People!
I have a cold. I’m ok. Just snotty.
So, we’re shamelessly torturing children and parents by separating them at the border. That’s what the USA is now. We torture children as an example and warning and punishment to desperate people seeking refuge. That’s the USA’s new method. Taking kids away from their mothers at a young age is torture. They will not recover from the trauma. It will define them for the rest of their lives. There is no justification for it. Warning or punishment. If you can justify this in your head you don’t believe in democracy or decency. You’re a bad egg. The USA is shamelessly torturing children as policy. What can we do? We can speak out. Or add this verse to the famous series of statements by Martin Neimoller.
‘When they came for the immigrant’s children
I did not speak out.
Because I was not an immigrant.’
You know how it ends.
‘Then they came for me—and there was no one
Left to speak for me.’
Brendan found a good organization that provides legal representation and bond funds to get parents out of immigration detention and back with their children. It's called RAICES: Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services. You can donate here. Raicestexas.org
I hope the voting works when we vote.
I went to see the Bowie exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum. It was far more amazing then I heard. The exhibition itself was really phenomenal. There was historical ephemera: clothes, records, writings, art work, a napkin with lipstick on it, photos, videos. It was completely immersive. You are in the world, history and work of Bowie.
It was crowded. I couldn’t read everything. It is a guided tour. You wear a headset that is connected to a WIFI activated receiver and it allows you to move at your own pace. What I didn’t expect was how emotional I would get. I was standing in front of a wall-sized projection of Bowie as Ziggy on Top of the Pops or some show like that singing Starman and I just started weeping. It happened over and over again watching videos and interviews. Maybe it was grief, maybe it was joy, maybe both. There was something so amazing about that guy. The way he could intentionally occupy his body in so many ways. The way he could transform himself through movement, music, costume, appearance. He represented something singular and important about creativity and its power to transform. Maybe I was grieving the fact that there seems to be less room for that now. Maybe I was grieving my own youth. Maybe I was just acknowledging how much Bowie meant to me at many stages of my own life maybe I was just feeling my mortality. Maybe I was just moved to the core.
It was great.
Today I talk to Billy Bob Thornton about Billy Bob Thornton. Good talk. On Thursday I talk to Dave Itzkoff about his amazing Robin Williams biography. Another good talk. Good week.
Enjoy!
Boomer lives!
Love,
Maron