Musings on Ultimate Reality, ethics, religion, social history, literature, media, and art
Showing posts with label El Paso. Show all posts
Showing posts with label El Paso. Show all posts
Thursday, September 19, 2019
TEETER-TOTTER with supposed enemies of the U.S. Use the WALL of DIVISION as a way of sharing and fun!
Governments seek to divide, to separate, to propagandize, to lie, to harm...so tragic. EVERY SINGLE KID, EVERY SINGLE HUMAN IS EQUAL AND OF INHERENT WORTH!
Look at this creative overcoming of that disheartening wall of dividing. TEETER-TOTTERING
SHARING
SEESAWING, USING THE WALL OF DIVISION AS A FULCRUM OF SHARING AND FUN!
FROM http://www.ktvu.com/news/husband-and-wife-professors-dream-up-pink-seesaws-at-us-mexico-border-long-before-president-trump
"Regardless of which president is in power, San Fratello said that the pop-up "Teeter Totter Wall," was created to "expose the ridiculous-ness" of separating people.
"The artful play structure, which was set up temporarily for 30 minutes on Sunday at the border of Colonia Anapra, a community on the western side of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico and Sunland Park, New Mexico, was supposed to represent whimsy and joy...
--
"SUNLAND PARK, New Mexico (KTVU) - The unusual sight of children and families laughing and bouncing up and down on neon pink seesaws straddling a steel fence dividing the United States and Mexico appeared to be a direct visual and artistic attack on the Trump Administration's anti-immigration mandates and directives.
"But Virginia San Fratello, an assistant professor of art and design at San Jose State University who lives in Oakland, said the idea for the whimsical teeter-totter was born as a result of the Secure Fence Act of 2006.
"People near Ciudad Juarez, Mexico and Sunland Park, New Mexico bounce on pink seesaws created by Ronald Rael and Viginia San Fratello. June 28, 2019 Photo: Rael San Fratello
People near Ciudad Juarez, Mexico and Sunland Park, New Mexico bounce on pink seesaws created by Ronald Rael and Viginia San Fratello. June 28, 2019 Photo: Rael San Fratello
The act authorized and partially funded nearly 700 miles of fencing along the border. According to government figures, U.S. Customers and Border Protection has spent about $2.4 billion on fencing, gates, roads and infrastructure along the nearly 2,000-mile southwest border from 2007 to 2015.
"This idea came long before Trump," San Frateloo said in a phone interview on Tuesday.
Mauricio Martínez
✔
@martinezmau
Artists installed seesaws at the border wall so that kids in the U.S. and Mexico could play together. It was designed by architect Ronald Rael.
"Beautiful reminder that we are connected: what happens on one side impacts the other.
🇲🇽 ❤️ 🇺🇸
"Regardless of which president is in power, San Fratello said that the pop-up "Teeter Totter Wall," was created to "expose the ridiculous-ness" of separating people.
"The artful play structure, which was set up temporarily for 30 minutes on Sunday at the border of Colonia Anapra, a community on the western side of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico and Sunland Park, New Mexico, was supposed to represent whimsy and joy, she said.
"But it also represented the ramifications of political yin and yang.
"What happens to someone on one side of the border, affects someone on the other," she said.
"The seesaws, which she co-designed with UC Berkeley architecture professor Ronald Rael -- who is also her husband -- were purposely painted hot pink. That's the color that represents the hundreds of women and girls who have been killed near Ciudad Juarez during a rash of robberies and gang wars since the 1990s.
"Pictures from the scene on Sunday show a girl in pigtails laughing while riding high on the seesaw, a mother smiling and taking selfies with her baby and crowds chatting along the sandy road to watch people from different homelands connect with each other through a fence, fashioned from steel and concrete.
"The teeter-totters were fabricated in Mexico by local craftspeople and installed by a collective called Colectivo Chopeke. On the Mexican side, the gathering of people was mostly spontaneous. A residential neighborhood is located a stone's throw from the fence and families simply walked up to it and started riding.
--
"Her husband wrote on Instagram: "The wall became a literal fulcrum for U.S. - Mexico relations."
"She and Rael sent up a drone to take video of their efforts, which was tweeted by Mexican actor Mauricio Martinez, bringing international attention to their work. They each posted the video on their Instagram accounts and the story spread far and wide.
READ THE RES
"Martinez tweeted that the seesaws were a "beautiful reminder that we are connected."
In a Ted Talk that he gave, Rael, who teaches a class on "design and activism," described that the architecture as a political statement should be seen as both "satirical" and "serious."
"San Fratello and Rael conceived the idea for the seasaws as far back as 2009, which Rael documented in a book, "Borderwall as Architecture: A Manifesto for the U.S.-Mexico Boundary." But the seesaw was just one of the many ideas they had. The pair pictured building swings on to the fence "so you could literally swing over it," San Fratello said.
"They pictured a library and a burrito shop, with a portion of each building on one side of each country so people could meet halfway inside. They also drew up plans of turning the fence into a massive xylophone, where people on both sides could take turns hitting the metal and making music.
READ the rest at:
http://www.ktvu.com/news/husband-and-wife-professors-dream-up-pink-seesaws-at-us-mexico-border-long-before-president-trump
Let us think creatively of ways to artistically use the immoral and unjust acts of government to create the opposite--sharing and connecting of ALL HUMANS WHO HAVE EQUAL WORTH AND VALUE.
In the Light,
Dan Wilcox
Wednesday, February 13, 2019
EL PASO RALLY'S POLITICAL CONTRADICTIONS
El Paso
The chubby woman in a blue Pontiac
Jerked up alongside our country’s curb
Where members of contrary rallies stepped
Placarding decision street
In planned parents' hood.
One protester crossed our line,
To ask her, "What do you need?"
Bordering near to hysterical, she yelled,
“You’re wrong!” her face taut and
Yanked back from the cleft.
With drowning eyes, she shouted
“I wish I’d never been born.”
So much for ‘boarders’
And backwards wet with rivers
Walled out from us.
Then she jammed her shift's gear
And sped away, not even glancing
At Trump's declared wall or down
To her remaining child next to her,
Confused and missing her seat belt.
First pub.
in Unlikely Stories IV
in different form
Labels:
abortion,
ambiguity,
borders,
Build the Wall,
confused,
criminals,
debacle,
El Paso,
immigration,
immoral,
planned parenhood,
political,
protesters,
rivers,
Trump rallies,
U.S. First,
unequal,
unjust
Monday, November 5, 2018
Help Asylum-Seeking Mother Separated from her 7-year-old Son at U.S. Border
from Amnesty International:
"In March, Valquiria and her seven-year-old son Abel* fled Brazil and requested asylum in the US after death threats from drug traffickers. US border authorities forcibly separated them and continue to detain Valquiria...US immigration authorities must immediately free Valquiria while she pursues her asylum claim.
"...she received repeated death threats from drug traffickers who said they would kill her and her son no matter where they fled to in Brazil. On 17 March, after one night together in detention, US border authorities forcibly separated them without giving any reason, and transferred Valquiria to a detention facility called El Paso Processing Center.
"On 27 March, a US asylum officer found that Valquiria’s story was credible and justified her fear that she and her son could be killed if they returned to Brazil, allowing her to continue her asylum claim. There was no explanation as to why Valquiria was separated from her son, even though she had their identifying documents and her asylum case file recognized their family relation.
"On 10 May and 26 October, Amnesty International interviewed Valquiria in detention, where she repeatedly wept as she recounted the moment that US authorities separated her from Abel. In deep despair, Valquiria told Amnesty International of how the separation from her son had lessened her will to live.
"On 10 September, Valquiria’s asylum claim was rejected and she began the appeal process, still in immigration detention and separated from Abel. Abel is now staying with his father, who is free in the US as he pursues a separate asylum claim. Seven months after their separation and still traumatized, Abel stares at the door waiting for his mother to come home, and still cannot understand why his mother does not come home. He will turn eight-years-old on 24 November and he dreams of seeing his mother before then.
"Asylum-seekers’ right to personal liberty should be fully respected. Detention or other measures short of detention, such as restrictions on the right to freedom of movement, should only be used when necessary and proportionate and should be justified on a case-by-case basis.
"1) TAKE ACTION
Write a letter, send an email, call, fax or tweet:
Urging them to immediately grant Valquiria humanitarian parole while she awaits the decision on her asylum claim appeal, as parole should be granted for humanitarian reasons where the person does not pose a threat to public safety and presents no flight risk;
"Calling on them to provide psychosocial support to Valquiria and her son, to help them recover from the trauma experienced from their unlawful family separation;
"Calling on them to ensure asylum seekers are only detained when necessary and proportionate in the individual case, and to grant humanitarian parole to all asylum seekers whenever possible.
Contact this official by 5 December 2018:
ICE Field Office Director
Marc Moore
Ice Enforcement & Removal Operations, El Paso Field Office
11541 Montana Ave Suite E
El Paso, TX, 79936, USA
Email: Marc.J.Moore@ice.dhs.gov
Salutation: Mr. Moore
"The cases of Valquiria and her son Abel were profiled in the October 2018 Amnesty International report, “You Don’t Have Any Rights Here”: Illegal Pushbacks, Arbitrary Detention, and Ill-treatment of Asylum-Seekers in the United States.
Read the rest of the Urgent Action request at:
https://www.amnestyusa.org/urgent-actions/urgent-action-mother-and-son-separated-by-border-authorities-usa-ua-185-18/
In the Light,
Daniel Wilcox
Thursday, October 29, 2015
Abortion and Immigration: A Different Quakerly Take
First, look at and reflect on two situations (If you already know a lot about the controversies and dislike poems, skip half way down to the Take):
El Paso
The chubby woman in a blue Pontiac
Jerked up alongside our country's curb
Where members of a silent vigil stepped
Placarding decision avenue.
One protestor crossed our line,
To ask her what she needed.
Bordering near to hysterical, she yelled,
"You're wrong!" her face taut and
Yanked back from the cleft.
With drowning eyes, she shouted,
"I wish I'd never been born."
So much for 'boarders'
And backwards wet with rivers.
Then she jammed her shift into gear
And sped away, not even glancing
At the clambered wall or
Down
At her remaining child
Ensconced next to her,
Missing her seatbelt.
-First pub. in Unlikely Stories
--
A poem created from New York's news, from the persona of a girl, lost but then...
The Daughter's Return
Behind the Purple People Eater
Down on the Lower East Side
From the Garden, I smoked
And tried to calm myself.
Turning and turning and turning...
A high school female so mature
For my age, I had used a false I.D.
And entered the rock club
With several gal friends.
Turning and turning and turning...
I looked at chipped nail polish
on my thumb and flicked ashes
Down to the icy pavement,
Disappearing into
Turning and turning and turning...
The grimy snow shoved
Against the brick building by some
Janitor. Ice glistened from a blue
Light above the club's alley door.
Turning and turning and turning...
I clenched up--another painful after
Contraction, and hugged my loose skirt,
Aching and still disoriented
From earlier when I had washed
Turning and turning and turning...
Off the blood in the small porcelain
Sink in the empty lady's room,
After disposing of my underwear
And my wet jacket, I had sat on
Turning and turning and turning...
Leaning against the beige stall
Shoving and shoving.
But now I flicked the butt
In the snow and pushed past
Turning and turning and turning...
The squat cook in the tiny kitchenette
And through the girls' door again,
Leaned into the mirror on the wall
And applied heavy shadow
Turning and turning and turning...
Around my wandering eyes,
Straightened my skimpy skirt,
Stared in the mirror for more
Moments, then undid another
Turning and turning and turning...
Button on my navy blue blouse.
I sprayed a dash of Estee Lauder
On my sweated body and shoved
Through the door but thought of--
Turning and turning and turning...
Baby of mine, now hidden,
Stashed in the Giants' jacket
Shoved far down in back
In the trash dumpster.
Turning and turning and turning...
I blinked, clinched my fingers,
But licked my lips and then sauntered
Back into the darkened club
Where gyrating flesh
Turning and turning and turning...
Channeled the crashing drums,
And I scanned the sensed mesh
Of moving flashed skin
Prodding for a night man.
Turning and turning and turning...
That's when I slumped down
Collapsing to the floor
Only to wake later
Turning in...
The Hospice of the Virgin.
-First pub. in Word Riot
Usually, when people discuss or debate the topics of anti-abortion versus pro-abortion and anti-immigration versus pro-immigration, the huge emphasis is on religion, politics, science and economics and the opposition. Which is okay; actually not because it becomes so ideological.
Those long complex contrary explanations and debates are understandable. But given how much insufferable heat and harm they cause, and how little light gets shown (now and in the past), it seems unlikely they have really helped women, infants, poor Americans and immigrants.
Consider a different perspective, A DIFFERENT TAKE:
How about all of us humans look at abortion and anti-immigration from the standpoint of Friendly ethical truths--generosity, empathy, compassion, and non-violence?
Would this not be a discussion changer?
No longer would these two scalding potatoes be divisive, all about “OUR” rights (mothers who want to abort and Americans who want to keep immigrants out) versus the needs of others (unwanted fetuses and illegal immigrants).
Nor would scientific facts or economic factors or theological claims have much of a show.
Let’s skip the much debated argument about whether a human at conception has a “soul.”
Let’s also skip the economic/political belief whether or not an invisible border between countries is real. Often, of course, nationalists make it visible with a high wall or security fence. Check out the U.S. El Paso border with Cuidad Juarez, Mexico or Israel's with Palestine.
How would a generous person, a compassionate person, a non-violent person deal with the unwanted fetus and the suffering mom, the unwanted illegal alien and the suffering out-of-work American who worries others (from elsewhere) will take away his job?
And don’t speak of murdering pre-born infants. Many of the aborted are barely out of the cell stage. According to Planned Parenthood, "64.5 percent take place within the first eight weeks" of pregnancy.
10 weeks
On the other hand, pregnancies aren’t “unwanted tissue” like some pro-abortionists claim. Brain waves start in about the 6th week. By 7 weeks, it will be able to open and close its fist and already can grasp an object! Sucking the thumb has been documented at about 7 weeks, too. She/he will soon be squinting, frowning, and grimacing with his/her face.
Again, think about my central point:
How about we look at abortion by a pregnant woman from the perspective of generosity, empathy, compassion, and non-violence?
How about we stop using pregnancy as a political football and return the controversial topic to the doctor and the pregnant woman?
How about we look at immigration from the standpoint of generosity, empathy, compassion, non-violence?
Would this be a discussion changer?
In the Light,
Daniel Wilcox
El Paso
The chubby woman in a blue Pontiac
Jerked up alongside our country's curb
Where members of a silent vigil stepped
Placarding decision avenue.
One protestor crossed our line,
To ask her what she needed.
Bordering near to hysterical, she yelled,
"You're wrong!" her face taut and
Yanked back from the cleft.
With drowning eyes, she shouted,
"I wish I'd never been born."
So much for 'boarders'
And backwards wet with rivers.
Then she jammed her shift into gear
And sped away, not even glancing
At the clambered wall or
Down
At her remaining child
Ensconced next to her,
Missing her seatbelt.
-First pub. in Unlikely Stories
--
A poem created from New York's news, from the persona of a girl, lost but then...
The Daughter's Return
Behind the Purple People Eater
Down on the Lower East Side
From the Garden, I smoked
And tried to calm myself.
Turning and turning and turning...
A high school female so mature
For my age, I had used a false I.D.
And entered the rock club
With several gal friends.
Turning and turning and turning...
I looked at chipped nail polish
on my thumb and flicked ashes
Down to the icy pavement,
Disappearing into
Turning and turning and turning...
The grimy snow shoved
Against the brick building by some
Janitor. Ice glistened from a blue
Light above the club's alley door.
Turning and turning and turning...
I clenched up--another painful after
Contraction, and hugged my loose skirt,
Aching and still disoriented
From earlier when I had washed
Turning and turning and turning...
Off the blood in the small porcelain
Sink in the empty lady's room,
After disposing of my underwear
And my wet jacket, I had sat on
Turning and turning and turning...
Leaning against the beige stall
Shoving and shoving.
But now I flicked the butt
In the snow and pushed past
Turning and turning and turning...
The squat cook in the tiny kitchenette
And through the girls' door again,
Leaned into the mirror on the wall
And applied heavy shadow
Turning and turning and turning...
Around my wandering eyes,
Straightened my skimpy skirt,
Stared in the mirror for more
Moments, then undid another
Turning and turning and turning...
Button on my navy blue blouse.
I sprayed a dash of Estee Lauder
On my sweated body and shoved
Through the door but thought of--
Turning and turning and turning...
Baby of mine, now hidden,
Stashed in the Giants' jacket
Shoved far down in back
In the trash dumpster.
Turning and turning and turning...
I blinked, clinched my fingers,
But licked my lips and then sauntered
Back into the darkened club
Where gyrating flesh
Turning and turning and turning...
Channeled the crashing drums,
And I scanned the sensed mesh
Of moving flashed skin
Prodding for a night man.
Turning and turning and turning...
That's when I slumped down
Collapsing to the floor
Only to wake later
Turning in...
The Hospice of the Virgin.
-First pub. in Word Riot
Usually, when people discuss or debate the topics of anti-abortion versus pro-abortion and anti-immigration versus pro-immigration, the huge emphasis is on religion, politics, science and economics and the opposition. Which is okay; actually not because it becomes so ideological.
Those long complex contrary explanations and debates are understandable. But given how much insufferable heat and harm they cause, and how little light gets shown (now and in the past), it seems unlikely they have really helped women, infants, poor Americans and immigrants.
Consider a different perspective, A DIFFERENT TAKE:
How about all of us humans look at abortion and anti-immigration from the standpoint of Friendly ethical truths--generosity, empathy, compassion, and non-violence?
Would this not be a discussion changer?
No longer would these two scalding potatoes be divisive, all about “OUR” rights (mothers who want to abort and Americans who want to keep immigrants out) versus the needs of others (unwanted fetuses and illegal immigrants).
Nor would scientific facts or economic factors or theological claims have much of a show.
Let’s skip the much debated argument about whether a human at conception has a “soul.”
Let’s also skip the economic/political belief whether or not an invisible border between countries is real. Often, of course, nationalists make it visible with a high wall or security fence. Check out the U.S. El Paso border with Cuidad Juarez, Mexico or Israel's with Palestine.
How would a generous person, a compassionate person, a non-violent person deal with the unwanted fetus and the suffering mom, the unwanted illegal alien and the suffering out-of-work American who worries others (from elsewhere) will take away his job?
And don’t speak of murdering pre-born infants. Many of the aborted are barely out of the cell stage. According to Planned Parenthood, "64.5 percent take place within the first eight weeks" of pregnancy.
10 weeks
On the other hand, pregnancies aren’t “unwanted tissue” like some pro-abortionists claim. Brain waves start in about the 6th week. By 7 weeks, it will be able to open and close its fist and already can grasp an object! Sucking the thumb has been documented at about 7 weeks, too. She/he will soon be squinting, frowning, and grimacing with his/her face.
Again, think about my central point:
How about we look at abortion by a pregnant woman from the perspective of generosity, empathy, compassion, and non-violence?
How about we stop using pregnancy as a political football and return the controversial topic to the doctor and the pregnant woman?
How about we look at immigration from the standpoint of generosity, empathy, compassion, non-violence?
Would this be a discussion changer?
In the Light,
Daniel Wilcox
Sunday, July 27, 2014
Walls and Border Fences
Walls
“American didn’t bring democracy. It brought walls.” Yousif al-Timimi in National Geographic July 2011
There’s something in man, uh human
‘That loves a wall’…
Jerusalem
China
Istanbul
Hadrian
Mellah
Venice
Pale
Richmond…well,
An upside-down
Walled trench;
Speaking of
‘Somme’
Others…
Warsaw
Berlin
Panmunjom
Ben Hai…a river wall,
Selma
BelfastKashmir
Baghdad
Gaza
Yuma…ah finally a rime,
Aleppo,
El Pas--
‘Add’ nauseam
And
Two kinds of mortars
Bricks ‘unmortified’
Mortgaging tomorrow for yesterday;
Good ‘fencing’, uh yes, ‘know’…
In the Light,
Daniel Wilcox
*First published in The New Verse News
in different form
*Robert Frost
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