Mercenaries In Our Midst?

Mercenaries in Our Midst? By Steve Clemens. July 29, 2009

It looked like they were expecting trouble. The two Eden Prairie police officers each wore the following: a handgun, two additional clips of ammunition, a taser, a collapsible baton, a canister of chemical agent (likely pepper spray), two sets of handcuffs, plus a couple items around their waists I couldn’t readily identify.

Who were they protecting, and why?

Every Wednesday morning from 7-8 AM, a group of 20-40 people, most of them years, if not decades, beyond 50, gather to vigil by the entrance to Alliant Techsystems (ATK), Minnesota’s largest weapons manufacturer. Ever since this war profiteer moved from Edina to Eden Prairie a little more than two years ago, this maker of cluster bombs and depleted uranium munitions has hired cops from the local city government to be stationed at the driveway entrance to their corporate headquarters off Flying Cloud Drive, just to the north of Valley View.

Typically, the contingent of two uniformed cops seem armed primarily with just their service weapon holstered at their side so I was quite taken aback by the plethora of weapons displayed around their waists today. Over the past two years there have been several arrests for trespass, most notably the past two Augusts when the company hosts its Annual Shareholders Meeting. All of those arrested at those events were shareholders who had received invitations to attend the meeting only to be told when they arrived that they could not attend and would be arrested if they didn’t leave. Those who were arrested have consistently remained nonviolent.

It is the contention of many of the regular weekly vigilers that some of the weapons made by ATK are illegal under International Humanitarian Law (aka “the rules of war”) because of their indiscriminate nature – weapons which kill or injure civilians, poison or pollute the environment, continue killing long after a war has ended, and/or cause inhumane suffering. The language of international treaties, many of which our nation has not only signed and ratified but in many cases had a major hand in drafting, identify the manufacture, sale, stockpiling, and use of such weapons as “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity”- thus making Dan Murphy, the retired Admiral and CEO of ATK a “war criminal”.

So, if the company is hiring “armed enforcers” (off-duty police) to help protect a criminal enterprise and its leader, is it morally different than a drug or mafia kingpin using his thugs to “protect his turf”? When police are hired in this case, is it significantly different than a mercenary, a “hired gun” in the service of a corrupt dictator?

But it still begs the question: why the “overkill” of weapons when “protecting” this company from a group with a long record of nonviolent protest? Does carrying all those weapons encourage their use at some point?

(Thanks to Tom Bottolene of AlliantACTION for the photos)

What I Meant To Say.

What I Meant To Say by Steve Clemens. July 23, 2009

In all my 35 years of civil disobedience actions, until this week I had never pled “guilty”. Usually I would defend myself if there weren’t a pro bono lawyer representing other defendants. Often the charges have been dismissed prior to trial and three times I’ve been found “not guilty” by a jury. When a Judge or jury finds me guilty, there is an opportunity to make a statement to the Court prior to sentencing. When I accepted a plea bargain arranged by our pro bono, National Lawyers Guild lawyer this week, I didn’t realize I wouldn’t have an opportunity to explain to the Court why I chose to be arrested. So, for the record, here is what I meant to say.

I don’t feel guilty and I am not ashamed of my actions on May 6th, the day 31 of us nonviolently blocked the driveway at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Deportation Center in Bloomington, MN. Our action was to put political and moral pressure on President Obama to stop the practice of deportation and workplace or community raids on those identified in our society as “undocumented workers”.

Please note that identity. These are not “illegal aliens”. No person should be identified as “illegal” solely based on where he/she was birthed. We are talking about fellow human beings, created in the image of God, not some strange, alien life form of some science fiction imagination. These are people seeking gainful employment so they can support their families in the face of the new economic realities impacted by the corporate domination of local economies often passing as “globalization”.

It has become abundantly evident that the political pronouncements by American Presidents beginning with Ronald Reagan about how NAFTA, CAFTA, and other “free trade” arrangements have not brought the promised economic benefits to average Mexicans, Central Americans, or others in the western hemisphere – with the notable exception of the elites within each of the affected societies. When new economic realities forced small farmers off their lands, there has not been readily-available options for those displaced to support their families outside the booming trade in illegal drugs.

For citizens of the United States to “hunker down” behind national boundaries, pretending that we don’t bear responsibility, is disingenuous at best and criminal at worst. Some of us are deliberately uninformed about the economic dystopia being created in our name while others are struggling themselves to keep their own little financial ship afloat while frantically bailing it out by working second and third jobs. Our political system tries to scapegoat and blame the victims, whether they are born here or “immigrants”.

I’m under no illusion that our collective act of resistance to our present cruel, broken immigration system will bring significant political change. Maybe the greatest effect will be on ourselves - the 31 who sat, kneeled, or stood in the driveway until the police hauled us off. I spent 7 ½ hours in police custody. Some spent up to 9 hours. It gave us some time to reflect, prisoners of our own design. Maybe if our Members of Congress or in the Administration sat on hard concrete benches with each other, with no other distractions, maybe they would come up with a more humane policy than one which divides families and criminalizes ingenuity.

I was first offered (through our attorney) the possibility of accepting an offer from the Bloomington prosecutor called a CWOP, an acronym for Continuation Without Prosecution. The CWOP is a legal maneuver to hold a charge over one’s head for a period of time (often 6 months or a year) with the promise to erase the record of your arrest if you aren’t arrested for “the same or similar” during that probation period. It is also usually accompanied with a fine that they claim is for “court costs”. I told the attorney to inform the prosecutor that I couldn’t accept any such agreement unless the government also agreed to forgo any “same or similar” behavior –i.e. meaning a halt to all deportations and ICE raids during that same period. Needless to say, that condition wasn’t not acceptable.

So, the next offer was a plea bargain to accept a reduction in charge from a misdemeanor to a petty misdemeanor (equivalent to a traffic ticket) coupled with a fine of $100 and court costs of $78. In lieu of the fine and court costs, I could agree to one day (8 hours) of STS, “Sentenced To Service”. Our attorney thought this offer was likely to be the “best” offered as a plea bargain and it was being offered to all of us appearing that day, including those with prior arrests and convictions. Often the courts make distinctions between “first-time offenders” and those with some or many “priors”. Our prosecutor couldn’t guarantee that other codefendants from our group would get the same offer if they had a different prosecutor and it was the consensus of the defendants from the previous trial group meeting to try to have all of us treated equally.

Our lawyer told us that if someone with numerous prior convictions were to accept the plea bargain offered, it would put pressure on the other prosecutors to offer the same deal to all the other defendants, most of who had no previous records. It was my original intention to go to trial, seeking to defend myself. However, with the change of the charge from trespass to presence at an unlawful assembly, I would have less ability to argue a “claim of right” defense based on the copy of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights that I carried with me when arrested. We also faced the probability that the city would lower the charge to a petty misdemeanor before trial to save the costs and time of a jury trial. While there is still some satisfaction in speaking in court, even if only to a Judge, it is always preferable to have your political case argued before a “jury of one’s peers”.

So why did I accept the plea bargain? If we went to trial, it would be about the 7th of October. I have a tacit agreement with my wife to try to have only one court case at a time (although this was already an exception since the Vets for Peace/RNC trial still hasn’t happened and has been postponed until Sept. 14th). By resolving this case, (and the RNC cse will be “resolved” with that trial), I am now free to chose to act on conscience again in early October when our AlliantACTION group has its annual Gandhi’s Birthday Action at the local war manufacturer’s headquarters.

I’m not under any illusion that STS has anything to do with “service”. It is designed to punish and to identify a punishment as “service” is to bastardize a glorious community-building concept. However, STS or court-ordered “Community Service”, while misnamed, is certainly better than locking folk up in our jails and prisons that are already shamefully over-crowded with nonviolent offenders.

So, on August 21st I report to the parking lot at Ridgedale Service Center for my STS “adventure”. If you pass a group of people wearing orange vests picking up trash alongside the highway - or doing some other task (for which we could pay someone a livable wage!), honk and waive – and then think about a creative way you can work with me to change our immigration policy in a way that promotes human dignity, protects workers, and helps feed the victims of international economic systems which crush the poor.

Conflicted about Michael

Conflicted about Michael by Steve Clemens. July 8, 2009

Anabaptists have been historically known as iconoclasts. Ever since the rise of the Anabaptist movement in the Zurich area of what is now Switzerland and southern Germany in the early 1500s and soon thereafter in the lowland area of the Netherlands under Menno Simons, the group of Christian theological dissidents nicknamed “re-baptizers” by their Catholic, Reformed, and Lutheran critics and persecutors had a reputation of walking out-of-step with the popular culture and ethos of their day.

To embrace the blogger name of Mennonista, I have signaled my own identity as a radical who sees at least part of his values and ideas in league with the movement that spawned the present-day Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites, Sojourners, and others. However, once you let that iconoclastic cat out of the bag, it is difficult to know when/where to stop the critique of the theology and culture and when to join the culture wars or consensus.

Many of the aforementioned groups have been notorious (to me) for their blind homophobia, which, coupled with a healthy (at times!) distain for popular culture, would lead me to suspect there was not a lot of mourning for the loss of Michael Jackson in those circles recently. I don’t think it will be a lead story on Mennonite Weekly Review’s next issue. But how would I know? I’ve left those circles because I didn’t want to waste my time arguing over whom God loves or condemns. For my two cents (and theology), there is no question God loves the androgynous Michael Jackson (as well as his critics). God’s grace and love have been so distorted by Bible-thumpers, Moral Majoritarians, and TV evangelists that I tire easily of those theological bigots who hide behind a Scripture verse or three to justify their exclusions.

But I still come back to the Anabaptist identity as iconoclasts. Parallels have frequently been made between the Hebrew prophets like Micah, Amos, Ezekiel, Jonah, and Isaiah and the early Anabaptists like Michael Sattler, Menno Simons, and Conrad Grebel. Both groups critiqued their societies and found them wanting. Both groups acted out of moral fervor hoping to reform or renew the theological devotion of their people. They were seen as iconoclasts because they spoke and acted against what they thought were perversions of the message of what God demands of his/her followers.

In the past two weeks since his untimely death, the popular corporate media has obsessed on the life and death of Michael Jackson, calling him the “Pop Icon” of our time. Although there are numerous additional uses for the term icon today, in the more distant past, the term was usually reserved for an image of the divine or saints that was to be venerated. So maybe the language of pop culture is correct in identifying this musician/artist/entertainer as an icon. All the enormous attention his death has received give evidence that he was “worshipped” by many.

Jackson’s death has obviously struck a chord within American (and the world’s) pop culture – enough so that our celebrity-driven media has worked overtime, falling over itself trying to cover all the angles: was MJ “black enough” or did his multiple plastic surgeries evidence his self-loathing? Was he a pedophile or merely “strange” when it came to his obsession of sleeping with young boys in his bed? Did his father abuse him and, if so, would that explain some of his behavior?

Yet the tributes aired by fellow celebrities, actors, musicians and common folk has shown what a deep connection he made for some. His music and dancing clearly brought joy and celebration to millions. Should we celebrate the art as distinguished from the artist himself? Much has been made of his generous charitable donations while others have focused on his lavish purchases for Neverland, including his $500,000 + shopping spree filmed by the BBC.

The maestro who helped write “We Are the World”, who also wrote “Black or White” and other cultural touchstones is also the artist who solidified his fame with the celebrity lament (?) – it is hard to call such a danceable tune a lament – with his best-selling hit, “Billie Jean”. “She’s not my lover, … the kid is not my son” seems to sum up the People Magazine/National Enquirer/Entertainment Tonight celebrity-scandal-driven cultural morass we still find today, 30 years later. Besides the questions raised like “Is Michael really the father of those kids?”, “Who is the birth mother of his third child?”, … we also are fixated on the recent Republican “affairs of State” of the philandering Senator Ensign and Governor Sanford, two Presidential “hopefuls” who have recently crashed and burned because they let their genitals lead instead of their heads.

But last night when I turned on the TV to watch the CBS Evening News, the first 20 minutes of the 30- minute broadcast was devoted to Michael Jackson’s memorial/funeral. This took place on a news day when the recently coup-deposed Honduran President Manuel Zelaya had come to the US to meet with Secretary of State Clinton, our President was negotiating a partial nuclear disarmament proposal with the Russians, and the Chinese government was killing protesting Uighur minority people in the streets. I guess Michael Jackson’s continued unresponsive state is more important news than the Israeli governments continued jailing of a Nobel Peace Prize winner (Mairead Maguire) and a former US Congress Member (Cynthia McKinney) for attempting to take humanitarian aid to Gaza – even though they were arrested and detailed by the Israelis in international waters! Oh, and Robert McNamara had just died – one of the prime architects of the Vietnam War debacle.

To give 2/3 of the evening news to a dead celebrity over these pressing issues makes me want to cry “Basta!, enough!” My friends Bret Hesla and Linda Breitag just released a new cd of some of their music (“What We Do”) that includes Linda’s “Basta!” song. Maybe as fellow musicians and artists they, too, have joined in mourning the loss of Michael Jackson – but as social critics and strong voices for peace and social justice, I can’t help but wonder if they too aren’t saying, “We’ll remember you, Michael, but it is time to move on and work together to make a better world where democratically elected Presidents aren’t arrested by military coups at the behest of corporate oligarchies.

Basta, enough! of celebrity worship which distracts us of the important work we need to do. Yes, we can take some time to sing and dance (if one is so inclined) and celebrate the gifts and talents of creative artists but it cannot be allowed to be an excuse for inactivity on the social/political front lines. The empire wants to keep dispensing the “bread and circuses” to prevent a revolution of the masses being left behind.

Migrant Trail Walk #9

Sunday May 31st. The Last Day

Even though we are allowed to sleep in until 6AM because of the shorter distance today, I awaken at 4:30 AM, clean off with baby wipes and use the Porta-Potty before the anticipated long lines at 6. Actually, the lines start to form at 5:45 as many people are up and about as the noises increase: the distinct sound of people walking on gravel or the “clunk” of the porta-potty door if someone lets it close too quickly. The food crew, efficient as ever, has the requisite bagels, cream cheese, peanut butter out as well as coffee on by 5:30.

We, the weeklong walkers, are scheduled to have a ceremony with Maria up on a nearby mountainside at 7AM where we’ll have a vista overlooking the Altar Valley where we’ve walked this past week. Then we’ll pose for a group picture. Maria asked us to call out the names on the crosses we carried this week. She told us our carrying their names helped them “finish their journeys” that they had started. After calling their spirits to be present with us, she sang a song to welcome those spirits and we were again “smudged” with the smoke from burning sage in the Native tradition. We then sang together a healing song as she prayed that Baboquivari would look over the people traveling this desert valley and prevent any more deaths there this summer. [Derechos Humanos keeps a count on their website of confirmed deaths each year.]

After the ceremony, we had our last group circle before walking for the day. There were new people who needed introduction and Erin again led us in some stretching exercises. We had announcements from the teams and Tom told us that he was reminded that every day there are 3,000 people walking this area, hoping they can survive to feed their families and better their own lives. [Others in our group say there really is no way anyone knows how many people are walking the migrant trails each day but we do know the numbers are significant.] We again close the circle time by reciting the Prayer for the Migrant as we have done every day.

Today is a very different experience walking along a busy highway leading into Tucson. The traffic zips by at 55-65 mph. Much of the walk is on the highway shoulder; in other sections there is a path further off the road. There are about 85-90 walking today so the water and rest stops take longer, especially with lines by the porta-potties. The walk culminates in Kennedy Park, just behind the old headquarters building for the Border Patrol. (With all the monies recently poured into “enforcement”, they’ve moved into new, bigger, fancier offices in another location.)

There is a modest crowd of local well-wishers and friends to greet us as we walk in. Kat and the other organizers have scheduled a press conference and some musicians share their music and encourage the crowd to join them. Fr. Bob has asked a representative 12 of us to sit on chairs as he and Fr. Jerry Zawada perform a ceremonial foot washing. Derechos Humanos has arranged for a very tasty meal for everyone and after a couple hours of mingling in the park, those walkers who remain travel back to Southside Presbyterian to unpack all the trailers, clean the equipment, and say our goodbyes. A number of folk are from Phoenix and we send them off. Some of us are staying locally, awaiting rides to the airport to return to our homes tonight or tomorrow. Kat and Chris open their home to fellow walkers for a party that evening that last past my 10PM bedtime.

It has been a memorable week and experience. Immigration is no longer just an “issue” and I have a deep appreciation for the many people working in “the trenches” to make our nation once again a place that “welcomes the stranger”.

_________________________________________________
For some, this walk is a political statement in opposition to a structured injustice created by politicians willing to negotiate policies that they know will create deaths. How many deaths -where and under what conditions? What is a tolerable amount to begin the compromises? Those who claim we need “comprehensive immigration reform” are often caught in the political compromises.

Others are walking primarily out of religious conviction. Although Derechos Hermanos is clear that this Migrant Trail Walk is inter-religious (and certainly welcoming of those who come who do not embrace organized religion or reject religion altogether), it is obvious that many of the walkers are strongly motivated by their faith. For some, the symbol of the names of the dead on the crosses we carry as we walk reflect back to the image of Jesus on his cross. The “presente!” on the large cross carried at the front of the march hearkens back to the years of the thousands of martyrs in Central America in the 80’s, especially evocative of Archbishop Oscar Romero. It is clear that Maria’s embrace of Native American spirituality is clearly a part of her journey this week.


But what is becoming apparent to me is that for some walkers, this is primarily personal. It isn’t that they don’t hold political views or religious conviction. It isn’t even primarily about social change, as essential as that is. It is walking in solidarity with the people victimized by a system which doesn’t recognize their worth or even existence. It is walking to help heal the pain of broken hearts, shattered dreams. Several times organizers request that we walk this next stretch between our water or snack breaks in silence. It gives us time to reflect as we take each step. The blisters, the aching muscles, the parched throats, and the sun beating down mercilessly –all of it fades to the background when you reflect on “completing the journey” as Maria so movingly put it this morning.

The gratitude one receives from the welcoming at Kennedy Park at the end of the Walk is shown on the faces. There is a deeper appreciation than one usually receives for an act of political or social courage. You can sense in some of those gathered the intense personal connection they have and that appreciation that others would undertake this symbolic journey with their loved ones is too deep to convey with mere words. The spiritual, political, and personal have all come together to work for our own healing, the healing of our nation, and the healing of our world. All of us are complicit in the deaths happening here in the Sonoran Desert. All of us must decide to engage in the healing as well.


Maybe next year, beginning on Memorial Day, you, too, might be able to walk The Migrant Trail.

for information contact:
http://www.derechoshumanosaz.net/

Migrant Trail Walk #8

Saturday 5/30/09

My best night of rest in a week! Thank God for a couch and a swamp cooler. I woke up at 4:30 AM and beat the rush to use the (indoor) bathroom. After hooking up the gear trailer and getting it ready to be loaded by the logistics team, we discovered one of the walk organizers has a bad eye infection/irritation from getting sunscreen and/or dirt under her contacts. We unhook the Porta-Potty trailer so she can be taken to Tucson for proper medical care. Since we can’t be without toilets on the busy Ajo Way highway, we consider switching trailers but the Highlander van arrives just in time to solve the problem.

Mel and I (once again) take the gear trailer to our last (!) campsite and then return to the walk. It seems that each day has gotten hotter than the last although after our cool space last night, maybe it is all relative. We don’t carry a thermometer with us; I think it’d make us feel hotter- if that is possible.

We go ahead at the last water stop to set up the shade canopies and make side walls on them with tarps to screen out the blistering sun. This “campsite” belongs to the Bureau of Land Management – there seems to be little “management” as this site is the least pleasant for the entire week. We are set up by 11AM and the van and porta-potties arrive by 11:20 with the walkers about 10-15 minutes behind them. We are certainly ready for lunch today.

The hot sun beckons one to a siesta time. It feels too hot to exert oneself so we might as well adopt the south-of-the-border tradition. When the Humane Borders water truck arrives, Mark fills all our water containers and still has enough water left to allow some of our walkers to wash their hair.

A much larger group has joined us by suppertime. A group of students and professors from Duke University are in the area for the next two months for a “Duke Engage” program to learn about border/immigration issues. A Witness for Peace group from Portland, OR is here as well. Others who are part of the No More Deaths and Borderlinks have joined us as well. We have a great sing-along with a banjo and 3 or 4 guitars that ends just before our extended quiet time begins at 9PM. The song session closes with “Goodnight Irene” but before that there has been an eclectic combination of new and old songs - labor and marginalized groups getting the lion’s share.

I’m scheduled for the first shift (9-11PM) of night security watch but Tom, ever mindful of wanting his drivers to be fully alert for the next day asks my night watch partner, Dan, if I can leave early to be sure I get enough sleep. He readily agrees and I turn in after the first hour of the shift –leaving him to the swarms of a myriad variety of bugs which have swarmed to our lantern.

I’ve finally connected with a few folk I’ve met before: John Heid, the Christian Peacemaker Team/Catholic Worker I’ve known for years has rejoined us after walking the first day. Sister Lil and Betsy Lamb, two former Prisoners of Conscience from the School of the Americas vigils are also present. The energy is high with all these new (or returning) folk but you can see the difference between them and the 45+ of us who have been together all week – we are the ones saying, “One more day to go!”.

Migrant Trail Walk #7

Friday 5/29/09

Another hot one!

Last night we discovered about 7PM that the key to the rented 15-passenger van got mistakenly taken with one of the drivers when she had to return to her home in Denver. So this morning was a time of shuttling walkers and the supply trailers back down the 8.3 miles (each way) from the campground to the place on the highway where we left off yesterday.

Fortunately Pat stayed with us overnight so he was able to help pull a trailer and shuttle people in his pick-up truck. I made a trip down with the food team and their trailer while most of the others were still packing up their tents and gear. I unhooked the trailer by the highway and returned up the hill to give others a ride down. Each round trip takes 30-40 minutes. I had to return a third time to get a large drink cooler left in our (now keyless) van so we can give the walkers a choice of Gatorade or water on this extremely (again) hot day.

Although yesterday was longer, because we started so early in the darkness, it didn’t seem as difficult a today’s heat. I was able to walk some as Mel and I swapped driving responsibilities again today.

We ended at “Serenity Baptist Church” near Robles Junction (3 Points) a little after noon. The church graciously welcomed us to sleep and rest in their main sanctuary, their library, and/or their Sunday School/child care building. Some buildings are air conditioned while the sanctuary is cooled with a swamp cellar system that adds moisture to the air to cool it. It was very comfortable!

After a wonderful Thai food lunch supplied by a local Buddhist group (with watermelon provided by the Baptists), most of us just stretch out and enjoy the cool rest – with serenity! It is so serene; most of us doze off.

A couple more walkers have to leave today after lunch. It is sad to say goodbye to someone you’ve just shared these past 50+ miles with under these conditions – but the group will go on.

The jackrabbits and red-tailed hawks are a sight to see. Tom spied a horned toad at one of our water stops. I spotted a colorful beetle or ant that had a bright yellow thorax with an equally bright red head –all on a chassis that was black. I also saw a lizard that was black with orange markings and a black snake with yellow markings on this walk or at the campsites. Another roadrunner scooted across the road today. I wish they and the jackrabbits would sit still long enough for me to snap their picture.

After another good meal, this time it is vegetarian lasagna, the leaders announce that this evening will be the annual Migrant Trail Walk talent share. There is some significant talent to go around but I need to drive Jill back to the Caballo Loco Ranch first to retrieve the van so we can use it tomorrow – so we miss the first half of the show. We return in time to hear some great songs and it appears that everyone had a good time.

Migrant Trail Walk #6

Thursday 5/28/09

Today is “hump day”. Once we are finished with the scheduled 15.9 miles(!), our longest day, we are over the hump and more than half way finished. We got up at 3 AM, packed all the gear and started the walk just a few minutes before 4. We will wait to do our morning “circle-up” at our first full stop when it is finally daylight. We are promised a treat at the end today –showers with hot running water!

We are camping tonight at Caballo Loco Ranch, a campsite/RV park that is 8.3 miles off highway 286, just to the north of the BANWR. Our first 4.6 miles today took us out of the refuge area and the balance of our walk will now be along two state highways, 286 and Ajo Way. That means single file and stepping off the road shoulder when a car approaches. The speed limits are 55 and 65 along these stretches and it seems that almost every other vehicle that passes us is from the Border Patrol.

Mel and I are once again asked to drop off the gear trailer at the destination ranch. We need to stop en route by a trailer with Porta-Potties to get the padlock for our trailer hitch. The trailer is to be parked close to the road but at 4AM it is hard to spot among the mesquite, cactus, and other wilderness growth that makes mile after mile appear the same to me.

At the morning circle, Kat reminds us that we are not trying to mimic the migrant experience. Those who cross here do not often travel on the gravel roads or the paved highway but instead look for openings in the underbrush – just like we do in trying to find our eco-toilets. And now, because we are walking on the shoulder of a paved highway with fences alongside the right-of-way, we will be using two Porta-Potties for the remainder of the trip. We walk not to mimic the experience but rather in solidarity with the migrants and in remembrance of those who didn’t survive it.

Our campsite is at 4,000 feet and the vista of the mountains behind us and across the Altar Valley where we walk is spectacular- especially at sunrise today. But today is relative luxury – flush toilets and showers – our first since leaving Monday morning. Overheard in the men’s bathroom: “I don’t really need to “go” right now; I just want to hear the sound of flushing!”

It is amazing how much we take for granted in our lives. We don’t often recognize our privilege until it is taken away or surrendered voluntarily. This experience, like that of prison, helps me recognize more areas I need to be willing to surrender to be in solidarity with others in our world.

In the midst of the heat and the dust (compounded by no showers …), small graces become important stepping stones. April came up to me and asked if she could wash my long-sleeved shirt that I wear for protection from the intense sun. Then she asked if there was anything else I needed washed at the camp laundry and my pants made filthy from changing the flat tire and hauling 5-gallon water jugs came to mind. While I had changed my pants after my shower, I now had nothing clean to wear after the walk for my flight back to the Twin Cities. Problem solved!

Tom graciously gave me a repaired camping chair he had brought along, saying I could use it until it broke again. It did well the first day I had it but collapsed right in the middle of our logistics team meeting the next day!

During supper, someone asked Margo, a public defender lawyer for Pima County who also has a growing (mostly pro-bono) private immigration practice on the side, what her take was on getting a comprehensive immigration reform bill through Congress this year. About 20 or more of us sat around listening to her stories and perspectives from her many years as both an activist and an attorney. She volunteers for No More Deaths as well as other groups but her advocacy as a lawyer is something few of us are able to emulate. Her work is so important in trying to keep families together who are threatened by deportation of one or more members. It is critical to retain a vestige of hope as well as an attitude of resistance for this work. I’d like to get her perspective on the role civil disobedience by Anglo/US citizens might play in support of immigrant rights, wishing to stand and act in solidarity with those threatened by our policies. Maybe we can talk as we walk tomorrow or in the afternoon after we rest.