I’ve always been haunted by fables of doppelgängers, humans transfigured by sickness or greed. In Washington, D.C., the transformation isn’t always dramatic—but it’s staring us right in the face.
Christ, this was jarring. Thank you Seth, it's incredibly well-written and, with it, frightening. I have been unable to pen anything so spot-on of my own, only what I have been stating on my own account about understandable conflicting responses to ICE on my own small city's streets and the brave people standing up to them: Fight and Flight. One can absolutely experience both emotions simultaneously. I do appreciate you talking to the National Guard, it humanizes them to you but also you the citizens to them. ICE is a different matter and as I wrote on my FB today, in sharing the photos someone took at NYC Immigration COurt yesterday when an Ecuadorian man was taken away with force in front of wife and children IMMEDIATELY after a judge granted the family another's year stay, they seem like the truly extrajudicial force that dictators/authoritarians/totalitarians and fascists of all stripes have commonly employed to carry out their cruel desires. Thank you again.
Ah, thank YOU Tony, truly! Funny (not) I was trying to combine this with a new concept for me: That along with Fight and Flight, there's Fawn: Appropriating the uniform and the manners of the Other. A post for another day?
Oh, Seth. When I met you, I was simply a fan of your band, Circus Lupus. Now Ifind myself in constant admiration of your searing insights and really relatable-observations. Either way, what you describe here terrifies me, terrifies my parents, raises questions about how long we can live in USA.
Thanks for writing and sharing this Seth. I am curious about the checkpoints. Do they stop every car? Pedestrians and bikers? Does it cause traffic jams? Are people pissed? If you get stopped do you have to show ID?
I share your discomfort with our collective lack of resistance. And the growing, undeniable sense that we are watching terrible things happen and doing…. Not enough.
Thank you Dear! I haven't been to a checkpoint yet (UGH), but so far it seems they either post at major intersections (like 18th & Columbia in the heart of the Latin American district) or descend on schools when they let out. It's so predictable, vile, sad.
The troops aren't here in Boston yet, but ICE sure is. Every day, I wonder, "Could I get caught up in a swoop?" because my skin is a certain hue. I know what having soldiers in the streets and armed checkpoints feels like from my time living in London during the 80s when the IRA was in full swing. My husband was from Ulster. I recall how those in the Irish Republic compartmentalized what was happening, as if it had little to do with them, and I thought to myself, this could never happen in America. And now it has.
Christ, this was jarring. Thank you Seth, it's incredibly well-written and, with it, frightening. I have been unable to pen anything so spot-on of my own, only what I have been stating on my own account about understandable conflicting responses to ICE on my own small city's streets and the brave people standing up to them: Fight and Flight. One can absolutely experience both emotions simultaneously. I do appreciate you talking to the National Guard, it humanizes them to you but also you the citizens to them. ICE is a different matter and as I wrote on my FB today, in sharing the photos someone took at NYC Immigration COurt yesterday when an Ecuadorian man was taken away with force in front of wife and children IMMEDIATELY after a judge granted the family another's year stay, they seem like the truly extrajudicial force that dictators/authoritarians/totalitarians and fascists of all stripes have commonly employed to carry out their cruel desires. Thank you again.
Ah, thank YOU Tony, truly! Funny (not) I was trying to combine this with a new concept for me: That along with Fight and Flight, there's Fawn: Appropriating the uniform and the manners of the Other. A post for another day?
Oh, Seth. When I met you, I was simply a fan of your band, Circus Lupus. Now Ifind myself in constant admiration of your searing insights and really relatable-observations. Either way, what you describe here terrifies me, terrifies my parents, raises questions about how long we can live in USA.
Appreciate this deeply, Peter.
Thanks for writing and sharing this Seth. I am curious about the checkpoints. Do they stop every car? Pedestrians and bikers? Does it cause traffic jams? Are people pissed? If you get stopped do you have to show ID?
I share your discomfort with our collective lack of resistance. And the growing, undeniable sense that we are watching terrible things happen and doing…. Not enough.
Thank you Dear! I haven't been to a checkpoint yet (UGH), but so far it seems they either post at major intersections (like 18th & Columbia in the heart of the Latin American district) or descend on schools when they let out. It's so predictable, vile, sad.
The troops aren't here in Boston yet, but ICE sure is. Every day, I wonder, "Could I get caught up in a swoop?" because my skin is a certain hue. I know what having soldiers in the streets and armed checkpoints feels like from my time living in London during the 80s when the IRA was in full swing. My husband was from Ulster. I recall how those in the Irish Republic compartmentalized what was happening, as if it had little to do with them, and I thought to myself, this could never happen in America. And now it has.
Oof. Feel that. I spend a little time in Ireland and N. Ireland in the early ‘90s, and I was struck by how familiar it felt. The past is the future?