It started with news reports, a slow trickle of stories about family separations, overcrowding and grim conditions in detention camps at our border.
We learned that deprivation and separation are cruel and unusual punishment directed at people who have committed no crime at all. Separation does terrible and lasting damage to vulnerable children whose parents have followed our laws to the letter: they applied for refugee status by presenting themselves to border authorities at points of legal entry. And we suspected there are other orderly, manageable and humane ways to process and regulate people who come to our border.
As we watched our own children, neighbor children or grandchildren ride their bikes, sleep securely in their beds, or simply brush their teeth, we knew other children under these same stars were in deep trouble, suffering serious and permanent damage. Our unease grew into dismay and shock.
Like many of you, I contacted members of Congress to demand change. They agreed. This was wrong.
The news cycle turned to other things. I trusted someone was fixing it and went about my life. Still, more stories bubbled to the surface. We found nothing had changed at all. Instead, conditions got worse. We watched chilling videos of small children recoiling in fear because they didn’t even recognize their parents after lengthy, unnecessary separations.
I turned 70 and realized that one traumatic day in my long life is just an inch, something I have the resilience to recover from. For a 17-year-old that trauma is a 100-yard football field, For a seven-year-old, it is a mile, and for a seven-month-old it is eternity.
We heard for-profit foster care agents telling parents and aunts, uncles or grandparents they could not reclaim their children because they had “bonded with their new foster parents.” We read that records to reconnect separated families were inadequate and some children were unlikely to ever be reunited with family. Though the separation policy was officially ended, months later separations were still happening at the rate of about five a day. We heard dire reports from congressmen and women who conducted oversight visits to camps. And we heard the voices of children. It is evidently up to me, up to us, after all.
That realization brought a small group of women together to plan the Peterborough Lights for Liberty rally and protest for the July 12 night of international vigils. Over 200 people gave their contact information to our ad hoc committee that night, seeking more information about taking action. The ad hoc committee became a standing steering committee. We launched a weekly e-newsletter suggesting actions. Each weekly newsletter includes a real story written by a real person in the Peterborough-Keene-Wilton area, someone affected by or working directly to change this nightmare for vulnerable people.
The stories we received deserve a wider audience and we appreciate the opportunity to share them here with you, on this page, as Viewpoints in the coming weeks. Others are being submitted by new writers, people with a personal connection our broken immigration system. All will be authentic and personal stories, from people in our greater community who have, in some capacity, experienced what it means to be an immigrant or seek refugee status. Thank you for reading them. Thank you for joining us in action. To receive a weekly e-mail newsletter with actions you can take now, subscribe at rebrand.ly/PboroLFL. You can find our group on FB at Peterborough Lights for Liberty Coalition.
Julie Zimmer is an Iowan who moved to Peterborough with her husband in 2018 to be near their son, daughter-in-law, and two granddaughters. They are happy to take part in all the wonderful things this amazing community has to offer. Julie is retired from careers including teaching community college journalism, freelance writing and community volunteering in Vinton, Iowa, population 5,000.