so much dystopia

Early in the day, I committed to participation in recurring daily events in my neighborhood. I will spend my accumulated vacation hours to make up a portion of the workday that I devote to these non-work activities. Let's hope this federal occupation ends soon. I realized just how important citizen patrols are when I saw that the school district where Liam was returned had to shut down today due to bomb threat. What's worse is that ICE seems to specifically target children as a way to manipulate and intimidate adults. I know, I know, random statements on the internet are not the same as verified facts. At least there's hope locally that one prominent news organization is searching into those rumors of people being dropped by ICE alone in the woods in winter. Sadly, those rumors should be assumed as true, based on what ICE is doing even to those who are in their own facility in Minneapolis, while they grant themselves additional anonymity from accountability of their community raids.

Dystopian times.

Less than an hour before the end of my work shift, I had to quickly switch my online status to unavailable, so I could leave my desk and open the front door to my house. I heard about a dozen bullets total, with apparently more than one person firing their gun. I think it happened about 1 block away. At least one car peeled away with tires screeching. Several people were shouting. I decided, though, that it was just the traditional and familiar local violence. I actually felt relieved that I didn't think it was my federal government abducting people (citizens or not) and killing people. I closed my front door and went back to work. All of this would be easier if I had a husband at home, someone who could care for the cat and call for help if I got into trouble wandering out into the street alone to check on events.

Dystopian times.

Then I saw that it wasn't just one school asking for citizen patrols. It was all of them. All of the schools near my house are asking for citizen patrols. Do we have enough local volunteers for that quantity of work? I mean, I'm already giving up vacation time for this stuff. I've seen the video statement from someone saying that children were crying in classrooms, because they weren't sure their family would still be there when they got back home at the end of the day. I've read this long letter, apparently from this honored Superintendent. Our kids are not alright.

Dystopian times.

Then came the request from a mother asking for a patrol at home, making sure it's safe for a child to leave the house for the bus.

Jesus wept.

Late stage capitalism, fascist wannabe dictators, and all those good Christian folk who voted for this stuff (and continue to make excuses for it) are ruining this world and this life. They don't want or need our forgiveness, although this SNL skit from 2 days ago is really compelling for that effort. Personally, I'm holding out hope for Nuremberg trials someday. The religious types need to ask their God for forgiveness, though, because all versions of those holy books they read (for the most common religions in the USA) are rather explicit about what xenophobia and money-hoarding do to their souls... and their eternal accountability for it. Despite their scriptures, this is the nation they insisted we must have.

I'm pretty sure that I'm not going to tolerate the argument that "both sides can have equally valid opinions" ever again for the rest of my life, if I ever did.