Throughout the month of March, I am participating in the annual Slice of Life Story Challenge, an event hosted by the team at Two Writing Teachers. Every day in March, I will share a story and comment on the stories of other participants. Please join us in writing, sharing, reading, and commenting!
Like some of my friends, I vacillate between paying attention to what is going on in the world and keeping my head in my own personal sandbox. Over the last few weeks, it's been fairly easy to focus on whatever I've wanted-- healing, basketball, SOLSC, daughters' visiting... I've admittedly gotten my news from the Daily Skimm and some education information from the EdWeek overviews. I should be doing better. Doing more.
Yesterday, one of our EL tutors texted me, and she's not one to bother me while I'm on leave. We have several families from Yemen, and one of the families has several children. The parents are currently in Yemen with two of the children while elementary children are home with older siblings. Yemen is now on Trump's red list, so travel it the US will be limited if not altogether banned.
Our tutors know and support this family. They know A.'s struggles to wake up and eat before sunrise during Ramadan. They know he's doing his own laundry. They know he's worried about his parents coming home before Eid. They give him rides to soccer practice, and they know possible travel routes that could get his parents home. Could they fly to Egypt? How long would they have to stay in Djibouti?
Today, this morning, policies and bans and boycotts are impacting a family that lives a mile from me. A family whose children I've met and hugged. When will they get to hug each other again?
Today I'll do better with topics I've been ignoring and repressing.
Melanie, so many folks are struggling to live a life of joy & purpose AND engage to fight the hate & harm happening because of politics. I hope you give yourself grace, and I see how lucky you are to have a team of folks in your orbit working to create care. I am so grateful for those tutors, and I just sense you'll find a way to help them help this family.
ReplyDeleteSome people's lives are so badly impacted just because of where they are from and not because of anything they have done. Your being aware will make the difference to this family and their current problems.
ReplyDeleteIt is very difficult to balance mental and physical health with the need for information that may help us make a difference. I am trying to focus on learning more when I know I can take action to volunteer, donate, call my reps, etc.
ReplyDeleteI'm right there with you, going from keeping my head down to getting sucked into the tornado of everything going on. My school community is also experiencing a lot of anxiety in this current climate. Praying that all of our students will stay with or be reunited with their families!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you made this post. I see several of us are in the same wave of just surviving, putting the days on autopilot and getting through it. My heart goes out to the families who are experiencing such hardships right now. It's a different world, and somehow retreating to my own is all I can do.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I think there's going to be plenty to pay attention to over time, so you can take the time to pay attention to your healing--that's important, too. That said, I appreciate how you give a human face to the generalizations we hear in the news. It's important for us all to remember the new policies are affecting real people.
ReplyDeleteThat’s exactly the power of a slice like this- humanizing what is happening in our world. ❤️Jess
DeleteYou go, Melanie. There are more people in the U.S. who care about DEI, fair and safe immigration, and just common decency! You will keep fighting for the good, even when you need an occasion break.
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