Goodness in everyday life and being awake enough to notice.

Dear Ones,

As we continue our journey through the Tutu's book Made for Goodness, I wanted to relay to you a real life story from this past week.  It was relayed to me personally by someone close to me. 

At 4:00 PM yesterday, two ICE  (Immigration and Customs Enforcement)  agents pulled into the driveway in an unmarked car with dark tinted windows.  These two youth, both 15 were waiting.  The young woman's mother was not at home (being advised by immigration attorneys that she should stay away).  I am not sure where the young man's parents are, I think he may live with his 19 year old brother.

The agents asked for her mother and she said "she is working", then they asked who I was - I just said " I am from a church and making sure these kids will be OK"  I did not name the church because I don't want ICE showing up there looking for mom or anyone else.  They finger printed both of them and put them in "Removal proceedings".  This means they will face immigration court and deportation in a few months.  The young woman has two siblings, both US Citizens and since both have health issues and her mother has been in the US for more than ten years her deportation risk is lower.  What this means, is she would be sent back to Mexico, a country she left when she was one years old.

 The young man kept putting his hands in his pocket (he was of course nervous), and the agents rudely told him to take his hands out of his pockets, this happened twice.  They told him if it happened again they would arrest him and take him to detention.

A fellow church member showed up, she is a legal permanent resident.  ICE immediately asked for her ID, she had left it in her car a few feet away, ICE asked her for her ID instantly (note they never asked for mine, I am white, no racial profiling here, right), and threatend her with detention then turned to me and said "If you have any influence over this woman tell her to get out of here".

Mean time, there are two quivering kids.

How can these agents sleep at night?

We are working on legal representation for the kids.

Their stories are among many youth that are detained, and a whole group of un-accompanied minors.

In the last two months I have met with three teenage girls who were sexually exploited and "immigration"was held over their heads, one was a victim of human trafficking.

Thanks for your continued prayers, your work and witness.

This story is not from some far away place.  It happened here, in our state, in our diocese.  It is a real problem.  Goodness, and the ability to be so, requires us to be awake to all that is going on around us.  Tutu suggests when he ends chapter 4 with these words,

As adults we can also cultivate the practice of choosing right.  We can cultivate it in ourselves. The Christian Gospels have a series of scriptures which enjoin the reader to "keep awake."  Modern culture would prefer we move through life "half asleep."  We are encouraged to make decisions by default, not be conscious choice. So sometimes we do not actively opt to do wrong.  But because we don't actively choose to do what is right, we slip into wrongness. The practices of goodness are practices of vigilance and conscious choice. They are habits of self-knowledge."

Choosing right.  This is not always easy, but it can be easy to simply let things happen, or to go through life half asleep.  This is far different from vigilance and conscious choice.   It would seem we could do better as a people than to have scenes play out as above, for mere children who did not make most, if any, of the decisions that brought them to such moments.  It would seem we could do better, be more good.  Think about instances you know of in your own life, in the life of our church, which suggest we could "do good and be good" better.  How can we help each other as a community, as a church, to be better.

Blessings,

+Greg

Comments

[Virginia Wagner]

We have to stand up. It makes it easier and is less fearful if we hold hands while we do it. I'm always looking for someone to be with me when I step out and stand up. Virginia Wagner

[Ann]

Thanks for this - a terrifying and sad reminder of our broken country

[it's margaret]

K.I.N.D. --Kids in need of Defense. A non-profit that works on these very situations. Google it for more info and an office near you.

God bless you in this very challenging work.

[Gary]

I hate to say it, but I was shocked recently in a small gathering at the local Episcopal church in the Diocese of Olympia when I mentioned the attitudes of people in this country over immigration. One of the churches leaders verbally attacked me essentially for not wanting to lock the borders and get rid of the foreigners. A prime example of the exact thing I was trying to bring up. You have an insider problem on a lot of the current political issues.

[Els Strickland]

Let me start with an introduction, my name is Els and I am an old friend of Greg from his very first parish in Arkansas. I promised him I would post here after reading “Made for goodness”.
I am not very far in the book yet, only Chapter 3. Earlier this month, before starting the book I mentioned to Greg that for me personally, in the work I am involved with (child abuse/neglect), I learned that I could put aside my personal abhor of a child abuser only through imagining the abuser as a newborn child in my arms. Born with all the innocence, hope and joy of all children born in God’s image. I was thrilled to find in the book (page 20) an affirmation of that belief since it is one that enables me to continue in my work.
Recently I was in Chicago, in attendance of the National CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) Conference and so happy that the conference was in the city where our youngest daughter Nikki now resides. I spent every free minute from the conference with Nikki. On our first day together, after picking me up from the airport she toured her Chicago neighborhoods, Lake View and Lincoln Park. While turning into a street lined with 3 million dollar Brownstones I noticed a man standing almost in the middle of the street motioning for us to stop. I told my daughter to stop and this man came to my passenger window and frantically told his story with all the props in hand. His child had an asthma attack at the hospital down the street (there really was one) where the doctor prescribed a new inhaler (he had the old one in one hand) and he needed twelve more dollars to purchase the new one at $45.00 (showing me a wad of bills in the other hand proving he was valid and almost there). What to do? I looked at Nikki and together we came up with exactly 12 dollars, which I handed to this man. By this time, I had regained some conscious and when Nikki chuckled and said, “You know what just happened, right?” my reply was “I just helped a child breathe better and I am sticking to that story”.
The next question from my daughter was” Why?” Why was it so important for me to believe I had not been conned. It was because deep inside I realized that I wanted to believe in this man’s goodness, and his crafty lies would defy and deny that belief. There was my answer to my daughter who chuckled again and said, “I think he tuned into your goodness first and probably calls it naivety”.

What stayed with me was my need of believing in the goodness. I spent four more days in Chicago and since I chose to walk back and forth from the downtown Conference Hotel to Nikki’s apartment I encountered many more that needed my money.
Most were not crafty; they only sat in dejected quietness, a cup in front. Other chose to perform through dance and music and fared much better but none ever received $12.00 from me in one setting again.
On my last day there, on a quiet street, a much-disheveled man, loudly screaming, stumbled across my path. When he was closer, I could hear his words: “Pray aloud with me”. I chose to ignore that but upon passing he leaned into my face and yelled” I know you heard me, you f.....n old bitch. I stopped in my tracks, turned around and was ready to yell back... “ I so am not” only to realize that what had most ticked me of was what I knew was the truest of his words. I am nearing sixty and I should get over that he called me old. Sharing that with Nikki that night was a hoot. He offended me most with the truth.

I will continue with the Desmond Tutu’s book, maybe getting to an understanding if there really is goodness in all or whether we need to believe in the goodness of all for our own survival.
I am thankful for my reading time in Chicago and my learning time.
Grateful that I have a job to do, not one to keep. I do believe in my job of lifting the voice of an abused child and therein lifting a life so that later in these childrens lives their walks on the streets can be those of hope and joy and not of despair and lies.

Thanks Greg for sending me to the Tutu’s book this Lent.

[Greg Rickel]

Well of course we have an "insider problem", even Jesus experienced that. No human organization can be found without one. If church is not also a place of transformation, where it will take place, and not a place where only those who "get it right" which is what you would choose, attend or get in, then what is it?