Status Offender

A “status offender” is someone who has not committed a crime but is nonetheless subject to arrest because of his or her “status.”  Immigrants without papers have not done anything really wrong except to be here in the U.S. without the proper papers.  They may be law abiding, have a job, be raising a family, but they lack the crucial legal documents.

After Trump was elected I discussed my fears with a number of members of the Executive Board of the Palmerton Area Historical Society.  They told me I was being paranoid.  They said that the Trump administration would not be undertaking mass deportations.  It would’t happen.

Guess what.  ICE agents have upped the number of raids.  We are now deporting thousands each month.  The agents are not targeting rapists or “bad guys;” they are targeting ordinary men and women who “don’t have papers.”  A New York Times reporter received permission to ride along on a raid in California.  The ICE agents came at dawn, handcuffed the father (why the handcuffs; he had a family and his boys were American citizens not going anywhere), and took him to a detention center.  No time to pack, no time to notify the employer.

Why are we doing this?  Is an American citizen about to take over this man’s job?  Does this make us better as a country?

Please do not comment saying this guy was here illegally and should be thrown out of our country.  On so many levels–Christian theology, American traditions, empathy for the family–this is wrong, it is evil, and I never thought I would be a citizen of a country that would do this kind of thing.  It makes me sick.

America read

The title above, as you may have noticed, is in the past tense.  When I first started teaching, students would read between classes.  You’d see them sitting on benches on campus reading.  In the last few years I taught this had changed.  Instead of reading they were looking at or talking on their phones.

I know that old people are always decrying how bad things are now compared to the past, but I do think people in the past were more serious about their reading.  I recently came across a compilation of stories, articles, and poems from Good Housekeeping Magazine.  This was a so-called “women’s magazine” which started publishing in 1885.  The compilation was put together in 1960.  It included the following authors:  Sara Teasdale, Amy Lowell, W. Somerset Maugham, Ring Lardner, Gertrude Atherton, Sinclair Lewis, Ogden Nash, Thomas Mann, James Thurber, Edna St. Vincent Millay, John Cheever, Evelyn Waugh, Shirley Jackson, Daphne du Maurier, and so many many more.

If you think that list is impressive, you should see the one from a similar compilation of 1956 from the Ladies’ Home Journal.

Both magazines are still published, although the Ladies’ Home Journal is now a quarterly.  While I don’t know for sure, I doubt if either one is up to earlier standards.

(I really do think many things were better in the past.  When I was born, FDR was president.  The first Republican president I knew was Ike.  Now we have Trump.  Case closed.)

Bikers for Trump

Last year the U.S. government fined Harley-Davidson $15 million for selling devices that could shut down the emissions controls on motorcycles.  Part of that fine would go toward reducing pollution from wood-burning stoves.  This was routine.  For example, BP was asked to pay billions for coastal restoration after the Gulf oil spill.

Now Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that $3 billion of the Harley-Davidson fine need not be paid.  

I assume that this was a reward for bikers supporting Trump.  Bikers, I believe, see themselves as American individualists.  Free spirits.  No need to wear helmets.  Tough guys.  Tattoos that say “Mother” on one arm and “Born to Lose” on the other.  

Quite a few of them show up at the Redneck Festival in Weissport.  I’ll be there also staffing a Democratic Party booth.  I plan to have some fun with them, but they will not like me very much.

Yellowstone Grizzlies

Last month Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke announced that the grizzly bears of Yellowstone National Park would lose their endangered species protection. 

If this occurs (there is a 30 day period after the rule change is published in the Federal Register), it means that the bears will be under the tender mercies of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming.

Would somebody explain to me how that action makes American great again?

Mr. Lara deported

I’m going by an article in the New York Times from June 19 about Mexican farmworkers in Willard, Ohio.  People there had planned a welcome back party for returning farmworkers, but in the atmosphere of Trump’s America, some residents objected.  Some of the returning workers do not have proper papers.  One Vietnam vet said “We are still waiting for our welcome-home party.”  (My personal view is that it is soon time to close down that pity party.)

The article, by Miriam Jordan, discussed how farmers in that area of Ohio were about to loss millions of dollars worth of crops, since there was no one there to harvest therm.

The article also discussed the case of Mr. Lara, an immigrant who arrived in Willard in 2002, fell in love with another Mexican immigrant, bought a house, and had four children, Eric, 13, Edwin, 11, Anuar, 10, and Elsiy, 6.  In 2008 he was pulled over on the way to the dentist.  He had no driver’s license, which Ohio does not give to undocumented residents, and he was jailed.  He was ordered deported in 2011, but he was granted a reprieve because he was otherwise law-abiding.

He had to check in with ICE every year to renew his permit.  In January the Trump administration announced that no one in the country illegally was exempt from deportation.  On March 28, when he arrived for his annual check-in, he was fitted with an electronic tracking device.  

He had letters from employers and teachers supporting his “stay of removal.”  However, Timothy Ward, an ICE field director, wrote, “I have determined that pursuing removal of Mr. Lara Lopez is consistent with enforcement priorities.”

He was ordered to buy an airline ticket to Mexico.  His date for removal was yesterday.

Let’s examine this.  If you take a “strict parent” approach to politics, you will says, “Mr. Lara broke the law.  He is illegal.  We need to set an example.  Send him packing.”

If you follow the “nurturing parent” approach to politics, you will say, “This is a model American.  Bought a house.  Has a job.  Is raising a family.  Let him stay.”

I wonder what you would say if you were a Christian following the teaching of Jesus Christ?  I think I will write to Congressman Lou Barletta and ask him.

George Romero, 1940-2017

Some years ago I read Annie Dillard’s An American Childhood.  Dillard is an excellent writer, and the book was wonderful, but one item I remember is that her father was an extra in “Night of the Living Dead.”  That stuck with me.

I taught a course in political films at San Jose State, and I took an expansive view of what constituted a “political film”; the course included “invasion of the Body Snatchers.”  While I didn’t use it, “Night of the Living Dead” was definitely a political film.

If you recall, a calm take-charge black guy (Duane Jones) saves a farmhouse full of stupid white people.  In the end, the local citizenry (Western Pennsylvania rural gun owner types) destroy him.  Is that a metaphor for current politics or what? 

Romero went on to direct other horror films, including “Dawn of the Dead,” set in a mall.  HIs films were always interesting, always scary, although perhaps not as scary as life under President Trump.

Carbon County, PA, in the news

This morning MSNBC noted that while Trump’s approval ratings are in the mid-30’s, in the so-called “surge counties,” where Trump did exceedingly well last November, his approval ratings hover around 55%.  The report mentioned Carbon County, Pennsylvania, as an example of a “surge county.”  The map of those counties indicated that most of them were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa.

I know that we are supposed to understand the desperation of people who supported Trump in 2016.  We are supposed to feel their pain, listen to their cries for help, understand their anger.  

On the other hand, I do like my friend’s take on this when I told her about the continued 55% approval rating.  She said, “Well, what do you expect?  That’s about the IQ of the voters in Carbon County.”

She will remain nameless.