“There is no federal law mandating children and parents be separated at the border.”
On June 30, 2018 in about 750 locations across all 50 states, people marched in the streets in protest of the Trump Administration’s Regime’s “zero tolerance” approach anyone entering the US illegally. Anyone crossing the border without documentation is assumed criminal, and the Regime exercises the right to separate criminals parents from their children.
And in protest of separation of families seeking sanctuary, Viva & Friends hit the street at 1 PM, June 30 at 517 E. Wisconsin Street, Milwaukee, WI.
June 30, 2018 – Milwaukee, WI Feet in the street.
Speak up and speak out for the vulnerable parents and children seeking sanctuary here.
And oh, the irony! In this country of separation of church and state, the very white, very right Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, IIIÂ quotes the Bible to justify the separation of criminals parents from their children.
Wash his mouth out with some very white, so very-right-it-floats Ivory soap.
Piling on, Regime lying bullhorn Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders followed up with “It is very biblical to enforce the law.”
Pass the bar. Wash her mouth out too. And Romans 13? Please. Just. Full stop. Stop.
The best statement I’ve tripped across on the separation of church and state:
Dear people citing The Bible: It’s a cool book with some wonderful passages but it also has ghost sex & giants & super babies & demons. It’s why we don’t make laws based on Game of Thrones, My Little Pony or Legend of Zelda.
15 June 2018 2:02 AM. Tweet. @pattonoswalt
ICE has been active since 2003. During the Obama Administration, undocumented immigrants who were also documented criminals were targeted for deportation. Currently, non-criminal deportations are up and children are left to fend for themselves.
Always be prepared. A small portable all-purpose protest sign:
Small all-purpose Trump protest sign, (human hand shown for scale).
In this current environment, you never know when an impromptu protest opportunity might present itself.
During the 1.5 hours we were perched on the sidewalk across Wisconsin Avenue looking at the Federal Building (Senator Ron Johnson’s local office), we saw people offering water bottles, bags of ice cubes — Mr Viva, when offered some said, “no ICE.” And the best share for me? A woman spritzed my neck with cool tap water on request. Thank you forward-thinker with a spray water bottle in 90+F° weather.
Goals: sunglasses that reclaim the red, white, and blue and continue to make a ruckus!
And the Whaddabouters.
What about the 89,000 children separated from their immigrant parents at the US border during the Obama administration? Why didn’t anyone protest then?
I knew of, but did not protest issues during the Obama administration. The GOP obstruction seemed enough. But fact-checking at Snopes.com:
“In other words, the figure of 89,000 refers specifically to the number of children who arrived in the United States alone between October 2013 and January 2016 and were placed with sponsors through the country. It does not refer to children whom United States border agencies separated from their families, which is the case with Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy. Â
And in 2014 when faced with an influx of unaccompanied children from Central America:
“The Obama administration faced a surge of unaccompanied children from Central America trying to cross the border in 2014, Cecilia Muñoz, director of the Obama administration’s Domestic Policy Council, told the New York Times this month that a multi-agency team was considering “every possible idea” at the time, including separating families. “I do remember looking at each other like, ‘We’re not going to do this, are we?’ We spend five minutes thinking it through and concluded that it was a bad idea,” the Times quoted Muñoz saying. “The morality of it was clear — that’s not who we are.”
My bold, I: “ … that’s not who we are.”
My bold, II “ … spend five minutes thinking it through … ”
I miss the Obama administration.
The language we use to describe others is important in how we frame situations. Lately it seems “immigrant” is synonymous with “criminal.” If we are to believe Prescedense Cheeto, anyone crossing into the US at the southern border is an MS-13 gang member, a criminal, a bad hombre. They’ve only come to defraud, commit crimes, terrorize.
It is easier to take the children away from those we typecast as criminals than it is to separate a child from a parent desperate for a better way of life. But if we change the story and look on those at our borders as human beings in need of sanctuary, look at them as persons wanting to join us and wanting to contribute to this great melting pot, the words we use change.
Immigrants are future citizens.
Keep Families Together – My protest t-shirt back.
For the second year, Wisconsin Avenue in downtown Milwaukee is home to Sculpture Milwaukee (and there’s an app for that) — a free, outdoor sculpture tour. It is fabulous!
And so it was that near our position of protest was Sanford Biggers “Bam”:
Foreground: Sandford Biggers “Bam;” Background: Keep Families Together, June 30, 2018 Milwaukee, WI
Protest through the ages. Protesting so many ways. The beat goes on.
Bam! There it is.
Life is rich.
Taking one’s feet to the street means hitting the water in a deep-dive on issues and reading enough to know who’s who. Read beyond the catchy, incendiary, click-bait titles. An example? At about 1:45 PM an organized group chanted their way down Wisconsin Avenue from the West toward the location of the Keep Families Together rally at 517 E. Wisconsin.
What!? Who are these people? Friend? Foe? For a moment I thought a rumble¹ might be afoot. But they came in peace. Allies.
SEIU Local 1 (Service Employees International Union).
Here is a boss mom who carried the peachy masterpiece her daughter created. (Her daughter was unable to attend.)
Proving once again, Moms represent!
June 30, 2018 – Keep Families Together Rally, Milwaukee, WI — Impeach hate!’
I love this poster. Bright, clever, simple, to the point.
The hate must go.
If you spend too much time reading the news, the world is falling apart and Jehovah’s Witnesses continue to ring the doorbell and remind me of that more than they really should. And so I was delighted to learn of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’ primary win Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Confessions. I knew squat.point.naught.nothing about Ocasio-Cortez until she won in a HUGE upset against I wasn’t aware of him before either Joe Crowley in New York’s 14th Congressional District. And then Sean Hannity advertising her platform sealed the deal! I can get behind all that and as an early adopter, I figure if Ms. Ocasio-Cortez is 28, in 12 years she’ll have enough experience to run for President. And so, you saw it here. This was my little plug in the protest for the future:
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 2032!
And this should give you good cheer, Ann! Here is another little political factoid I stumbled across:
If Democrats take the House back in November, their current ranking member of the Financial Services Committee becomes the chair of the committee, and has the power to subpoena Trump’s bank records.
That member is Maxine Waters. Vote.
30 June 2018 7:47 PM. Tweet. @MrFilmkritik
My bold. Be still my soul.
Vote.
¹ Rumble (verb, informal): take part in a street fight between gangs or large groups
And as I typed ‘rumble,’ a passing thought was ” … don’t let me be so old that this is an archaic term …” Whew! not yet.
Ya nailed it again Viva. Thanks for once again writing me off the ledge. Stepping into the game! W.
Sent from my iPhone
>
Oh! I so.appreciate your support, readership, and participation!!!
LOVE the small all-purpose portable protest sign! VOTE and keep on calling our representatives. Thanks for being a voice of reason, Viva!