Melt ICE
A friend’s friend’s family member was abducted by ICE today in Massachusetts.
My friend (who is not in MA) sent a message in our Signal group looking for support alongside a post with a few specific on the ground asks. Beyond the initial shock that this is part of the hellscape we’re now living in, the concern for my friend, and then the sublimation of that shock into the realization that this is somehow the new normal, the feeling that pervaded was one of utter helplessness, uselessness... What the hell are we even supposed to do facing this reality? I look up from my phone and people in the street are just casually walking and chatting and laughing and everything seems so normal and it becomes hard to hold on to any semblance of what is real.
But then I looked at their post again. The specific asks, listed clearly in point form, were incredibly useful. They focused my thoughts away from the shock, indignation, and self-defeating feelings and made me think, wait... I actually know people in Massachusetts, I know people who have coordinated bail funds. I had assumed that the US members of our Signal group or others in their network were likely better placed to respond. They were more connected to "that reality." But my friend had asked us for help, all of us.
Seven or eight years back I spent some time over the summers in Worcester doing art and activism trainings. The facilitators and participants all stayed in the same place and we spent some intense moments together. Heather Hayer was killed while I was in Worcester, people there had friends and comrades in Charlottesville that night. We made banners and organized a march for the very next day. A few years later, a couple of the friends I made there were visiting Montreal while I was out of town and I offered them my place to stay. They left me a sweet thank you note with a drawing of a masked raccoon that is still hanging on my fridge today. It might be why they popped into my head.
Though I hadn't spoken to them in many years, I reached out to one of them and told him about the ICE kidnapping and what my friend needed. He quickly responded and spread the word amongst local networks, started pointing me to various community resources, and reached out directly to the local bail fund organizer. In talking with him, I then thought of other people we were connected to and reached out to them as well. I passed on these messages to my first friend and felt some relief from feeling useful. They shared their appreciation, mentioning how it feels like so much of this work is all about relationships. After the initial flurry of messages, we checked in a bit and they told me they had a film screening in Toronto and how they always wanted to come to Montreal for the Festival du nouveau cinéma.
I was sitting outside of my local coffee shop while I was coordinating all these messages. A neighbourhood friend walked by and she asked how I was doing. I just shook my head and she offered me a heartfelt hug. I then asked her how she was doing and she told me she was in the process of fighting an eviction. We talked a bit about it and I connected her with a lawyer friend of mine who basically got his law degree only to fight landlords! She then asked me what was up with me and I shared the awful situation. She sympathized and we sat there in shock for a bit and then she invited me over for an Italian dinner sometime saying, "I cook all the time. I know it's not a solution, but..."
But it is. The only way we'll survive this shit is if we can maintain, strengthen, and mobilize our relationships.
My friend's friend's family member is in a detention centre right now and I can't even imagine what they're going through. I don't know what will happen to them tonight, tomorrow, or the day after. But at least they're not alone, not really.
Fuck ICE. ACAB all the time. Be kind.