It's terrifying, all this stuff going on recently with children being separated from their parents and kept in prisons, all just for crossing a border. So many are outraged by it but it just continues. It really exposes how powerless we are right now, how the state can get away with even something this blatantly dispicable and so widely despised.
One ray of hope is to remember what happened in Australia in 2002. Protestors marched to Woomera, a concentration camp for immigrants, and they pulled down the fences so that people could escape.
Here's a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayAGUQL1pjE
Of course, the concentration camps in Australia remain, as they do in the United States and so many other countries (all of them?). But it did free some people. It serves as an example. And it's an inspiring act of solidarity that is truly beautiful!
Kite Line Radio did a
Kite Line Radio did a three-part interview with someone involved in the Woomera breakout last year, if anyone wants a very long listen about it:
https://kitelineradio.noblogs.org/episode-31-woomera-escaping-from-an-immigrant-detention-center-part-one/
https://kitelineradio.noblogs.org/episode-32-woomera-escaping-from-an-immigrant-detention-center-part-two/
https://kitelineradio.noblogs.org/episode-33-woomera-escaping-from-an-immigrant-detention-center-part-three/
...but I think the website of the actual radio station that hosts Kite Line's broadcasts seems to be broken at the moment, so those links might not be of too much use unless anyone can find an internet archive version or something.
You’re right LBC, that is
You’re right LBC, that is beautiful.
Actually, there are few things more beautiful than people acting in solidarity with others who are up against it. I’ve been watching YouTube clips of a TV show called What Would You Do over the last three or four days. For those who don’t know it’s a secret camera show where they use actors to create a public scene where somebody(s) is treating someone else badly. More often than not it’s acting out on bigotry of some sort.
It’s kinda corny, and often the ‘heroes’ talk some crap about ‘this is America, you can’t do that here’, but that still doesn’t detract from seeing people try to help a stranger with no possibility of personal gain for themselves.
The reaction of the young guy at the beginning of this one is fairly unusual for the show but it’s pretty fucking awesome...
https://youtu.be/6i_8ZWBE-5U
I fucking love What Would You
I fucking love What Would You Do. And I think it's had an influence on me, and made me more likely to intervene when I see something fucked up going on in public.