Every day presents fresh news about ICE and CBP brutalizing the people of Chicago, as well as Chicago’s resistance. My day usually starts listening to In The Loop on WBEZ. It’s often stressful, but always of value. These are somber days, but also days of unity.
It often doesn’t spread beyond Cook County and Illinois. Yet I think it is worth everyone’s time to continually review some of the events in Los Angeles, Portland and Chicago for at least two reasons: 1) there is so much going on related to this (and much will never reach the press) so understanding this violent fascism requires a look at the whole picture, and 2) It may be “coming soon to a city near you.” In fact the CBP Bovino may be relocating to a different city soon.
It is also worth studying how local media is helping the resistance by relating the personal stories, the court cases, strains on small businesses, and more. There are many efforts on this from johnbeske here at DK, Chicago Block Club, South Side Weekly, Borderless, and many more. Two of the biggest local outlets are part of nonprofit Chicago Public Media, which includes the Sun Times and WBEZ (NPR affiliate). They often run the same stories in parallel. They have resources for immigrants, advice on what to do on encounters with ICE, a map of reported ICE activity, etc. WBEZ has a daily show In The Loop which streams on line.
Any support you can give the Sun Times or WBEZ helps them sustain this coverage.
Some recent stories that I believe are must reads:
* On Saturday ICE agents disobeyed a judge’s orders and without warning pepper sprayed a family leaving the Sams Club parking lot in a car after shopping there. Their one year old daughter was taken to the hospital, treated and released. chicago.suntimes.com/...
* WBEZ analyzing the regime’s propaganda techniques. It’s creepy and disturbing.
(audio avail). www.wbez.org/...
* WBEZ with a thorough debunking of GOP’s “crime in Chicago” fantasy
(audio avail). www.wbez.org/...
* Last but not least...
How many times have you heard about a federal judge reciting an entire poem as part of their decision?
Carl Sandburg’s ‘Chicago’ poem finds fresh relevance in a city occupied by ICE
A judge’s decision to read a 111-year-old poem in court before curbing federal agents’ use of force in Chicago has brought fresh relevance to an iconic piece of local literature.
In a ruling addressing actions by federal immigration agents, U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis last week recited Carl Sandburg’s 1914 composition “Chicago,” known for praising the town’s working-class roots and coining the “City of the Big Shoulders” moniker.
Hog Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders:
They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys.
And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: Yes, it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again.
And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces of women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger.
.
And having answered so I turn once more to those who sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer and say to them:
.
Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.
Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the little soft cities;
Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage pitted against the wilderness,
Bareheaded,
Shoveling,
Wrecking,
Planning,
Building, breaking, rebuilding,
Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth,
Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs,
Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle,
Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse, and under his ribs the heart of the people,
Laughing!
Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of Youth, half-naked,
sweating, proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.
