I spent a lot of time around No More Deaths in Tucson. The group is a coalition of groups, a movement. As their name suggests, their goal is to save the lives of migrants crossing through Arizona's southern deserts. They offer humanitarian aid--water and medical attention--to crossers and drum up publicity to raise public consciousness of the thousands who have died since mid-1990s border militarization operations. Border policies pushed migrants from urban areas to more rural and dangerous corridors. Migrants are still coming across the line, but hundreds more are dying in the process.
No More Deaths is currently sponsor a forty-day fast for those who have died in the desert. The fast is concurrent with the Lenten season before Easter.
Regardless of whether or not you agree with N.M.D.'s ideolgical position, know that people have died in the desert and more will die. There should be a respect shown to these people because their is a dignity in their effort, most often a search for better jobs and better lives across the border. For those of you who know no sympathy for that, some deep and open reflection might help.
The site of N.M.D.'s fast is El Tiradito--literally "the castoff" or "the thrown away"--monument in an old neighborhood in Tucson. The monument is a humble reckoning of times long past, no more than adobe wall enriched only with local legends. Some passers-by stuff cracks in the walls with wishes writen on tiny slips of paper. Others light a candle or leave pictures of the Virgin Mary. Most come away, however, with a hope that a thought or prayer will be answered.
Along the wall now you will see the names of hundreds of migrants on notecards, if only for the hope that there will be no more.
At the clip of a service that you see here, this group voiced the presence of those dead, bones bagged or bleached by the sun, among the living.
Powered by Castpost
No comments:
Post a Comment