Last week, in an article titled “Reign of Administrative (T)error,” the Independent published painful local accounts of the mindless cruelty that has been inflicted on the most vulnerable populations of this country by the federal government since last January.
I have spent my working life teaching in foreign countries, mostly places oppressed by authoritarian leaders; Libya, Saudi, Indonesia, Somalia, Qatar, China, Yemen and Myanmar. Daily, I shared the people’s sense of hopelessness under such regimes. When I retired here in California it felt good to breathe the air of freedom at last, until January. As a Green Card holder, I have half expected a knock on my door at midnight. I saw the darkness rolling in. I began to despair. Today, that changed.
In my work with the Santa Barbara Restorative Justice Program, I realized I needed to find out what social support networks were available to help participants in the program. With this in mind, on May 3, I went to the Mental Health Fair at Cottage Hospital At least 30 organizations were there. Volunteers sat at tables eager to explain how they were helping the hungry, the poor, the sad, recovering addicts, the sick, the angry, the anxious, the lonely.
I came close to tears as I left that conference room. I was, simply speaking, almost blinded by the light of human decency and compassion I encountered there. At last, I knew I had come to a safe place. Our community. A place I could call home, the real America. Far, very far, from Washington, DC.
