Defund the police vs. Defund Border Patrol

"Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding" - Albert Einstein.  Our job at Friendship Park is to create peace through friendship and understanding across the border and barriers in general.  One could say, ironically, that Border Patrol's job is also to create peace at the border.  I say ironically because what the Friends of Friendship Park is working towards and defending where possible is a connection between people from either side of the border and border patrol's job of stopping criminal activity becomes a lot easier if the two sides go there separate ways and there is a clear divide.  The Friends of Friendship Park mission is to create a space that is conducive to a mother who has been separated by immigration status from her son for twenty years to eat together being able to share a meal with him and her new grand children and greet each other with hugs, a space where people can volunteer in a binational garden to promote together the importance of native flora to improve our shared ecosytem and invoke the practice of 8,000 years of harmony with earth by the Kumeyaay, the region's first peoples, a place where people can have cross border religious ceremonies, and a place where people from completely different perspectives on life are encouraged to over come their differences and get to know thier similarities to create understanding, trust, and friendship.  Our mission is for the park to become a shinning example for the world of how long term peace can be achieved through understanding.  

So what, you ask, does all this flower power talk have to do with a dangerous situation at the border.  Would binational yoga class or planting a native tree together across the border or even a mother hugging her grandchildren stop someone with a gun or immediate violent intentions?  I wouldn't count on it.  And, looking at it from an enforcement mentality, gatherings of any kind, create vulnerabilities for criminal activity.  So where the Fofp mission and the bp mission actually coincide is creating peace.  The problem lies in that enfocement mentality is the only one of the two that is actually part of Us border policy.  So peace advocates end up clashing with enforcement officers because our goals aren't included and we are put in a position where we have to somehow sneak peace and friendship in and this, in turn, is looked at by enforcement officers who are 100% in charge, as suspicious activity or activity that could leave "vulnerabilities".  So, in general, like activists with the Black lives matter movement and defund the police, the Friends of Friendship Park isn't focused on getting rid of all enforcement but rather shifting resources and priorities to include other aspects of security.  When someone is having a mental breakdown and yelling and screaming even making threatening remarks, advocates of defund the police would say a mental health specialist would be much more appropriate emergency call than the police but funding is focused on enforcement so the police show up which puts the officer in an awkward position that could actually escalate the situation.   How is someone trained to address an emergency violent situation supposed to react to a person who is not violent but out of control?   They shouldn't have to answer that and when they are asked to they may respond innapropriately or even fatally.  At our park, there are community needs and the only funding, resources, and policy is to support enforcement.  We need support for our mission of friendship across barriers.  We need to shift funds and priorities so that cross border understanding is protected at our border and so that we can finally work in conjunction with local border patrol instead of clashing with them.  

Two rocks

Two rocks, one from granite and the other from volcanic magma take millions of years to form and be shaped similarly, one by the Tijuana river and the other by the Jordan.  They are just starting their journey from the river to the sea.  Del rio a la mar, min la maie la maie.  They are picked up along the way by the resistances and their their truths gathered from millions of years of observation are hurled at the armed to the teeth soldiers debunking the respective impositions funded by the same imperialistic lies.

Creativity

 Creativity fades not because we do but because the moment does

creativity

fades not because we do

because the moment does 

Coordinación imperfecta

 "Soy Daniel", le dije por la ventana al chofer del Uber gris parado, la Casa del túnel centro de arte edificio de tres pisos a mi espalda tapando el muro fronterizo en la calle residencial de la Colonia federal.  Me miró sin decir nada.  Al subirme atrás le dije, "Buenas tardes, qué tal, cómo va todo?"

"Buenas tardes", me dijo con el entusiasmo mínimo que se requería una cortesía básica del servicio.

Dimos la vuelta hacía la plaza chaparral de la garita peatonal cerrada al público y al pasarla como que cedió a mi oferta de conversación, "Como que ya deben de abrir aquí, no?"

En eso me llegó un mensaje importante del trabajo y apenas le prestaba atención al amigo, "O sí sí, no sé por qué no la abren."

El siguió diciendo que ya las filas peatonales son largas en la otra garita y deben de abrir y yo prestándole atención cada vez menos leyendo mis mensajes.  "Perdón, me llegó un mensaje importante acá."  Ya no me dijo nada y seguí con mis mensajes unos 10 minutos más.  Cruzamos el puente sobre el rio de Tijuana y le seguimos por el blvd internacional con la vista de los  muros a la derecha donde, entre los barrotoes, se alcanzaba a ver la expansión del estuario hasta el mar.  

Al ver la privada pegada al muro llena de mansiones lujosas en la entrada a Playas donde me han dicho que tiene una de sus casas Vicente Fernandez, guardé el cel y me di cuenta que nunca había entrado ahí y ni sabía por dónde.

"Tú sabes cómo se entra a esta privada?"

En eso nos detuvimos por el tráfico a un lado de una entrada que yo pensé que era para el hotel al lado.

"Aquí" me dijo.

"O, como está un poco más adelante, no pensé que era la entrada a esa zona.  Todo los años que tengo viviendo en Playas y nunca sabía cómo se entra ahí"

"Sí, como Uber, me han pedido servicio varias veces.  Es una privada, muy caro todo."

"Pero bonito, no?"

"O sí"

En eso empezamos a dar la curva en el Oxxo del toreo que marca la vuelta a mi calle.  Terminando la vuelta para entrar a la calzada, vemos a una mujer con una sudadera blanca y un hombre juntos parados en la orilla queriendo cruzar.  Ellos dentenidos esperando que pasáramos y el chofer también detenido esperando.  La muchacha empieza a cruzar mientras el muchacho se detiene y, a la vez, se dan cuenta de sus intenciones contrarias y él avanza y ella regresa y luego otra vez ella entra a la calle y él retrocede, el brazo de la sudadera blanca aleteando en el viento como la solapa de un vestido de baile foclórico y el chofer... "A ver, van a cruzar o no!?" 

Y como si lo escucharan, por fin dejaron de dar sus vueltas de la dancita torpita y se detuvieron los dos a esperar.  

"Sí, verdad?" dije respondiendo  al comentario riéndome un poco mientras veía a la pareja por la venatana de atrás hablando tal vez discutiendo.  

"Como que ella quería cruzar y él no y luego él sí y ella no."

Me reí más y luego los dos juntos un poco hasta llegar a la puerta de mi casa al lado de donde se revela de nuevo el muro fronterizo.

Haiku Dream for the borderlands

The walls become leaves

The smokestacks towering trees

And the people free

Muros son hojas

Maquilas árboles

La gente libre

Unnatural nuturing

If you’re vying for my heart you have it

I have no personal boundaries, no sense of self, I can only gush

No dam for my liquid self to break as it pours into your being

It doesn’t matter that I’m scared

It doesn’t matter that without you I know who I am

I skip over my approval to my perception of yours

Damn you for your candy

Damn you for stealing my intuition

Damn you for stealing my ego 

Damn you for curbing my growth 

For giving birth to a helpless baby

Breaking News! President Trump Abolishes ICE and reverses course on Border Wall

After seeing a video on Fox news of a man being torn away from his family in San Diego and his children and wife crying, President Trump expressed remorse about how ICE has been hurting families even since before his presidency.  The newcomer politician seems to have realized and learned, perhaps quicker than his last two predecessors, just how damaging separating families can be, not only to the family itself but to the economy and well being of American citizens as well.

His tweet at 3:18am this morning:

@therealdonaldtrump
Incarcerate?  Detain?  How bout educate and integrate?  Much cheaper!  and the border walls are costing 100 billion now.  Mexico can't pay and we pay and they keep coming any way! DUMB!  SAD!

20 minutes later at 3:39 am he continued the tweet:
...farmers need workers for our economy.   No friends in Mexico equals BAD DEAL for US.  We need their oil or our gas prices will go up!  VERY BAD!

Many left-leaning high profile figures are slowly starting to loosen their anti-Trump stance and are starting to embrace Trump's border policy after seeing this evolving stance:

Bernie Sanders tweeted:

"It is with some skepticism and suspicion that I support this apparent step in the right direction to help the poorest among us and improve the lifestyle of the working class in the US."

The newest rock star on the left, 28 year-old Alejandra Ocasio Cortez, who recently ousted 16 term Joe Crowley in for the democratic Senate primary seat in her district in the Bronx NY tweeted:

"So glad that in the wealthiest country in the world, it appears President Trump wants to take a step toward creating a country where no one is too poor to live."

While left wingers have started to come around, Trump's base is furious:

"How are we supposed to stop people from invading our land?   We have no country if we don't have borders!  It's time for a revolution and, if Trump won't support us, we'll have to find another way to make sure the white man is treated fairly."  Said Robert Smitherson to a local news station who visited him while driving his lawnmower tractor in his front yard in the small town of Ackley, Arkansas.

Others have talked of rioting and locking up the "real" criminal Hillary Clinton.  "Why is she still free?  What are we going to do about her emails and and.. What about Obamacare?  This is America.  My doctor bills have tripled since that man changed coverage and now you want open borders so terrorists and MS-13 can hurt us and people come can take our jobs?  Maybe some of them are good people, but we're good people too.  We're losing our cultural and American values."  said Mr. Smitherson's neighbor, Mack Mckinley.

Helen Reagan, a retired restaurant owner, and faithful Trump supporter, however, is sticking by "her man."  She was nice enough to talk to us during her sunset bourbon she enjoys every evening sitting on the porch of her home in the Florida panhandle to explain why she still supports Donal Trump despite his apparent shift in policy on immigration.   "He's a smart businessman.  He knows how the economy works and he says things like they are.  He's not a polititian and that's a good thing.  He's still my man."

If this trend continues, we might see Trump re-elected but for completely different reasons than anyone would've imagined.  This man really appears to be a genius strategist.  Just when the US populous is starting to lean left, he decides to endorse and represent where America is going as being  more and more connected with people of other nations.   He even called France's president Emmanuel Macron to let him know he plans to re-join the Paris accord on climate change.

He seems to be especially recognizing our connection with Mexico whose populous has become part of the American fabric and vice-versa with 100s of thousands of people crossing the border legally a day both ways to see family, do business, and explore to make new friends.

 Latest tweet at 4:15 am this morning:
"We should make this connection easier on folks, not harder.  No talking equals BAD DEAL...
I'm talking to Marconi and the new president Obrador (or AMLO I learned the Mexicans say), great guy really taking charge,...

 ...to meet me at the border for a friendly three-way hand-shake through the barrier at Friendship Park in San Diego"


Advisory Note:  This article is complete fiction and intends to convey a "literary truth" or a truthful message within a fictional piece.  None of the events actually occurred, the tweets by well-known public figures are invented, and the other people and their home towns quoted are not real.