Tonight/this morning, my two 70+ pound basset hounds decided the most comfy place to sleep was across my chest and legs. While they were snoring contentedly, I was far from comfortable or content; result = a Saturday Village edition. This is a just a random collection of quotes and images that have been on my mind lately; add your own thoughts, images, tweets, and wisdom for the ages.
It's becoming clear that the actions of ICE and CBP agents are a feature, not a bug, of their employment. When the crackdowns at airports first started, I wanted to believe that some of the agents were merely taking matters into their own, bigoted hands. However, I now believe that the culture of the agencies attracts and encourages such behavior, and so I include a prescient quote from Justice John Marshall Harlan, from his 1896 dissent to the Plessy v Ferguson decision:
Sixty millions of whites are in no danger from the presence here of 8 million blacks. The destinies of the two races in this country are indissolubly linked together, and the interests of both require that the common government of all shall not permit the seeds of race hate to be planted under the sanction of law. What can more certainly arouse race hate, what more certainly create and perpetuate a feeling of distrust between these races than state enactments, which, in fact, proceed on the ground that colored citizens are so inferior and degraded that they cannot be allowed to sit in public coaches occupied by white citizens? That, as all will admit, is the real meaning of such legislation as was enacted in Louisiana.
I've also been reading Dr. William Barber's new book, The Third Reconstruction. He writes:
...my first fight...was forcing me to develop a new imagination for social engagement that was built upon a fundamental commitment to the necessity of moral dissent. ...In a movement based upon moral dissent, defeat does not cause us to doubt our purpose or question the ends toward which we strive. We do not belong to those who shrink back, for we know the tragic truth of history. When oppressed people shrink back, they always be forgotten and destroyed. Faith-rooted moral dissent requires that we always look forward toward the vision of what we know we were made to be.
In that vein, I'm including this tweet from a high school friend of my daughter:
Not much content this morning; I’ll let the community fill in the gaps. I just wanted to fill in a gap in our schedule and give us a place to hang out together...but now I’m going back to bed!