I know, I know. I said I wasn’t going to blog anymore, but here I am with a new post. What prompted me to write? Simply put, ICE. Not the kind you slip on and then maybe take a spill, but rather the organization — Immigration and Customs Enforcement — that rounds up people and detains them. Maybe these folks have papers, maybe they don’t. The prime sorting process seems to be based on skin color, brown and black.

For a while, the main action was taking place in Minnesota, where, among other brutalities, a young white mother was murdered, children were tear-gassed, and an elderly man in underwear was marched out of his house.

But now ICE has come to Lewiston, Maine, a small city about 15 miles away from where we live. Lewiston is home to a large Somali population that started seeking refuge here about 25 years ago. ICE has dubbed its Maine operation “Catch of the Day,” a sick reference to Maine’s coastal heritage and fishing industry, which prompted restaurants to offer “Catch of the Day” specials. And, as to be expected, people are being rounded up.

This has put me in mind of two stories, seemingly separate, but related.

The First Story

In October, we adopted two cats from the Lewiston Humane Society. I wrote about it on my blog, and readers might recall how I told of a mother and two little girls coming to look for a dog. The three were taken to a back room to meet a dog. Although I couldn’t see what happened, I could certainly hear the little girls exclaim, “Oh, you’re so cute! You’re so cute!” over and over again, and the dog’s happy barking in response. I smiled, the staff smiled, and a feeling of joy filled the shelter.

What I didn’t mention was that the mother and the little girls were black. The mother had an accent; the little girls didn’t.

What is happening to that family? Are they hiding in their home, too afraid to go to school or go grocery shopping or go to work? I wish them all the best, including the dog they adopted.

The Second Story

I am of Franco-American descent. My ancestors came from France, settled in Canada, and made their way down to the United States. On my mother’s side, I doubt all of them had papers. In Maine in the mid-1800s, it was very easy to slip over the border. Many of my ancestors came from Normandy, and in my younger days, my hair was almost black. Along with the dark hair came an olive complexion, and in the summer, the sun turned me brown. The same is true for my youngest daughter’s complexion, and one day, when she was little, while playing in my mother’s driveway, a neighbor came over and asked who my daughter was, using a racial slur.

My mother replied, “That’s my granddaughter.”

And that took care of that.

Except I wonder: what if ICE had come in the summer all those years ago? What if my daughter and I were walking down the street in Lewiston and ICE had driven by? Would they have rounded us up, locked us somewhere, and held us until we could prove we were citizens? We didn’t carry birth certificates. We didn’t have passports. As far as I was concerned, having to carry papers was something that happened in fascist regimes or Communist countries. In the United States, we could travel freely without papers.

My answer to the round-up question? Yes, it could have happened. In Minnesota, ICE has targeted off-duty cops. According to CBS News, every one of them was a person of color.

So here we are, at a nasty place teetering on something even nastier.

I hope we can  keep our balance and draw back from the edge.