good and thoughtful. . . sometimes I just GET ANGRY! This is a quilt that allowed me to do that: “Interchangeable.”
