Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Letter from a Birmingham Jail,4/16/1963
Mike Sweeney, Volunteer Attorney for the Ulster Immigrant Defense Network is initiating a role play during a "know your rights" workshop at the Elting Memorial Library in New Paltz, NY, and it is uncomfortable. He's pretending to be an armed, masked, aggressive ICE agent banging on the door of our home, which we once considered a sanctuary. Do we, in fact, know our rights? Can we keep calm and ask for a warrant to be slipped under the door? Has the warrant been signed by a judge? We are flustered, unsure, and frightened. Now we try to imagine if we have children in our care, and do not speak English well. What shall we do? What if we are stopped on the street on the way to work, our children at school? Then what? And so on. The scenarios are endless, and horrific., all intended to help us help the vulnerable in our communities. How might we have assisted that five-year-old child recently detained?
Attendees ask lots of questions and leave the library more informed, but also worried. There is a conversation about Renee Nicole Good who was killed in Minneapolis not many days ago. What could she have done, or should she have done to avoid that catastrophe? Some sort of passive resistance, perhaps? Hands in the air, sorry to get in your way officer? Innocently, she had engaged. Though, sadly, she might have been shot anyway.
As history has shown us time and time again, nonviolent passive resistance works, and it saves lives. It takes courage and not all of us are capable of not responding physically or verbally to violence. Silent marches, silent vigils, sit-downs and strikes, though less dramatic, are models we might try to emulate, especially in a time of rampant escalation and a federal agency and executive branch out of control. Those were my thoughts during the workshop. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was whispering in my ear. It did not take long for me to find an appropriate quote from him.
For the brave citizens of Minneapolis, let us wish them well, and do what we can in our own neighborhoods to help those under siege. Even a small gesture of kindness helps. I carry around the cards I picked up the other day at the library workshop with the phone number of the Ulster Immigrant Defense Network.
If you are local and would like to learn more, or volunteer, contact: https://ulsterimmigrantdefensenetwork.org/
I write as both witness and participant in the effort to defend and strengthen American democracy and global peace with well informed small actions every day.