Open letter to Grandmothers Respond

Dearest Grandmothers, Womyn, Sistars!

It is with great trepidation and regret that I feel compelled – after  asking you to pretend these babies are our very own grandchildren – to write these truths to you that I’m sure you already know but that our behavior and actions are not reflecting.

We are NOT going to be able to end our nation’s policy of separating babies and children from their parents in our spare time!

Nor are we going to be able to end our nation’s practice of incarcerating refugees from our foreign policy of war and looting their countries of origin when it’s convenient for us to do so!

Nor are we going to be able to terminate our employment of ICE to intimidate and subjugate these refugees when we’re not occupied by our biological families.

We are NOT going to be able to ensure the reunification and freedom of refugees in between our pursuit of the amerikkkan nitemare, our continuing our lives ‘as usual’, safeguarding our privileged lives undisrupted by the very policies that are guaranteeing our undisrupted lives.

We are NOT going to be able to bring justice to the lives of refugees – and in turn our country – during a one week caravan, a 24 hour action, or a one day descent on washington d.c.

I KNOW we value freedom and justice – for everyone. I KNOW we are acutely horrified and deeply care for the families, the mothers and children who are right now suffering in ways most of us on this caravan have never come close to suffering. I KNOW we want to end this.

But I ask you, do we want to end the suffering of refugees who have made it to our borders as much as we want to continue our lives as usual?

Do we really want to say we’ve done enough or that we are now content we’ve done our best, or that our children and grandchildren are safe and we embrace that safety above all else? Therefore we can relax, pat ourselves on the back, and be content that we tried?

Let us rent a house for a month in d.c. BEFORE the election! And reserve the campground outside d.c.! Let us demand tRump, congress, supreme court IMMEDIATELY end separation, torture, rape and incarceration of refugees. And let us be determined to capitalize on our caravan action as awesome and inspiring as it was, before it fizzles and especially before another child is snatched from another mother.

Let us increase our actions, let us be motivated by the vision that these refugees are OUR children, OUR daughters, OUR grandchildren today, this minute, attempting to survive in prison detention centers.