UNCERTAINTY

The Saturday morning after our return from Paris, I met Jenn for breakfast so we could chat about the things I missed while I was away. At some point Jenn said something about her upcoming trip to Mexico and how she was a little worried about getting back into this country. She asked me about our experience with customs and I told her how it went for us and also what I witnessed for others.

When Michael and I landed in Detroit, we had to go through customs. This involved a long line, border patrol, collecting checked bags and rechecking those bags. The line was slow moving and we got really stressed about missing our connecting flight. We saw people being rigorously questioned by border control, sometimes a person would be pulled from the line at random and held to one side. When it was our turn with border control, Michael and I walked up, they scanned our faces, asked us if we had any fruits or vegetables and then sent us on our way. They didn’t give a flip about my eight pounds of butter.

Every one of those people getting the extra questioning were people with brown skin. Every white person with zero ethnic qualities breezed right through. Our bags were not opened and riffled through. We were not pressed about how much money we’ve spent or how long we’ve been American citizens. So when Jenn asked me about getting through customs, I said “Look at your face. They will not even question you.” It’s sickening and unfair and gross. And at the time I said it, it was true. Systemic Racism has led us to believe that being white protects you. Thirty two people were murdered by ICE agents last year. Keith Porter was killed by an ICE agent on New Year’s Eve. But it is the murder of Renee Nicole Good takes away any illusion of safety. Not a single person in this country is safe from the harassment of Trump’s Thugs. ICE agents are nothing more than thugs. They are not law enforcement. They only have jurisdiction over immigration, but they continue to take lives in the name of the ‘law’.

Nothing about what they’re doing is legal.

I spent half of my week chaperoning teenagers at a thespian conference. Thousands of Missouri high school students gathered at the Union Station in St. Louis to attend various workshop and competitions. The second day of the conference, Michael and I were sitting at a table waiting for our group to check in from their morning activities and suddenly my eyes filled with tears as I watched all these kids moving about. It was Character Day and half of them were dressed up in various costumes. All I could think was how much we have failed them. Yet here they were walking around dressed as random theater characters as if we haven’t failed them. I’ve listened to them talk of their future plans and what’s next for them and I am floored by their innocence and hope. None of these kids have a look of terror to them even though the bubble we’ve placed them in is filled with holes. They can pretend they are safe and there was a time when I believed they were safe. “That would never happen here”, insert whatever terror for ‘that’, is something we can no longer say or believe. Because we know it can happen here.

Do not let them change a part of your souls that sees a fellow human being when you look at your neighbor. - Brandon Johnson, Mayor of Chicago

We cannot afford to stand by silently while this administration continues to rip families apart and murder innocent people. If you see ICE detaining people in your community, REPORT it. You are legally allowed to film ICE agents. Call out to those being deported and remind them of their rights to remain silent and that they don’t have to sign anything. If ICE are detaining someone ask for a signed official warrant with the right name and date. Our role is to document; take note of the size, activity, location, unit and time of the event. If you can get family contact information from the person being deported, do so and then contact that family. These are small acts, but we all know about snowballs.

We owe it to those kids to fill the holes in their bubble so they can truly feel safe.

THE HANDMAID'S ANXIETY

Things found at an OBGYN exam room.

5 Likes, 1 Comments - Cindy Maddera (@elephant_soap) on Instagram: "Things found at an OBGYN exam room."

I've been watching the Handmaid's Tale on Hulu and during each episode, I tell myself that I'm not going to watch any more of it. Each time I watch an episode, a ball of anxiety starts growing in the pit of my belly. It is all too plausible. Sure there are many out there who would say that the plausibility of the show is an overly dramatic statement. I will admit that Margaret Atwood's dystopian (near) future is dramatic and easy to look at and say "There's no way our society would come to that." But it is not the depiction of things to come that causes the anxiety. It is the depiction of how this dystopian future came to be that jolts me the most. 

It starts out small and quiet, women's rights slowely and quietly stolen in the night. You start to see an attitude shift in how some view independent women. There is a vileness and anger in their attitude. A woman walking down a sidewalk on her own elicits slurs. Whores. Sluts. It is an anger I recognize and have witnessed very recently, in the year leading up to the election. My memory flashes to that man in the German deli that Michael and I had run in with. I can still see his face, his cheeks flushed pink with his anger. He is part of a group of men who support this current administration because they believe their religion and white skin entitles them to something more than to those different from them. 

The women show up to work one morning only to be told to go home. A law banning women from working, owning property or money was passed in the night. You'd like to think that things would never come this far here, but right now there are twelve senators deciding the fate for our health care and not a one of them is a woman. The latest health care reform includes rape and pregnancy on the pre-existing condition list that Insurance companies do not have to cover or can charge you more to cover. It takes away free birth control, which does more than prevent pregnancy. For many women who use it, birth control lessens the sometimes debilitating symptoms of menstruation. There is a large portion of Americans who voted for Trump for one specific reason. They believe he will make abortions illegal. They care about nothing else like environment, education, health care. The most important issue to them is to take away a woman's right to choose what she does with her body. 

It is not just the misogyny that bothers me. This fictitious society hangs people for being homosexual. They hang people of religions other than their own. Catholic priests. Jews. Muslims. You see them hanging from ropes. Hang any one different. This administration threatens to appeal gay marriage laws and some states have started passing legislature that would make it impossible for a gay couple to adopt and care for a child. Trump campaigned on a promise to ban Muslims and to refuse refugees. He campaigned on promises of hate and discrimination toward people who are different and a large portion of this country agreed with this and said "yes! He is the best choice for our country!" So it's not so hard for me to see how it easy would be for our society to turn into something similar as to the one represented in the Handmaid's Tale. 

The Handmaid's Tale is a cautionary story of how dangerous it is not vote, to not pay attention. It is a reminder that we can be better and it is a reminder to have hope for better. It is a reminder to call your senators, to flood their office with letters and phone calls, urging them not accept a health care reform bill that makes insurance impossible for those with pre-existing conditions. It is cautionary tale that reminds us to NEVER stop fighting against misogyny, racism, homophobia and discrimination.