Building One Community and Learning From Law (and Courts). That is the Only Hope.

Last night, I was invited as a special guest for an evening Asylum seekers, refugees, and undocumented immigrants where I listened to Dr. William O. Douglas, Professor of Law and Counselor at Yale Law School, Swapna Reddy, and Liz Willis, both graduates of Yale Law School, on their current work in courts given the legislation that has arrived since inauguration in 2017.

Their belief? These times and the harsh actions against immigrants and refugees (insert Statue of Liberty here) will play out in courts. We are a land of laws and lawless behaviors and demands made by a current wave in Washington will need to be presented before judges who create, know, and represent the law. Illegal actions, conversations of our constitution and democracy, and arrests tearing apart families today will likely continue, but eventually the court of laws will be the arbiters of justice for what the United States was designed to be and to stand for. They're pessimistic, but also optimistic that checks and balances will do what they were designed to do with gavels at the helm.

The stories I heard last night: parents arrested and taken from children, women having newborns taken from them while breastfeeding, and officers wrestling individuals to the ground as soon as they walk in a grocery story, a government building, a school, or a medical facility, were alarming. Some of these individuals are 3rd generation Americans, but they don't fit an administration's view of what that America should look like.  I can't get the image of children out of my head...the screaming in school as their parents are arrested dropping them off for class each day. That is for the work these lawyers do. Their workload has been overwhelming in the last year.

At the event, I happened to see one of the few refugee faces in the crowd - a young man who looked like the many Sudanese refugees I've worked with in Louisville and Syracuse. His name was Abe and he was at the event because his wife and children, in Juba, Sudan, can't come to the United States. He's an American citizen, college-educated, and an accountant. Yet, policies are keeping him separated from his loved ones. His children are U.S. citizens, but his wife's status is being questioned so they are being denied a return to Connecticut. Their case is trapped in U.S. courts.

The evening was surreal, and I kept thinking about my sisters and their children, especially when they were young, and what their lives would have been like if Nikki, Dylan, Sean or Jacob were kept from them...if they were not allowed to see them...if they were separated. I just can't imagine what these families are going through.

And what I learned last night is that imagination is pointless.  It's now time for courts to check and, hopefully, balance the drives behind all that is occurring right now. I'm entering my Friday in more awe than ever (and I'm shaking my head).

Yoda. The force needs you.