Elder Activists for Social Justice
Community Conversations

3rd Thursday of each month
9:00 – 10:30 am PT / 12:00 – 1:30 pm ET

We participate together over Zoom video conferencing in a lightly-facilitated, educational and interactive conversation. We have time to deep dive into our topics using an Elder and social justice lens…always provocative, meaningful and community-oriented.

We began, three years ago, by looking at issues related to racism, white privilege, wealth inequality and Islamophobia, and have recently studied Native peoples’ history, reconciliation and the moral voice of an Elder. Each month’s topic grows from the previous month’s and the interests of those attending.

Approximately two weeks before each meeting we may post resources about our subject which include relevant readings, videos, articles, and introspective questions. Our meeting format is participatory, and everyone has a chance to interact and share. All meetings are via Zoom video conferencing. Click for instructions and access to Zoom conferencing. ALL ARE WELCOME.

Our next Community Conversation will be on
Thursday, August 15
9:00 – 10:30 am PT / 12:00 – 1:30 pm ET

Bystanders to Activists:
Ways of Being Engaged in Ensuring Social Justice

In this month’s Community Conversation we turn toward taking specific actions on developing an EASJ project to end the separation of immigrant children from their parents at the border. Your task, should you decide to accept it, is to look up and read everything you can find on recent actions taken by the US government, state and local border governments, prison facilities housing immigrants and ICE officials to change separation practices.

Also, think about how you would actually define the problem and its underlying causes. Be thorough in asking yourself “Why?” or “What does that mean?” because we’re setting this up as a serious project. We’re not just talking about or protesting the problem. We’re developing responsible action for finding and enacting positive solutions for this terrible, heartless situation. Join us!

To receive email reminders for Elder Activists for Social Justice (EASJ) meetings, monthly community conversations and workshops, please sign up here.

July Conversation:

The terrible issue of immigrant children detained at the U.S. border

At our July 18 meeting we asked What can I or We do about [the] problem [of immigrant children being separated from their parents at the border]?…. As Elders who care deeply but who are not necessarily able to get up and go to protests – although some do – determining what can one person do presents the usual question of just that – what can one person do? The power of positive action of any type was deemed to be essentially of a personal choice, but whatever it is, it’s important – whether it be writing letters to editors, senators or representatives; joining local or bigger groups and jumping on the bandwagon; donating money for aid or bail for immigrants, or writing to our mutual fund investment managers about divesting from prison complex companies like Geo Group (GEO) and CoreCivic (CXW), it’s all good.

But, perhaps the best way to help is to follow Shannon’s information she found in the New York Times on June 24, 2019: Children Shouldn’t Be Dying at the Border. Here’s How You Can Help

Donation of money (100%) to the National Bail Fund Network aids in disrupting the injustice of bail requirements in the immigration detention and mass incarceration systems. For more information contact Pilar Maria Weiss, Director of Community Justice Exchange at 202-279-1656 or go online to: www.communityjusticeexchange.org/national-bail-fund-network

So…show up…speak out…and ‘be the light’ because it all matters!

Resources:

Letter from Santa Fe Dreamers:

Dear Friends and Supporters,

We know that you have all been reading and watching the absolutely horrific news unfold about the conditions of detention on the border. We know that many of you feel scared, frustrated, angry, and powerless by the way that our government is treating vulnerable people, especially children. We are writing today with information and direction towards action but also to urge you not to feel powerless. We are always capable of making change through our collective power. Of course this requires courage, stamina, and an intelligent, disciplined, and organized theory of change. It will not be easy. We encourage you to turn away from despair and towards this place of collective power knowing that it will test you. We will be with you the whole way. Below you will find some ideas for inspiration.

Love,
Your friends at Santa Fe Dreamers Project

• Educate yourself: Here at SFDP this is always our number one piece of advice. The more you know, the fiercer you will be as an advocate and a voter. There are plenty of explosive news articles to read but here are a few that we have learned from recently: We suggested this piece in our last newsletter but if you haven’t had a chance to read it we highly suggest Dara Lind’s “The Border is in Crisis. Here’s How it Got This Bad”. The New Yorker ran an incredibly thought provoking piece written by a historian about “The Unimaginable Reality of American Concentration Camp”. Again from the New Yorker, a report from the lawyers who were recently allowed in to inspect a children’s facility in Clint, TX, “Inside a Building in Texas where Government is Holding Immigrant Children”. Another really important thing to learn about (and something that is not highlighted enough in the news) is the Migrant Protection Protocol or MPP program that has currently turned thousands of thousands of migrants around at the US border to wait in Mexico. This is an excruciatingly dangerous policy that is threatening the lives of migrant families day after day.
• Understand that this cruelty is not new and these tactics did not just begin. In fact, the Obama administration reignited the practice of family detention in 2014. One of the reasons this summer feels so out of control is because the sheer numbers of people asking for asylum are so high. The Obama and now Trump administrations’ policies attempted to deter migrants through punishment, suffering, and torture but their success was dependent on the flow of migrants actually stopping. Now that the numbers are so high, these cruel and failed policies have now turned deadly.
• Engage with politicians: Here is the thing: The Trump administration cannot be swayed with moral arguments or blame. They are doing this on purpose. One way of thinking about engaging with politicians is to remember that Congress has the power of the purse and is funding this enforcement regime. One theory is that we can defund ICE and CBP and redirect that money to agencies or NGO’s that are capable of handling a humanitarian crisis of this scope and are not killing people for political motive. This means we have to pressure progressives and democrats and republicans with a conscience to do more than just signal compassion for immigrants. We need these leaders to articulate how they are going to disempower the Trump Administration and make sure it is part of the work they are doing to secure our votes. We can and must demand courageous leadership from our Senators and Representatives and that their actions reflect our deep desire to end the state sponsored violence on the border.
• How to respond to the threat of ICE raids: Trump’s twitter threat for a massive enforcement action last week was credible and achieved its purpose of scaring the shit out of immigrant and refugee communities all over the US. While it has been “delayed”, now is a wise time for communities to get organized. The American Friends Service Committee published this resource about how allies can support their immigrant and refugee neighbors during this time. Here is the ACLU’s guide to knowing your rights during ICE encounters and we suggest exploring it. Santa Fe Dreamers will be holding walk in hours for people to help families with power of attorney and family prep plans every Friday in Santa Fe from 1-5 at our 1213 Mercantile Rd office. If you work with concerned families let them know about this resource.
• Actions happening in NM: There is a lot of talk about national protests to close concentration camps on July 12. One of the organizations that is involved with planning this is called Lights of Liberty. Their Facebook page is a source of info– although we don’t have much info yet about that organization. We are talking with folks in NM about planning more locally focused actions and as soon as we have more details we will announce it. Choose your social media of choice or keep reading our emails to stay in touch.
• Where to donate: Of course here at Santa Fe Dreamers Project we use your donations to protect vulnerable immigrants and refugees in a million different ways every day. Specifically, we need more help on the border. We just rented a much larger office space in El Paso for our expanding team there and are raising funds for a legal assistant so we can have greater impact in the borderlands. You can donate to that effort here. Write border in the note! We are grateful for any help you can give putting this donation link out there into the universe. For those of you wondering where else it might be useful to donate here is our list of several grassroots legal organizations that we know are having impact (we also know we have left many out!)
  • Al Otro Lado
  • Innovation Law Lab
  • Las Americas
  • DMRS
  • Texas Rio Grande Legal Aid
  • CARA pro bono project
  • SIFI Project
  • Catholic Charities of Southern NM
  • Florence Project
  • RAICES 
  • RMIAN
  • New Mexico Immigrant Law Center
• And finally an offer of poetry from our director, Allegra, who likes to contemplate what this particular poem is trying to teach us when thinking about the horrors we witness:

Now you know the worst
By Wendell Berry

To my granddaughters who visited the Holocaust Museum on the day of the burial of Yitzhak Rabin

Now you know the worst
we humans have to know
about ourselves, and I am sorry,

for I know that you will be afraid.
To those of our bodies given
without pity to be burned, I know

there is no answer
but loving one another,
even our enemies, and this is hard.

But remember:
when a man of war becomes a man of peace,
he gives a light, divine

though it is also human.
When a man of peace is killed
by a man of war, he gives a light.

You do not have to walk in darkness.
If you will have the courage for love,
you may walk in light. It will be

the light of those who have suffered
for peace. It will be
your light.