I'm not really in the mood to blog....the reason is a whole other blog (it's a good one, like I don't feel the need to dwell on stuff anymore, I am truly living in the moment...finally.. I'd like to blog about why I think I am finally able to do this... but I am too busy living in the now! lol I will try to find time soon... it's kind of interesting and still an experiment in progress, but it's been weeks of contentment and I love it!)
Ok... back to why I am here today. Alligator Alcatraz. I mean just the name tells you all you need to know. And, frankly, if you are someone who has seen photos of this "camp" and your instant reaction isn't WTF is happening in America... I really don't want anything to do with you.
Just on the face of it it should be obvious how inhumane this is. And that SHOULD be enough to condemn it. Condemn everything that got us here. I get that people like to fall back on the "First they came for me.." spiel, but honestly... do we need to be reminded of the past to find THIS abhorrent? Do we need to care whether we could ever end up in place like this to understand the huge problem with accepting this as something the US should be doing?
I don't care if you are next on the list or last on the list or will never be on the list of people they come after once they have rounded up all the "illegal" immigrants. The list shouldn't matter. NO ONE and I mean NO ONE should be treated the way ICE (and our government) is treating people right now.
Here's the thing, let's pretend they are getting violent criminals off the street (the facts show otherwise but let's just pretend for a moment)... without DUE PROCESS we have no idea IF they are violent criminals, that's how it works here in the US... well that's how our CONSTITUTION was written. So for all the MAGA that think we should just leave if we don't like it... how about YOU leave, you clearly don't like our system. Go ahead, get on a plane and go to a country that doesn't care if you are guilty but will lock you up in inhumane conditions anyway. That's not us, that's not how any decent HUMAN should think, let alone a patriotic American.
Let's pretend some more. Let's pretend they are just abducting (that's what it is) the most vile criminals and that they are guilty and let's pretend that they were given due process and found guilty. I will still argue that our Constitution has a problem with putting them in cages surrounded by alligators. Again, if you don't like that that is not how we do things.. grab yourself a plane ticket and get the fuck out. You are no better than the criminals you want to see treated this way. Good people don't want to see bad people treated this way. They are dying in the detention centers we have now and this place is going to be so much worse. Our Constitution doesn't allow us to kill people this way. I oppose the death penalty ( I didn't always and that's certainly another lengthy blog that will probably never be written) and hate that there are legal ways for us to dispose of our unwanted members of society by killing them, but there are procedures to do that, rules that must be followed... alligators and dying from lack of medical attention isn't allowed.
You shouldn't need to know that they aren't just detaining criminals, or that it's not just "illegals" it should bother you simply because of the HOW not the why or who. It shouldn't matter that once this detention system is built..an expensive, for profit system.. that they will need to keep filling these places. There is no end. Eventually people will stop coming to America, legally or illegally and then who will they go after. Oh ..not you.. right? They are already coming after people who have legal status, birthright citizenship and they are talking about going after Americans who were born TO Americans but on foreign soil...as in our military families. You ok with that? You still safe? You should take a deep look into your soul if you still don't care because it won't affect you....not because you are probably wrong, yes, even if you are MAGA, one day they will find a reason to come after you, but if you have to wait until it's obvious they are coming... you aren't really any better than the people doing the detaining. It should matter RIGHT NOW.
Here's the other thing, let's say you are in a group that they will never come after.. that's the REAL ICE...what about the imposters who are popping up.. you think you are safe from them? They are already robbing people...it won't be long til they are raping and killing too. And they will definitely not care who you are. It SHOULD bother you that we are letting masked people that don't need to identify themselves kidnap people in our country... legal or illegal... because now the real law enforcement has no idea who is a government authorized kidnapper and who is a criminal. But, again.. if this is why you are suddenly concerned... you need to look at yourself in the mirror and realize you aren't much better than the monsters "just doing their jobs".
We've seen it before, we've wondered how it could have happened... and now we are watching it...and are we really going to wait for the mass murder to start before we stop it? Does it really have to play all the way out again?
I just read a snippet in a book (Mark Manson "Everything is Fucked :A Book About Hope) about Witold Pilecki. He infiltrated Auschwitz and was there quite a while (2 1/2 years!). When he started witnessing them killing Jewish people, he reported back to his contacts in the Polish government. They thought he was exaggerating, the things he reported were too horrific to be true. This is happening now. We are reading first hand accounts of people being detained in these places and we are what..numb to them?...don't believe them?...we certainly can't believe that a Canadian actress(https://www.npr.org/2025/04/02/nx-s1-5341465/jasmine-mooney-canadian-actress-ice-detention) is lying! The regime ( I refuse to call it an administration anymore) is now trying to stop unannounced visits to these places...how can we not see that for what it is? If the conditions aren't bad, why not allow the visits?
I am horrified that our country has come to this. We all knew electing this felon would be bad for our country, we compared him to Hitler, and yes it seemed overly dramatic at the time... at what point do we make sure he won't go down in history as the next Hitler? How many more must die? (I've lost count how many have died now, it's in the teens) Did speaking up too soon make us appear like we were crying wolf and no one is listening now?
And you might read this and think... she doesn't sound content. Well I have learned that stoicism doesn't mean not having any feelings well not being Stoic, with a capital S doesn't. You just learn how to identify what you can control and what matters to you and what you will do about it. I feel content because for one thing I believe that we are all here for a purpose and we are learning what each of us individually and collectively need to learn. I don't know WHY this is happening or why I get to live through this time but I know that in the end, everything will be as it should be. I don't believe death is our end, this time in our human skins is part of a much longer journey. I believe when I lay dying (or hopefully die peacefully unbeknownst to me!) that NONE of THIS will have mattered. It's not what I will think about. We get such a short time here, I really hate to waste. any of it even typing this, but I also understand the usefulness of it. If it stops me from ruminating and worrying about things that I have so little control over, then it was time well spent. Plus I did it outside while watching squirrels and bunnies and blue jays and cardinals and little white butterflies. Everything in this moment right NOW is perfect. And I have finally learned how to enjoy each of these individual perfect moments, in between whatever other moments may happen today. And I focus on those good ones and I smile and am content. I wish this peaceful feeling for everyone and if I could I would spread it to you! But that isn't in my control...it's in yours and you need to find your way to it, and it may look completely different than my path.
Thanks for reading... and remember it's possible to feel peace AND fight for the world you want to live in!!
