Yes. Stay and fight the good fight. You want to be a part of the changes you want to see made. I totally understand the impulse to move somewhere else while it seems like your country is burning, but unless my family's lives are directly in danger, I'm staying. That being said, I'm white and pretty privileged, so my calculus may be different than yours.
My desire to live elsewhere goes back to the Clinton administration. The only reason it didn't happen yet is I had to put my career on hold to transition. If we get President Harris or President Warren and we turn things around, I still want to live elsewhere. I think I just worry that at some point I'll think that the US is okay when it isn't.
You don't need to be from another country to run into this abusive behavior by officials with badges and guns. In my little paradise town of Santa Barbara, a few years back some of my employees were arrested and kept in jail for days--in one case for weeks--because they were "gang affiliated". The affiliation? In two cases, they went to high-school (several years before) with young men who were arrested and accused of being gang members. That's all it took to be a "gang associate"--one ID of being connected somehow with someone who was arrested and convicted of a "gang-related crime". And you know how that works, right? Arrest someone of a crime, send in the public defender and the prosecutor and offer a plea under the threat of serious jail time. They plea to a crime, the kid does a couple of weeks at county jail, and it goes on the books as "gang-related", and now you're on the ganger list, and anyone you talk to or have lunch with or take a drive with is now associated with a known gang member. I once asked a local cop, who also happened to be a friend, if since these kids were my employees if I was now a "gang associate". Of course not, he said. Maybe it was my skin color and my age? Funny that.
Once an employee gave a ride to an old friend, was pulled over, the friend was identified as a "known gang member" (see above) and both were arrested for being suspected gang members carrying a deadly weapon. The "deadly weapon", by the way, was a tire iron found in the trunk of the car next to the spare tire. They tried to get my employee to plead to a crime, of course.
Two of my employees were pulled out of their car and arrested while buying food at midnight at the drive-up window at the local Jack In The Box. Their crime? Being 'suspected gang members' and suspicion of robbery (an unsolved case they later dropped after the kids spent the weekend in jail.)
It's been a few years and I hear things are better now, but who knows? The rich folks get nervous when a young brownish man is seen without a rake or leaf blower, and demand the local police DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE CRIME IN THIS TOWN!
When the aliens make me king...These people - ICE? Border Patrol? - are clearly:1. Devoid of compassion.2. Ineffective in their alleged job.3. Incapable of taking reasonable care of children.
They need to be removed from the presence of their own children. The kids wouldn't be removed from their families, no. That is not good for children, nor society at large, and we understand how destructive it is. But these abusive parents need to be moved someplace where kids are safe from them. Perhaps repairing roads in remote locations, and leave their kids with the remaining spouse, or if necessary, with other family members./daydream
Sigh. I'll fight for the election of the Democratic candidate, but MoscowMitch has made a fair election impossible. Really, when a dozen states - including blue ones - show 98% for Trump and no paper trail, what will we do? Demand a do-over?
This is where wingnut trolls will say it’s all okay because when American parents are convicted of a crime and sent to jail, they are “separated” from their children. As if that’s at all the same as locking children in concentration camps under unsanitary conditions.
I have a child in a targeted group and I beg him daily to get a passport while his identification is still legal. But I don’t honestly think we’re there yet.
That being said, leaving doesn’t make you a quitter nor a coward. It makes you fortunate! You have an opportunity of which you’ve dreamed!
Staying doesn’t make you anything, either. What makes you isn’t determined by where you are, but what you do within your environment. You’ll never be a “good German,” I feel confident in saying.
I would vote for “stay while making more connections & saving up some capital for the move.” But I know you’ll make the right choice for you because you’re agonizing over the “right” things.
Do you have a link handy? Or a rough time-frame, so I can look through the archives?
Pointing out that they take it doesn't play well.
Pointing out that those other people take it plays very well indeed.
You know who ELSE criminalized innocent people?
Yes. Stay and fight the good fight. You want to be a part of the changes you want to see made. I totally understand the impulse to move somewhere else while it seems like your country is burning, but unless my family's lives are directly in danger, I'm staying. That being said, I'm white and pretty privileged, so my calculus may be different than yours.
My desire to live elsewhere goes back to the Clinton administration. The only reason it didn't happen yet is I had to put my career on hold to transition. If we get President Harris or President Warren and we turn things around, I still want to live elsewhere. I think I just worry that at some point I'll think that the US is okay when it isn't.
You don't need to be from another country to run into this abusive behavior by officials with badges and guns. In my little paradise town of Santa Barbara, a few years back some of my employees were arrested and kept in jail for days--in one case for weeks--because they were "gang affiliated". The affiliation? In two cases, they went to high-school (several years before) with young men who were arrested and accused of being gang members. That's all it took to be a "gang associate"--one ID of being connected somehow with someone who was arrested and convicted of a "gang-related crime". And you know how that works, right? Arrest someone of a crime, send in the public defender and the prosecutor and offer a plea under the threat of serious jail time. They plea to a crime, the kid does a couple of weeks at county jail, and it goes on the books as "gang-related", and now you're on the ganger list, and anyone you talk to or have lunch with or take a drive with is now associated with a known gang member. I once asked a local cop, who also happened to be a friend, if since these kids were my employees if I was now a "gang associate". Of course not, he said. Maybe it was my skin color and my age? Funny that.
Once an employee gave a ride to an old friend, was pulled over, the friend was identified as a "known gang member" (see above) and both were arrested for being suspected gang members carrying a deadly weapon. The "deadly weapon", by the way, was a tire iron found in the trunk of the car next to the spare tire. They tried to get my employee to plead to a crime, of course.
Two of my employees were pulled out of their car and arrested while buying food at midnight at the drive-up window at the local Jack In The Box. Their crime? Being 'suspected gang members' and suspicion of robbery (an unsolved case they later dropped after the kids spent the weekend in jail.)
It's been a few years and I hear things are better now, but who knows? The rich folks get nervous when a young brownish man is seen without a rake or leaf blower, and demand the local police DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE CRIME IN THIS TOWN!
Sorry. That turned into a bit of a rant, because it still pisses me off.
When the aliens make me king...These people - ICE? Border Patrol? - are clearly:1. Devoid of compassion.2. Ineffective in their alleged job.3. Incapable of taking reasonable care of children.
They need to be removed from the presence of their own children. The kids wouldn't be removed from their families, no. That is not good for children, nor society at large, and we understand how destructive it is. But these abusive parents need to be moved someplace where kids are safe from them. Perhaps repairing roads in remote locations, and leave their kids with the remaining spouse, or if necessary, with other family members./daydream
Sigh. I'll fight for the election of the Democratic candidate, but MoscowMitch has made a fair election impossible. Really, when a dozen states - including blue ones - show 98% for Trump and no paper trail, what will we do? Demand a do-over?
Will watch at home; thanks!
Oy.
Oh, for fuck's sake!
When 3-year-olds are deemed threats to national security....
This is where wingnut trolls will say it’s all okay because when American parents are convicted of a crime and sent to jail, they are “separated” from their children. As if that’s at all the same as locking children in concentration camps under unsanitary conditions.
Once again: the cruelty is the point.
I have a child in a targeted group and I beg him daily to get a passport while his identification is still legal. But I don’t honestly think we’re there yet.
That being said, leaving doesn’t make you a quitter nor a coward. It makes you fortunate! You have an opportunity of which you’ve dreamed!
Staying doesn’t make you anything, either. What makes you isn’t determined by where you are, but what you do within your environment. You’ll never be a “good German,” I feel confident in saying.
I would vote for “stay while making more connections & saving up some capital for the move.” But I know you’ll make the right choice for you because you’re agonizing over the “right” things.
Love,A stranger on the Internet
“Ok ya Crazy Canuck hand over the maple syrup and nobody gets hurt!”
Wow mad respect for Kimmel! Mandatory watching for every fucking MAGGAT and evil Santa needs to be trampled by reindeer. Ya w votes whatevs...