Lights for Liberty Vigil, Friday, July 12, 2019

Tonight we grieve.  And it's impossible to know how to respond to make this come to an end.  But no system of injustice is ever taken down by a singular act, one great push, or solidarity expressed in a moment.  For, as hard as it is to fathom, there are hands across American who praise this policy and practice.  And this is us.  This is us.

So what we need now is persistent, consistent, and regular vigil that will refuse to let go of the children's hands--hands to which we have extended our hands out to this evening.  As shared by Rev. Traci Blackmon at our recent denominational meeting, "What about the children?" is a Swahili greeting used to indicate the well-being of not only a family but also a wider community.  "What about the children?" is an everyday question, a check-in question, a question that you don't ask once and then walk away.  A question you ask once only to walk away is never how children are nurtured, never how they are kept safe from harm.  


We say things to our children we hope they know last a lifetime.  Call me when you get there.  Stay safe.  Be smart about your surroundings.  Know that, if you need us, your mom and dad and your whole family will show up to keep you safe and free from harm.  Those are our fondest and most devoted wishes for our kids.

Tables with postcards, websites, information, phone numbers for Senator Daines and Representative Gianforte are found on tables to my right.  Their offices should be flooded with calls asking what they are doing to end child detention and stop family separation.  Today Billings asked for calls from across the State of Montana to ask Senator Daines to care for the most vulnerable and to go to one of the places that qualify to be called concentration camps.  And then report back to us.  Join us at the protest on Monday at 12 noon beginning here.  Then we march to Senator Daines' Billings office and ask for this to come to an end.

Join Sanctuary Rising and our initiatives as we seek to reunite families like that Gonzalo and Josie and their children (https://www.gofundme.com/72bb7m0) over the holidays.  Get Know Your Rights presentations into Billings public schools, often the first point of contact for undocumented children and youth, and give money to organizations at the border that provide bond money for the undocumented or asylum seekers.  We also have material (https://www.afsc.org/sites/default/files/documents/New%20path%20-%20short%20version_0.pdf)  that share what a more humane immigration policy might look like which emanates out of a basic understanding that all people have human rights.  

We have posters for you to put in the windows of your homes, to call attention to this human rights crisis.  


Finally, finally, please work on the root causes of immigration.  Asylum seekers come from Honduras because we overthrew the democratically elected government of Honduras, created horrendous trade and agricultural policies that continue to devastate the rural poor in Latin America.  

I close by saying this.  Keeping vigil is not an easy thing.  It suggests that you will not turn away.  That when you are called to grieve and rage, you grieve and rage.  But that you stay woke, not close your eyes, and become a witness as you gain more and more wisdom about what your eyes see, what love compels you to do, and what justice requires of you.

This weekend, with 1 million declared to be deported, promises to be a weekend of immense suffering, parents losing the ability to check in with their children, and families forever, forever broken.  "What about the children?" means you will not ask just once--as a person, as a parent, as a community, as a human being.