{"id":45798,"date":"2020-12-25T23:57:07","date_gmt":"2020-12-26T04:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/?p=45798"},"modified":"2020-12-26T01:57:07","modified_gmt":"2020-12-26T06:57:07","slug":"seasons-greetings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2020\/12\/seasons-greetings\/","title":{"rendered":"Season’s Greetings for a Dumpster-Fire Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you happen to be in New York, the beautiful Christmas lights at Saks are worth seeing. Recently, I joined the activists of Rise and Resist<\/a> to check out the light show, which includes a soundtrack. There’s nothing like hearing “Feliz Navidad” booming down 5th Avenue! Why is that song such an earworm? The thing is, I don’t even mind it. I can happily sing “Feliz Navidad” to myself all year long. Anyway, we brought along some additional decorations.<\/p>\n

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Photo by George De Castro Day<\/p><\/div><\/center><\/p>\n

That message might seem jarring to you, but I think it’s vital to acknowledge the many who are in mourning this holiday season. Denial won’t erase the fact that more than 300,000 people died this year from COVID-19 (for comparison, it took 10 years for AIDS to kill more 100,000 people in the U.S.<\/a>) and the toll wouldn’t have been that high if we’d had an intelligent, consistent public-health response<\/a>. Rise and Resist also continues to fight for immigrants, including the hundreds of thousands of people who have been detained and\/or deported by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Photo by George De Castro Day<\/p><\/div><\/center><\/p>\n

ICE is not some historic American institution — not that longevity would make it any better. It was founded in 2003 in the post-9\/11 panic because of the now provably wrong idea<\/a> that the bigget threat to the U.S. was terrorists from overseas. Remember how 15 of the 19 September 11 hijackers were Saudi nationals?<\/a> Well, under the Trump administration<\/a>, Saudi Arabia is lauded as a great customer for U.S.-made weapons<\/a>. <\/p>\n

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The day before the Saks event, Mary and Joseph made an appearance in front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral.<\/p><\/div><\/center><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, ICE keeps itself busy by snatching up people who don’t actually buy bombs in mass quantities. That sometimes includes American citizens, from high school students<\/a> to Marine veterans<\/a>. Conditions in ICE detentions centers are horrific and COVID-19 is rampant<\/a>. And this is not just a border issue. ICE is detaining people in jails all over the country, including one that’s a short bus ride away from New York City in Bergen County, N.J.<\/a>. Several prisoners went on a month-long hunger strike<\/a>, while protestors who showed up to support<\/a> them were gassed and arrested by police<\/a>. I grew up in Bergen County — in Mahwah, which isn’t so far away from the jail in the town of Hackensack — so I felt compelled to show up, in case my presence could be of any help. I was there on a quiet day, and the cops were still aggressive. For instance, I was taking a picture of the jail’s sign from across the street when this guy rolled up to try to block my view, and then yelled at us that we couldn’t take photos.<\/p>\n

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Seriously? First of all, we can take legally photos in public. Second, if you want to try to keep your horrible prison top secret, maybe don’t put it a block from the bus stop in a bedroom community that’s a 50-minute drive from Manhattan (just 30 minutes by train)? Like, there is nothing low-key about this place at all. <\/p>\n

If you’re on Instagram, you can follow BLM Bergen County to keep up on what’s happening<\/a>. And if you’re a musician or know one, spread the word about this plan for musical protests. The detainees have reported that they can<\/em> hear protestors from inside, and they get a morale boost from the support.<\/p>\n

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A post shared by blm x teaneck (@blmxteaneck)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n