Extra Voices, July 6
The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by the contributors to Extra Voices on this website do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of The Frederick Extra.
My Road, My America
Ysela Bravo-Schwetje
I was born in Los Angeles, my mom in Texas and my dad in Mexico. They met in Juarez, Mexico, and eventually moved to Los Angeles where they opened a successful restaurant. My dad didn’t get past the eighth grade, but he taught himself to read and write in English.
My husband and two children moved with me to Frederick County ten years ago, and I have to admit, I was worried about what it would be like. Mount Airy did not have high numbers of minorities, but the people I did meet were friendly and open. Best decision we ever made. The schools are fantastic, the area is beautiful, and not once in nine years did I experience overt racism.
I volunteered at the kids’ school and consider myself blessed to call Frederick home. Five years ago my family and I lost our home to a fire. We lost everything. But I can’t think of that tragedy without feeling immensely grateful and fortunate because my community supported me - no, buoyed me - and I am eternally grateful. Strangers and friends shared tears with me, looked for my lost dog and kept me in their thoughts for months. Frederick has my heart, and I truly believe I wouldn’t have received such an outpouring from any other place.
So, it’s been painful to see the changes I see to my town, the town I associate with so much good. Since Donald Trump began his campaign with saying that most Mexican immigrants are rapists, I have been cursed at for wearing green on St. Patrick’s Day, verbally jeered at, endured patrons at restaurants loudly berating Mexicans, and have had my kid be told she’d be deported. My third generation, American-born kid.
I am angry at the open racism that seems to now be acceptable. I am a proud woman of color, and I wonder how people can be so ignorant. But truthfully, more than mad, I’m broken hearted. I look at my history and see the picture of assimilation. And yet, I, and my child that looks like me, are still thought of as “other”.
The elementary school I attended had predominantly Mexican students. Spanish was commonly spoken, and we did the Sombrero dance at celebrations. My grade school class was all Latino, save for one white guy, one Chinese guy and two black guys. The people in my community were mostly Latino as well, and plenty of them didn’t speak much English. Mariachi music was played at all celebrations and salsa verde was served with our Thanksgiving turkey.
In ninth grade, I went to high school at an all girls’ Catholic school run by liberal nuns in the middle of Hollywood. It was my first experience with a large mix of different races, primarily white, my first time as a minority.
I vividly remember a student explaining she didn’t like the word “Chicana” or “Mexican American,” because she preferred “American Mexican.” American first. It really spoke to me, but as I got older, I realized I was “Mexican American” because that is what people see. And the more I hear the insults against fellow Mexican Americans, the more I embrace Mexican.
People can wholeheartedly believe that they are flattering me, and not realize the way their words reflect their stereotyping of me. “Compliments” I’ve received from people not of color include:
1) “Are you sure you’re Mexican? You must have something else in you. You’re so pretty."
2) “I knew you were Mexican as soon as I saw you. I love your people. (My maid, my landscapers, etc.) are so (kind, honest, good at cooking). I just love people like you.”
Folks have no problem comparing me to new immigrant maids and menial workers. I think the work is noble - but were your last name O’Brian, can you imagine someone telling you they “know” you because they were served beer by a recent Irish immigrant? I’m a 50-year-old woman, a college grad, a professional (my last job was as human resources director for over 400 employees at ITT , who manufactured radar) yet I’m loved because I’m just like their help.
And that’s when people are trying to be nice. A few years back, a young boy sang the national anthem in a mariachi suit. He did a fabulous job, and yet he received thousands of comments telling him to go back to Mexico. The boy’s performance was American; it represented my experience in Los Angeles, a city full of Mexican history. But millions of Americans don’t see it that way. Remember the guy at the Republican National Convention in 2016 ranting about having to listen to “their music”? That’s probably our music he’s talking about. And it’s played all over California which I’d love dear Middle America to acknowledge. Instead, my American life is constantly called foreign.
I’m told that there is no “white” privilege. I had dinner with a dear friend and on the way in, I was harassed because of my ethnicity. After we settled down, she told me she had thought I had always made too much of race, but now she understood. And that’s the thing: how do you know there is no racism if you have never been the victim of it?
The denial that my experience is different is rooted in a blissful ignorance. I never turn on the television, go to the movies, or look at any group in power and expect to see anyone that looks like me. When a news story is reported about any sort of crime, no matter how petty, I cringe, say a prayer and cross my fingers as I look for the name of the person who committed the crime. “Please don’t let them have a Latin name,” I recite over and over again.
I was with a Turkish friend after the Boston bombing and she let me know that she and her friends wanted Americans to know they were so sorry for his behavior. It’s a thing we “ethnic” people do: worry about crazy strangers we never met and how their actions affect the way people see us.
I was thrilled the first time I went to an American Girl store in Los Angeles, because there were actually girl dolls that looked like me and mine. Then I saw their Hall of Fame on the second floor, and not one doll that looked like me. Not even one minority. I could go on and on with ways my American life is different because of the color of my skin.
Even my very liberal friends, whom I love, say things that doubt my experience. “I don’t think it’s racist;” “It’s not that bad;” “Are you sure it’s racist?;” and, “Maybe they meant it nice”, etc. You get the picture. I get they don’t want to know someone was intentionally ugly to me. I wish with every fiber of my being for the same thing. Or, they try to tell me how to handle it. I’ve been told to ignore and get over it because it’s just an ignorant person. Sure, but it still hurts to be dehumanized and I’m the only one in my group being subject to that behavior. Or better, the advice is for me to retaliate in some way with a witty remark or an insult of my own.
Nothing in me is ready for a witty retort when I’m in a situation where I’m being racially targeted. And as most people question racism, I also question it. I hope I’m wrong, even though my gut knows I’m spot on. When I get home, I think of all the things I should have said but I was busy justifying my feelings in my head and holding myself together.
When someone has extensively traveled a road you’ve never seen, you usually will trust they know the markers on the road better than you. But with racism, people who will never walk my road deny my road even exists. Ignorance isn’t a bad thing, but willful ignorance in this case is based on denying what I, and all people of color, know to be true. I’m still waiting for a person not of color to not see the racism I see and say, “I don’t see it, but you would know better. Can you explain it to me so I can understand?”
I don’t think the world is full of racists. I know it isn’t. The majority of people are kind. I truly believe that. It just seems to me when people define the American experience, they completely leave out my America. I’m second generation born, and yet people still ask where I’m from. When does my childhood America get stitched into the quilt of Americana?
Bravo-Schwetje is host of Bravo and Quill, featured on 1450 AM The Source
The Disease Within Us
Andy Stout
The conduct of Mr. Trump is akin to a lesion one finds on the skin . . . it is of concern and uncomfortable, but the lesion itself is not the real issue. The real issue is the disease within us that has caused the lesion.
As we see the leader of the free world conduct himself in such shameful ways, with total disregard for anyone else, we must really ask ourselves what this says about our contemporary American culture as a whole, and about each of us as a part of it.
If Mr. Trump is the lesion, it would seem that the diagnosis for the body politic is rather concerning, if not dire. Let us just hope that it isn't terminal.
Scholars refer to our current times as "pseudo-modernity." This age is characterized by a sense of "normlessness," ushered in with the advent of the internet. Within this context, the rise and conduct of Mr. Trump makes complete sense, but that still doesn't make it right.
The point I'm attempting to make is that for every outrage perpetuated by our current man-child in the White House, it is really only an honest (albeit sad and often tragic) reflection of thousands of interactions that happen each day across the country between men and women, conservatives and liberals, latinos and anglos, etc.
We have become crass, crude, ignorant, hostile and intolerant and Mr. Trump is symbolic of that. He is our mirror, as horrifying as that is to accept. A mere amplification of a million different social interactions that take place each day. While we are not all entirely like this, of course, it does seem that more and more, these behaviors are becoming normalized to a degree. This is not ok, nor is it good for our democracy.
It is up to each of us to conduct ourselves in exemplary fashion to combat all of this darkness. We cannot allow our country to become a tabloid/reality show.
As a 12th generation "American" (Stouts were here before it was a country) I'm keenly aware that none of this "belongs" to anyone. No one group owns the notion of what is an "American" because we all are. We are all in this together, and we should really try to start acting like it. We will each define the future of our nation, by the often seemingly mundane day-to-day interactions with our fellow citizens in the present.
Since our current president is unable to provide any moral leadership for our country, and seems intent on destroying the free press and various institutions, it will be up to each of us to lead by example to the greatest degree possible. We all need to dig deeper and try harder regardless of our political persuasion. We must move beyond the false binary of division, and towards an educated understanding and appreciation of each other as fellow citizens. We need to stop taking things for granted.
Out of Reach
Dan Rupli
Boy, are my face and neck a mess! I look like a guy who just lost a serious knife fight. The fact is I just recovered from surgery on my thyroid where a very large mass was removed from my neck and chest by a world class surgeon in a world class hospital-Johns Hopkins in Baltimore.
The problem was diagnosed by accident last year when an X-ray was taken at Howard Community Hospital for an unrelated leg infection.
I marvel at the magnificent progress that has been made in the healing arts during my lifetime, and I consider myself doubly blessed to have had access to such magnificent medical treatment through Lyndon Johnson's brilliant and compassionate Medicare program.
But my experience has been bittersweet, because of the realization that the life-preserving procedure I just received is outside the reach of millions of my fellow countrymen, who need it as much as I do.
We are at this very moment locked in a bizarre debate over a draconian Republican attempt to "remove and replace" Obamacare, an imperfect but sincere historic first step to provide comprehensive health care to all Americans. And I don't even know how this can be called a debate. A debate requires the serious and principled participation of multiple players, which the Republicans clearly are not.
The Congressional Budget Office report recently suggested that the Senate version of the Republican "health plan" would remove 22 million Americans from the health care rolls; dramatically raise health care premiums; raise copay payments by 74% on the elderly and the poor; emaciate Medicaid, and provide the wealthiest among us with hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts. What in the hell are Republicans smoking? What they are proposing is not a health care proposal, it is a cruel and unusual death sentence.
Are we no longer capable of having a serious discussion about how to provide basic health care services to all who need them? I am deeply ashamed of the Party and its "leadership" that has brought us to this terrible moment in history. Republicans control the Supreme Court, the Presidency, the Governorships, the State legislatures, both Houses of Congress -- virtually all of the instrumentalities of government, and all they have to offer our people is a modern day version of Jonestown?
Will decency prevail in all of this? If we had a responsible health care program it would provide, as a matter of right, the same quality of health care services to all of our people that the Congress provides to themselves and their families.
I am deeply grateful to Lyndon Johnson for providing me with a Medicare program that may have just saved my life. I will not rest easy until all of my fellow citizens enjoy that very same benefit.
Does 287g make us safer? You be the judge
Karl Bickel
Is our community safer because of the cooperative relationship between the sheriff’s office and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) 287g program? Maybe yes. Maybe no. You be the judge.
With the Trump administration’s focus on the enforcement of federal immigration laws more attention has been placed on cooperative relationships between ICE and local law enforcement agencies. That was born out here in Frederick when the Sheriff’s Office’s immigration program steering committee meeting in which the Sheriff and ICE officials touted the safety these agreements bring to communities. The June 14th meeting drew a passionate outpouring from those protesting 287g as well as a modest number of vocal supporters of 287g.
According to the Department of Homeland Security “The 287(g) program, one of ICE's top partnership initiatives, allows a state or local law enforcement entity to enter into a partnership with ICE, under a joint Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), in order to receive delegated authority for immigration enforcement within their jurisdictions.”
Does Frederick’s 287g agreement with ICE keep us safer, as the sheriff and ICE officials say, or does it just represent a false sense of security or even a clear and present danger at significant cost to the taxpayer? You be the judge.
The major law enforcement professional organizations including the National Sheriffs Association (NSA), The Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), Major Cities Chiefs Association (MCCA), The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) and the Police Foundation either fail to support or stand in opposition to local law enforcement participating in the enforcement of federal immigration laws.
If this program actually made communities safer, it is logical to conclude these organizations would be supportive. In its report “The Role of Local Police: Striking a Balance Between Immigration Enforcement and Civil Liberties,” the Police Foundation found “the costs of the 287 (g) program outweighed the benefits.”
Proponents of ICE and local law enforcement agreements frequently point to the tragic murder of Kathryn Steinle in San Francisco that took place in July of 2015. She was shot and killed by an “illegal immigrant.” The suspect, Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, had been deported five times, bringing into question the effectiveness of the current revolving door deportation program.
Stories like that of the Steinle murder and the North Hills, California deadly crash killing Sandra Duran, mother of two - in which undocumented immigrant Estuardo Alvarado was charged - though uncommon, are troubling. Alvarado, who had been arrested for more than 20 felonies since 1990 had been deported five times, again bringing into question the effectiveness of the revolving-door deportation program.
We have our own tragic example here in Frederick, In March of 2011 Berger King manager Jacinta “Patty” Ayala was murdered by Jose Reyes Mejia-Varela, a former coworker who had been deported three times.
In the June 14th steering committee presentation, the following were among the examples provided by the sheriff to demonstrate “successes” attributed to the 287g program: “Subject was arrested on attempted second degree murder, 1st and 2nd degree assault (non-family member). Subject was encountered by 287g and verified that he entered as an unaccompanied juvenile and was ordered removed.” Another “subject was arrested on 1st and 2nd degree assault, armed robbery, theft and endangerment. Sentenced to 25 years with all suspended but time served and ordered released. He was encountered by 287g and verified that he entered as an unaccompanied juvenile.”
Deportation in lieu of incarceration provides the criminal alien the chance to escape punishment and gives them a vacation in their home country at government expense prior to possible reentry into the U.S. where they can reoffend.
The University of North Carolina’s study, “The Costs and Consequences of Local Immigration Enforcement in North Carolina Communities” found that the 287g program” is not prioritizing high risk criminal aliens.” The study further states that “As an anti-immigration program that has not clearly demonstrated its efficacy as a crime prevention or reduction tool, the unintended consequences of the 287g program are far reaching.”
The study also says that “State and local jurisdictions should consider a number of cost-reducing alternatives to 287g.”
At the time of the University of North Carolina study out of over 3,000 counties in the United States, only 67 participated in the 287g program. Currently, fewer than 45 local agencies are involved in 287(g) agreements with ICE.
There is no one who objects to dangerous criminals being deported after they complete their jail or prison sentences for crimes they have committed in our community. But, deporting dangerous criminals in lieu of jail or prison may be putting our community at greater risk. You be the judge.
Karl Bickel has been published in the Baltimore Sun, The Frederick News-Post and many other venues as well as being quoted in USA Today, Huffington Post, Rolling Stone, The Daily Beast, The Washington Examiner and many more. He can be reached at KarlBickel@comcast.net
