By Robert C. Koehler
“Then they came for me . . .”
I can only begin here, at the emotional knifepoint of the ongoing ICE news. ICE in Chicago!
“More than 1,000 immigrants have been arrested since an immigration crackdown started last month in the Chicago area. The Trump administration has also vowed to deploy National Guard troops in its agenda to boost deportations.
“But U.S. citizens, immigrants with legal status and children have been among detained in increasingly brazen and aggressive encounters which pop up daily across neighborhoods in the city of 2.7 million and its many suburbs.”
I read this AP news fragment with particular shock and outrage because I lived in Chicago for 50 years. Today I live 200 miles north of it, in Appleton, Wisconsin, but the city is still me, in a psychological and no doubt spiritual sense. So when I read, for instance:
“Agents used unmarked trucks and a helicopter to surround the five-story apartment building, according to bystander videos and NewsNation, which was invited to observe the operation. The outlet reported agents ‘rappelled from Black Hawk helicopters.’
“Agents then went door to door, woke up residents and used zip ties to restrain them, including parents and children. . . .”
There’s no way I can pull myself back from these words and turn what they’re saying into an abstraction. As Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker put it, this is an invasion, not by some foreign enemy but by the US government and Donald Trump himself. And while, yes, there’s far worse hell happening right now across the planet, my personal connection to Chicago brings the “invasion” to life. And it brings Martin Niemoller in as well.
“First they came for the socialists and I did not speak out – because I am not a socialist . . .
“Then they came for the Jews and I did not speak out, because I am not a Jew.
“Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak for me.”
This is another way of saying: We are all one. This should be humanity’s moral starting point. It should be our political starting point. The need to speak out for this is never-ending. Why – why? – are we so obsessed with borders? And by “obsessed,” I mean spiritually brain dead about them.
Yes, life is full of “borders,” beginning with me. I’m not you and you are not me. We need a sense of self. We need definition and clarity in our lives. “This” is not “that.” English is not Spanish. The United States is not Mexico and on and on and on. But that’s not the entirety of the matter. Division and separation are only part of what and who we are.
Dig into the soil. Our roots are connected. They are one. We are all Planet Earth – a living and evolving entity. We need each other – which is simply another way of saying: We need to understand, and learn from, each other. That should be our collective effort, rather than fortifying and violently defending our ignorance of one another.
I say this knowing that this can be a deeply complex and difficult process – but, oh God, what if this, rather than militarism, were our political focal point? Indeed, it is the focal point of many institutions and millions, maybe billions, of people. But power – can you believe? – corrupts, and those in power, far too often, focus primarily on keeping what they have, which includes their uninterrupted ignorance of everything beyond themselves.
All of which leads me back to one flickering moment from ICE’s ongoing invasion of Chicago. Jessie Fuentes, an alderperson representing the city’s 26th Ward, confronted ICE at a local hospital. Someone, presumably a constituent, had broken his leg while being chased by ICE agents. He was taken to the emergency room but remained under ICE arrest. Fuentes demanded to see a warrant for his arrest. They ignored her. But she persisted.
And then, suddenly, one of the ICE guys had enough of her questioning and grabbed her, pulling her around and slapping handcuffs on her. Take that, bitch! The moment was caught on video.
Fuentes was arrested for “impeding” ICE – that is, demanding an answer to a legitimate, constitutionally crucial question. She was released a short while later, but nonetheless, that video remains stuck in my head. The look on the agent’s face showed total irritation and loss of patience. He had the authority – the power – to do what he was doing and nothing else mattered. Any questions?
Robert Koehler (koehlercw@gmail.com), syndicated by PeaceVoice, is a Chicago award-winning journalist and editor. He is the author of Courage Grows Strong at the Wound, and his album of recorded poetry and art work, Soul Fragments.
