purple haze
i consider boot camp, 1973, to be my initiation into immigration issues. the boot camp focus was on the local nationals who hang around military compounds in hopes of snagging a visa marriage. this iniation into immigration issues continued into advanced training and my overseas tour of duty. when i showed an interest in the field, a plethora of additional learning opportunities were easily available. by 1976 when i cycled out of the military with my honorable discharge, i wasn't ready to change career paths, but i remained quite intrigued. i mostly believe that my intrigue with foreign communities is that i can be mundeore relaxed when nobody expects to understand me nor demands i read their social cues with deep proficiency. no, horny boy, i don't take hints well.
in 1973, the immigration system was already a lamentable cruelty from the purple haze of warring political parties. democrats (blue), republicans (red) and all the fringe dwellers all agreed that the system was FUBAR (fucked up beyond all repair). on the reform end, fringe dwellers don't get much say and reform attempts from the 2 dominant parties has resulted in a purple haze so thick and gooey that the entire nation is choking on the fog. if we take an international spin of hopefuls crying for their shot at the american dream, we might conclude that the entire planet is lost in that purple haze. might with plenty of loopholes for the milliions who don't admire the american dream anywhere near enough to contract and endure human traffickers. many are not even curious. in the 52 years i have watched the comedy of errors, i have grown to feel SOSD. same old shit different day. the escalation into further brokenness has started to feel redundant. haven't we tried that already. the failure to commit has escalated the brokenness into? ? ? the purple haze.
i've been verily obsessing about the intensive immigration sweeps which have been happening since the current president took office back in january. am i seeing something new? the 52 years of work in the immigrant communities have left some deep and festering wounds i have not been able find help in healing. the los angeles riots of the past weekend have brought those wounds to renewed demands for healing. will the spin-off protests be peaceful puffs of the same old purple haze or has the war begun?
dunno. . . observation in progress.
i am tempted to move the mood icon to "horrible." i cannot go anywhere near this subject without losing myself in intense emotion. still, those intense emotions run the full spectrum. it was the best of times, it was the worst of times. think i'll leave the mood icon on the rapid cycling median. i am fine. how are you?
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adendum
of course jimmi hendrix is providing the soundtrack for this episode.
purple haze all in my brain
lately things just don't seem the same
acting funny and i don't know why
excuse me while i kiss the sky
waaah wah waaaah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah
help me
please help me
waaah wah waaaah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah
Thanks Arfie, from my family and friends back in LA I understand that there were no riots and very few people gathered but the effort of the white house eventually created that reaction. There were only a few number of people who gathered initially but with all the troops sent there the more people felt invaded I gather. So the goal to create unrest was achieved and now the blame is on the people NOT the instigator
Huge hugs for you both
I was near tears yesterday
I felt sick about it
A lot of Canadian's are devastated as well by what we're seeing
Evil thriving
I've prayed for help for the US and all who are suffering...xo
Thanks Janet!
yeah, markus, i am reminded of my friends in foreign countries who check in on me when news of civil unrest and/or natural disasters 300 miles away gives them the impression that my own area is under attack. press coverage does tend to accentuate the negative and eliminate the positive.
still, i live where latinos are the largest ethnic group in the state. tensions are running high. latinos are far from the only ethnic group affected by the immigration sweeps, but the local latinos are an aggressively outspoken lot. increasing numbers of them want to invalidate the treaty of hidalgo. so far the spin off protests from the la hoopla have been mostly peaceful, but numerous and volatile.
thank you jan. prayers both needed and appreciated.
i was on the bleeding heart side of the purple haze for most of the 52 years i have been involved with immigration issues. i didn't go quite so far as to join the "rescue missions" where groups went down into mexico to offer rides and moving assistance to those impoverished beleaguered souls, but i was personally invited. i probably would have gone if not for the young children at home. i was, however, on the teams which arranged housing, taught ESL, guidance through the bureaucracy, etc.
post katrina new orleans could mark my turning point. i believe i carried away a volunteer ptsd from that experience. the bands of illegally immigrated mercenaries who invaded the predominately slave descended city was intense. the sheer numbers was daunting. the bravado with which they reminded local residents that the city had once belonged to the spanish empire was foolishly loud. i don't believe they realized they were speaking to prideful slave descendants who remembered the Spaniards as some of the more cruel slave owners in the southern tradition. by the time they held their traditional may 1st rally, tensions were running high. repeating that bit of factual history on their loud speakers nearly started a race riot. the national guard was on patrol for may 2nd and a goodly while after.
i didn't exactly hide my spanish speaking skills during these tense encounters, but i didn't mention them, either. the assumptions of others was all the camouflage i needed. i let that cat out of the bag in order to rescue the manager of the volunteer center i was staying in. two non english speaking mercenaries had been duped by a bilingual latino who claimed to be attached to the volunteer center. the incident defused easily after i offered to translate. not a happy ending for the duped fellows, but resolution is as happy as this story gets.
there was no getting that freaking cat back into the bag. it became a regular occurrence for complete strangers to point at me and hear, "there's that lady who speaks spanish." sometimes they said, "alla esta la dama que habla espanol." either way, i cringed. these were, second to none, the most contentious translations i have ever conducted. many, perhaps most of the players were far rougher than the center volunteers and the duped mercenaries. the racial tensions between african americans and hispanic immigrants were intense. i am grateful not a single one of the players ever got around to asking my name. anonymity was the nearest to appreciation which i was offered in these encounters. i'll take what i will get. for the sake of self-preservation, i started steering wide berths around the black/brown mixed groups.
as the immigration protests continue escalating, i am back to not calling attention to my language skills. si, si, si, no soy mas que otra gringa burra. no entiendo nada. i don't understand nothin', neither. just looking for my way out of the purple haze.
If we gain information on "both sides" of the issue and not the fear mongering legacy media, we see we have something like 10-21 million people who crossed the boarder when it was open from the previous administration. And so many of these are turning to have criminal records. Let's be honest about this. Not all, hopefully not the majority. But the true "sweeps" are 90% getting criminals. Everything in legacy media is often false information even on NPR unfortunately. It is a huge mess.
Congress makes immigration rules and we have had a do nothing Congress for maybe 25 years now. They could fix our immigration policy but they do not. Let's take the immigration passes - the temporary passes or green cards -- given to some countries due to earthquakes or hurricanes in the past. Well, Congress set their temporary status for a few years and kept renewing it and renewing it. So those people live in limbo in temporary status for a long time. Congress has not done anything to fix this or change this policy. It is a bad policy in my opinion because people are left in limbo in temporary status. If this ends, they have to go back to their home country.
Most Americans have no idea about our public policy with immigration or anything else. Right now we have gridlock with the D's voting on block, in lock step, no matter how good the policy simply because it is an "R" policy. But whatever happened to the good of the people. Whatever happened to independent thinkers. All this is gone.
Totally about power and control. Remember that when you watch the news or read a media story. We get lies and obfuscation. Real journalists tell both sides. Look at the information now coming out about the last President's dementia. Good grief, they lied and lied to the American people. Neither side is for the American people which is why they hate the current President. The good of the people does not come first anymore, if it ever did. Do nothing Congress just blames each other, totally a DARVO method.
"both" sides of the issue? alas, there are way more than 2 sides to the immigration issue. that 11 or so million of illegal immigrants in the usa represent every nation on the planet. then we get to the uncountable divisions within the usa. me duele la cabeza. jimmi's riff is ripping in my head again.
Purple haze all around
Don't know if I'm comin' up or down
Am I happy or in misery?
Whatever it is, those clowns put a spell on me
waaah wah waaaah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah
help me
waaah wah waaaah
please help me
waaah wah waaaah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah
then we get to congress with it's blue and red smoke DARVOing it's way to the purple haze
waaah wah waaaah wah wah wah wah wah wah wah
am i imagining that the protestor side of this migrant travesty hasnae changed since the 70's when i first climbed aboard that bandwagon? by the time i drifted away from the bandwagon i was thinking of their protests as, "racial industry rhetoric." more and more i felt my cohorts as collegiate idealists regurgitating textbook cliches, oblivious to the cultural changes which had transpired since those textbooks were published. self-educated bookworm that i am, i was one of those regurgitating idealists, in a proper social distance sort of way. several of those cohorts were quick to remind me i didn't have a degree. no, having lived the nightmare is not a valid substitute.
"chris" has been haunting my thoughts. one day i left the literacy center where i taught literacy/english to illiterate spanish speakers i was met in the parking lot by a good-looking youngish man in shabby clothing. the shabby clothing did not disguise his confident body language as he strode toward me on my way to the bus stop.
"excuse me," he called with cultured social skill, "i wonder if i might speak to you a moment."
my bus was half an hour away. i invited him to sit with me on the bench. i was rewarded with an intimate history of the neighborhood in which we sat. it was fairly remote when the newly freed slaves began building their first free colony there in the late 1800's. he introduced himself as chris, a descendant of those colonists. few of them have ever lived elsewhere. they were a proud and tight community known only for their spectacular juneteenth celebrations.
he followed me onto the bus, continuing his story as we entered the bus. after a few blocks he invited me to dismount and walk with him awhile. i amnae certain i could have said no. i was captivated by his silky voice and deep eyes. i am guessing he was the community preacher. just guessing. he showed me his aunt mabel's neatly manicured little house where she had been born and lived her entire life. he then pointed to the ramshackle houses around her, filled with latino style clutter and stated, "the hispanics are chasing us out. your esl classes are what is attracting them."
chris failed to save his historic little community, but he sure put a ding in my carefully brassoed halo.