“What does ICE mean?”
Less than a month into this presidential administration and the tenor of our conversations has changed within our family. Unfortunately, it’s not new. In 2016, Liam asked if Trump getting elected meant some of his friends, who are Muslim, might get deported.
The question about ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) from our youngest was after we discussed with the boys what happened when our planned time to help refugees get resettled into the area was cancelled. Recently, someone involved in our community asked me if we need to start thinking if our homes are capable of hiding people like during The Holocaust. I paused to consider the question and our current reality. I grieved.
Omaha Public Schools (OPS) students are a diverse body with no ethnicity/race being above 50% amongst them. The highest percent is Hispanic/Latino, which is 40%. At the schools my boys attend, Burke High School and Beveridge Middle School, they have been in or overheard conversations speculating about what the federal government might do to their classmates and/or their families. Thus, the question about ICE.
Jana works at Beveridge, while I’m at Burke. One of the things we have conversed about is how the federal government’s crackdown on refugees, immigrants, minorities and more could affect the students we work with daily.
It’s not just conversations we are having with each other, but also our coworkers. I was coaching one afternoon earlier this week, talking to teachers and staff as I walked the Burke hallways. Each conversation seemed to be a variation of the below gif when I asked them how they are doing.
I’m reminded of my time working in child welfare. So many of my coworkers embraced the job as a calling. They weren’t paid enough and invested their own time and resources. They did this because they wanted to make their community better, to improve the lives of at-risk youths and families. To bring hope and light to those who lived in darkness. Unfortunately, we were put in an untenable situation when the State of Nebraska contracted with Saint Francis Ministries (SFM) to manage child welfare in the Omaha area. SFM was not prepared to handle the caseload and lost the contract two years later because of their mismanagement. Thousands of people in the foster care system suffered. The experience chased away hundreds of good employees from working in foster care. It set back the foster care system in the area immeasurably. All to save some money, which the State ended up paying (and then some) in the longterm.
Here we are today. OPS teachers and staff are worried for their students. They hear the reports of refugees, immigrants, minorities, and more being targeted. They hear the discourse about school vouchers and public school funding, getting rid of the Department of Education, or the conspiracy theories some politicians traffic about public schools. Locally, there is the extra layer of educating people when they invoke false stereotypes about OPS students and schools. To top it off, they have their own lives where they experience hardships as well. They aren’t paid enough for all this, and yet they continue to invest their own time and resources for the betterment of their students and community because it is a calling.
That kind of personal investment in this context is taxing. They are trying to do what they can to take care of themselves so they can be ready to show up to work the next day. It’s not easy at the moment.
I’m grateful my boys attend OPS schools. Jana and I are grateful to work within OPS. We are proud to be an OPS family.
We care for the students deeply. We have countless relationships with students and their families. Recently, I messaged a former Burke student, now at college, who I got to know through my boys’ school activities. They are trans and I am wondering how they are doing.
Back to the ICE discussion we had with our boys. Jana and I discuss scenarios the boys might experience with ICE officials, at their schools, and how they should respond. We make sure they know their rights within these situations. We share how the Omaha Public Schools and the Omaha Police Department have said local citizens should feel safe. One of the boys brings up the governor and how he sides with Trump on this. Another brings up how officials don’t always respect peoples’ legal rights. Yes, there is that, but we will do the right thing.
“It's difficult in times like these: ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality. It's a wonder I haven't abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart. It's utterly impossible for me to build my life on a foundation of chaos, suffering and death. I see the world being slowly transformed into a wilderness, I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too, I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquility will return once more. In the meantime, I must hold on to my ideals.”
-Anne Frank (July 15, 1944)
Thanks
Thanks for reading. This post came together quickly after a week of writing about everything…and then some. I wasn’t sure what I would end up posting this week. One post I am working on (that I thought I would have out this week) is about journalism. In it is a collection of news sources and social media accounts that I find helpful right now. A friend asked where I get my news from because they aren’t sure they are getting what they need anymore from news sources they used to consume.
We are still raising funds for a new vehicle! We are about two-thirds the way toward our goal through GoFundMe and direct donations. We know there are a lot of needs in our community and around the world. We are grateful for any amount donated.