Next project

I think the title of my next project is going to be "Infiltration Nation." It's not going to be a piece of creative writing, however, but an aural art exhibit or a short documentary in the short term.

In the long-term it will be research for a "novel," where of course one of my characters is either a lawyer or an "artist" and one of the things he wants to do is ahum ... a detention center.

Well, this is his chance to either do it or at least work with others to help them do it, so why the hell not take the opportunity?

I was thinking the other day about those WWJD bracelets, and of course being in a so-called "Christian Nation," you have to ask what would Jesus do about those detention centers if he were alive today and indeed the son of God?

I believe that he would infiltrate those detention centers in order to be there with you and help you tend to those wounds.

Not that we have to get a whole messiah complex about it but we really do have to wonder, what would you do if someone you loved was locked up in one of those places for some random infraction and not just "crossing the border"?

Perhaps the thing to do is expand this notion of who is worthy of our love and our efforts.

Maybe that is "what Jesus would do." 

Another split brewing?

It seems like the immigrant rights movement is about to split yet again (and I don't bemoan this--it may be necessary), between those who will choose and attempt to go as artists into the mainstream of things, and those who, having no mainstreamable talent to exploit, will continue to labor on in not only poverty like the artists (except for the rare few that will become "profitable" at it) but also in relative obscurity, unless our mainstream media ever does a better job of covering and becoming interested in them. May these activists find the people and groups who will continue to nurture them despite this and regardless of what happens with mainstream media practices, may we continue to find the wisdom to nurture both our artists and activists without forcing them to be exactly the same thing.