January 16 Friday roundup

In this week’s podcast episode, I talk about the protests ongoing nationwide, the centrist fallacy we are seeing so often, and how to find each other in the void. You can watch the episode on YouTube or listen to it via Apple, Spotify, and elsewhere. If you’d like to check out the linked material or the written post from Tuesday, you can read it here.

This will be a short post tonight, due to the day being swallowed up by the untimely loss of a beloved family pet. But in the midst of so much grimness in the world, I wanted to just list a few of the hopeful developments that happened this week.

I’m not trying to paper over any horrors here—a lot of terrible things are underway at the moment. But I trust most readers paying attention have no trouble finding grim tidings these days. So here are some of the events you might have missed.

Dan Sinker is using a 3-D printer to build whistles on demand for those using them to help defend communities against ICE. The people he’s partnered with have shipped more than 50,000 whistles so far in January.

Jack Jenkins of the Religion News Service reports that the Rt. Rev. Robert Hirschfeld, the Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire, spoke at a vigil for Renee Good this week, with a startling commitment to protect the vulnerable:

“I have told the clergy of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire…” he said. “I’ve asked them to get their affairs in order, to make sure they have their wills written. Because it may be that now is no longer the time for statements, but for us — with our bodies — to stand between the powers of this world and the most vulnerable.”

According to Minnesota Public Radio, a Minneapolis church has delivered more than 12,000 boxes of groceries to families in hiding.

The Washington Post reported that El Paso County’s Office of the Medical Examiner indicated this week that it was likely to classify a recent death at Camp East Montana, a tent city at the Fort Bliss military base in Texas, as a homicide. Geraldo Lunas Campos apparently died there at the hands of facility guards.

The death itself is a tragedy. Yet in the wake of this loss, it’s important that actual investigation of these senseless murders in ICE detention remains possible. The public knowing what’s happening in ICE facilities will be key to ending this kind of detention.

The new House of Delegates in Virginia moved along its promised agenda on day 1 by passing four constitutional amendments. One protects abortion rights, a second repeals the same-sex marriage ban, a third allows for mid-decade redistricting, and the last will expand voting rights restoration. This is a critical stage in the overall process, with voters making the final decision on each item via referendum. 

Meanwhile, incoming Virginia governor Abigail Spanberger, the night before her inauguration, is clearing house at the University of Virginia, asking five members of the board who were appointed by Republican governor Glenn Youngkin and have destabilized the university tremendously, to resign.

According to my friend Jonathan Slaght, fourth graders at an elementary school in Richfield, Minnesota, near Minneapolis “spent the week building walls of snow at recess to protect their classmates from ICE.” It’s horrific that children are seeing this kind of vile targeting of their friends’ families. But it’s a good reminder that anytime someone claims what’s going on is normal, we can point out that eight-year-olds recognize the monstrousness of the attempts at ethnic cleansing now underway.

In Detroit, Ford autoworker TJ Sabula called Donald Trump a “pedophile protector” during his walkthrough of the facility—which seems both accurate and funny. The president flipped him off, and the worker was reportedly suspended. But his union appears now to be backing him, and Gofundmes set up to support him have raised $800,000 so far (though they have since been paused).

As I was writing this post, U.S. District Judge Kate Menendez ruled that ICE had repeatedly retaliated against peaceful protesters in unconstitutional ways in Minneapolis—and put in place a temporary restraining order barring agents involved in Minnesota's "Operation Metro Surge" from retaliating against protestors, using pepper spray against or arresting peaceful protesters, and stopping vehicles without suspicion of obstruction.

The spirit that judges, clergy, and everyday people have shown in standing up to the hatred and violence the government is unleashing coast to coast in the U.S. is powerful, and it is growing. In the end, I believe that we the people will determine how this all ends.

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