Just a brief intermission.
We are closing on the sale of our house today. Finally.
We don’t know yet when we will close on the house with the hideous kitchen. There were issues with the decks needing painting before they would give us the loan. Then, there is the weather. Lots of storms. So, the process has slowed down.
We’ve accepted we’ll be living in a hotel for a bit. With two cats. Yay.
If we’re super lucky, and so far, that has not been the case, we will be able to close a week from today. That probably won’t happen. We could be in the hotel for a couple of weeks.
So, during this time, I won’t be around much. We just have to get through this shitty part.
I’m really hoping for some funny stories. For all that is holy, I am hoping for at least one.
That’s not all, though.
I knew it would get worse, but the fact we are stealing and drugging children and keeping them in cages is taking my breath away.
We can’t come back from this. There is no atonement.
I’m afraid it will get worse than this. I’m nearly sure it will.
I will come back here soon and bring you along as we try to find our new “normal” after we move. But for now, as we continue to watch this horror show unfold, I’m going to step back.
Can I ask a favor, though?
If you can, please make a donation to the ACLU. Or really, any organization that you think can offer help. If we all give a little, it will make a big difference.
Also, I know it’s hard to see the pictures of crying children or to listen to the audio of children screaming in pain and terror, but we must. We can’t stop looking, even when it hurts. We can’t afford to look away. We can’t stop asking where the girls and infants are. They need us.
Please call your elected officials and demand they do everything they can to reunite these stolen children with their parents.
It can be difficult to put oneself in another’s shoes–even rubber shoes–but just trying may be the most important thing we can do. Empathy gives us the ability to know when others are hurting and does, or should, prompt us to try and do something to end it.
And thank you for specifically mentioning the ACLU. We have to be able to hold those who call themselves our leaders responsible and without information we can’t do that, which is why some of those who call themselves our leaders are trying so hard to hide what they’re doing and discredit what information is out there.
Yesterday I heard a story about a bipartisan group of mayors from around the country who were denied access to one of the prisons now being used for children. The mayor of San Francisco pointedly asked, “What is there to hide?”
We deserve to know.
And good luck with your own move and I look forward to stories of how you’ve fucked up some wonderful meals in the hideous kitchen.
You’ll be fine. When we moved to the Bay Area in ’84, we basically didn’t know anyone, and had $400 and a left-handed Stratocaster, which we sold for $175. We stayed in a motel for a week, and then got an $83/week room in a residential hotel (the Carlton) in Berkeley, that had a bad cockroach infestation.
We stayed there all summer and fall while we secured employment and looked for a place to live.
That’s when the shock set in. See, in Eureka, the place we moved out of was a four bedroom above a mom and pop store, with a huge kitchen, bay windows, and no close neighbors to limit the volume of the guitar playing that happened there. Shit, we even had a drummer in there a few times. The rent was $410/month, split three ways.
The house we finally moved into on my birthday in ’84 was a nice two bedroom with a garage and a back yard for $700/month.
Seven hundred dollars. Every month. At the time, I had only seen that much money a few times, when buying or selling a race bike, or once when I sold a half-pound of pot.
It was scary.
We learned how to cope with it, and that house was the scene of some of the best parts of my life. We had neighbors, so the loud part of our music had to stop at 10PM, but both of our neighbors had musical backgrounds, and they didn’t get mad when we had a drumset in the livingroom.
Right now, that house would easily rent for $3,000.
Anyway, the ACLU is a really good place for any help you can come up with, but they aren’t the only ones on the front lines in this hideousness. Regular people are stepping up, like the couple who started a Gofundme for attorney’s fees for the families being separated, and figured they could maybe raise $1,500 each for a few families, but instead raised $15 million at last count. They said that for a while on the first day they were getting $10,000 a minute.
We have to use this to beat them, but we have to live through it first, so please take care of yourselves whenever you get the chance.
PS: Your stand up at Erma was fantastic.
Michelle – I totally validate how hard it is to take cats out of their “normal” – it sucks for the cats and the cat parents, too 😉 Hotel life is far from home life, but at least someone else will be responsible for washing the sheets regularly!
The ACLU rocks and activism, in general, is easier than ever before. There is an app called “5 Calls” that makes contacting local representatives painless and ResistBot is another tool people can utilize on their phones to speak up and speak out against this actual living nightmare we are all witnessing.
OMG I hear you! We have a contract on a house down here that I absolutely love with all my heart and soul. We were there yesterday for the inspection and so far it is in good shape for it’s age (it is a 1958 old Florida style lake house made of peaky Cyprus and stone.) The problem? I love this house too much and I’m having intestinal seizures worrying something will happen to snag it away from us. And then I think “no, this house was meant for us to buy it” My husband found it before it hit the MLS, even before a sign went into the yard we got an appointment to see it and offered asking price before we walked out of it. This house sings to both of us and even though it’s small as shit (2 half baths and tiny bedrooms) we love it so much we will make it work. I’ll be following your path and will let the world know when we have a final answer on ours. I’m keeping this on the down low because our landlord does not yet know we are looking to buy elsewhere. In the meantime just keep telling yourself: housekeeping is love. Big hugs, stay chill and I’ll try to keep my own advise.
I enjoy reading what you write. And I respect your voice and opinions. I feel that I have to make a comment about the whole children being taken from thier parents thing. This is rediculous, we cant allow people who break a law to use children as an excuse. Coming into a country to make a better life for your children and doing it illegally is breaking the law, if you cant do the time dont do the crime, dont use the children to justify this behaviour. The US has immigration laws for a reason and I for one do not want to live in Europe and do not support thier immigration policy. I also believe this is being blown out of proportion for political reasons. I rarely make comments ever and I dont think I can change your mind but there are two sides to every story and I am on this side which also deserves to be heard.
My understanding is people who are LEGALLY seeking asylum are having their children taken away. Regardless of whether they are entering legally or illegally doesn’t make it right to remove children from their parents and putting them in camps. That is obscene. It is child abuse. And we don’t even know where they are. We have no plans on reuniting these families. This is what the nazis did.
I understand that you feel differently, but I will fight, give money and shout from the rooftops against child abuse. Experts are coming out and saying the long term effects will be devastating for these children.
Mel, Mel, Mel…
Your ‘if you can’t do the time, don’t do the crime’ thinking is very dangerous in this instance. These are children – living, breathing human beings…some still nursing and in diapers. Some still at the age where they think mom and dad’s real names are ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad’. All HUMAN, and none deserving of the guaranteed long-term negative effects of the separation from their parents. This is a heart issue – not an immigration issue.
Moving sucks no matter how smooth it goes. Been there, done that more times than I can count. But, I’m sending good vibes for a smooth transition. Staying in a hotel with 2 cats must surely be as fun as doing it with 2 dogs. NOT fun at all. We became members of the ACLU right after the orange anus was elected and pay dues regularly. I support almost every cause whose mission is to get him OUT.
Hang in there!
b
Moving sucks no matter how smooth it goes. Been there, done that more times than I can count. But, I’m sending good vibes for a smooth transition. Staying in a hotel with 2 cats must surely be as fun as doing it with 2 dogs. NOT fun at all. We became members of the ACLU right after the orange anus was elected and pay dues regularly. I support almost every cause whose mission is to get him OUT.
Hang in there!
b
Our landlady just told us she’s selling our “death house” and we have until April to find yet another final place. The move from our house of 42 years into this 4-plex (almost the same size) was traumatic enough. I though I’d never have to do it again. Now I have to see if we can afford anywhere in the immediate vicinity. That will take cats. When you get old, the idea of having to change doctors and learning new directions is more of a challenge than you can imagine. The ACLU is one of the few organizations that we set aside money for.
Hmm. Just left a comment and it didn’t show up. I wonder why?
There is a great group that is working to provide legal services to those separated from their children and to the children themselves. You may have heard of them on Jimmy Fallon’s show (he made a big donation in Trump’s name): https://www.raicestexas.org/about/.
RAICES is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit agency that promotes justice by providing free and low-cost legal services to underserved immigrant children, families, and refugees in Texas.
In the past, they’d often work with unaccompanied minors, who would be asked to stand for themselves in immigration court without representation. They’ve been around a long time and are well familiar with the systems involved. Even though this is nothing like anything we’ve seen before, these are great foot soldiers, capable of hands-on work.
YAY! The shitty part is almost over!!
Not quite! They still have a kitchen renovation in their future. Anticipating some entertaining Randy and Michelle exchanges.
Trump and his ilk are evil incarnate and are destroying everything good about our country. But he cannot squash the spirit of the fine men and women who band together to repair the damage.