When the horrific firestorms ravaged Los Angeles in January, loved ones who care about me were calling and texting, “Are you okay?” “Are you safe?”
They meant well, but those are the wrong questions. Though I was grateful from my heart for their concern, with embers flying at 100 mph, no one was “safe.” Did my house burn down? No, thank God, but that grace did not equal being “okay.” For months I was traumatized.
This week, a flood of beloved souls checked in on me again as they watched the news media’s completely blown-out-of-proportion coverage of so-called “riots” taking place in L.A. Gestapo-like ICE agents descended on my city, bringing out protesters as well as destructive opportunists who commit the same violence for fun every weekend here: setting off fireworks, performing dangerous street takeovers, looting, throwing objects at cars, and reveling in the chaos and damage they cause.
The media called those people “protesters” which they were not, and then the military – trained for combat, not civil disorder – was called in to occupy my city for the next two months so that ICE can fulfill a quota. Elementary schools, churches, and places of business are being invaded. Mothers, fathers, and children; friends, neighbors, and workers we know are being arrested and sent to deportation centers in other states, with no due process.
Am I safe? Am I okay? Hell, no. As a Jew, I may not be at risk this go-around, but my mother’s family in Poland were ripped from their homes, confined in the Warsaw ghetto where they were starved and sickened, and then sent to the Nazi death camps where they were exterminated.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” (George Santayana) It’s a familiar quote, but we still don’t pay attention: what’s going on right now has happened before in this country: the indigenous Native population of North America were driven from their land and made nearly extinct by white settlers; West Coast Japanese-Americans and Italian-Americans were taken from their homes, lost their property and possessions, and were incarcerated in detention camps until the end of WW2.
Another thing from the past about those supposed “protesters” whose destructive behavior gave the federal government justification to call in the military. Were they really badly behaved citizens? Or were they provocateurs planted to discredit the protest?
This nation has a vile history of infiltrating the Movement to justify its heavy-handed response. Know your history and look up COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence Program) defined as “A series of covert and illegal projects conducted between 1956 and 1971 by the United States FBI aimed at surveilling, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting American political organizations that the FBI perceived as subversive.” (Wikipedia) A program so effective it runs itself now.
FINALLY… This is not the message I planned to send to you, my friends. But I can only say, let your conscience (and your prayers) be your guide. Keep checking in with your loved ones as this cloud from the Dark Ages tries to eclipse our democracy. Teach your children about truth and the “content of our character” so they can become the generation that will overturn this darkness.
And ask the right question: “What can I do to help?”
About the Author: Selimah Nemoy is The Calligrapher’s Daughter, a journalist, and author of Since I Lost My Baby: A Memoir.
