AIFF2019: Monday Dec 9 - Bear Tooth

Monday's schedule, in addition to the two films listed below, includes a workshop on "How to Festival" presented by this year's festival director Ida Theresa Myklebost and John Gamache whose been coordinating the film makers who are visiting as well as doing the website.   

The workshop is at the Alaska Experience Theater at 2pm.

Easy choices today.  Kifaru is a documentary about the people who cared for the last northern white rhino in Africa.

The Shorts Program: WTF?!?! Includes:

• Mr. Sam
• Maintain Yourself
• The Phantom52
• Eternity
• Hearth
• The Dig

AIFF2019: Sunday Dec 8: Tale of Two Indigenous Women; Old Siberian Explorations; Forced Comedy;

Things on tap today.

I'm particularly interested in The Body Remember When The World Broke Open - a film about two Indigenous women in Canada made by indigenous women.
Also Laugh or Die - story about actor prisoners in Finish camp in WWI who are told they will be allowed to live if they make a visiting general laugh.

Banana Split, not to be confused with another film called Banana Splits, is about high school and going off to college and the problems involved.

AIFF2019: Saturday Dec 7 - Germany, Scotland/Chile, Am I Straight?, And More

Here's the official schedule from the AIFF website.  

Nae Pasaran is an interesting film.  The film maker is the son of a Chilean journalist who was exiled when Pinochet came in.  He's a Chilean-Belgian filmmaker who lives in Scotland.  The film is about the workers in Scotland who refused to repair the Rolls-Royce jet engines of the Chilean Air Force in solidarity with the Chilean union brothers.  It's not only relevant in terms of what unions can do to fight tyranny, but it has current relevance given Chile's protests still going on right now.

Straight Up is about a gay guy who thinks maybe he's really straight.

The Film Royal will show the short films produced in the last five days by Alaskans who got the prompts that needed to be in the film five days ago.  These have progressed from fairly rough films years ago, to very professional productions in recent years.  Always fun.  

AIFF2019: Opening Night Shorts - 6:30pm At Bear Tooth [UPDATED]

I'm finding the new website prettier than it is easy to use.

For instance:  I know opening night - tonight - is a shorts program.  But when I looked up the shorts programs from the website's schedule page, the first program listed is for tomorrow.  Nothing for tonight.

Using the calendar page, I was able to get to Dec. 6 Opening Night Shorts.  Well there are seven pictures, but they aren't linked to anywhere.  It does say at the bottom  “Sin Cielo” and “Wandering in the White.”  So that's two of them anyway.  But when I search for them in the Search Film section - I get "no events found."

The Bear Tooth will only host films this weekend, Monday night,  and for the Martini Matinee at 2pm on Thursday.

There seem to be fewer films overall - certainly in the Features categories - [UPDATE:  I thought at one point that it might be possible to see all the films because there weren't competing films playing at the same time.  But I was very wrong.  At the Alaska Experience Theater during the week there will be lots of films where you have to chose.]

Here's the trailer for Sin Cielo:






And for Wandering in the White:

Vaeltajat / Wandering in the White – Teaser from Side Stories on Vimeo.

Back Home To Snow And Moose

We left from the D Concourse at SEATAC which has my favorite art piece there - Michael Fajans' High Wire.  I posted about it back in 2008.  (Back then I wrote that it was in Terminal B, but it was definitely in D yesterday.  Maybe the old post was wrong.)

After a couple of gate changes, trying to get in as much of the impeachment hearings as I could, we were in the air above the clouds over Alaska.  It was late afternoon - Anchorage's official sunset yesterday was 3:48pm, but if it's not too cloudy, we have long twilights - and the orange glow was on the western horizon, while out my east facing window there were snow mountains.

And around 4:20pm it was still light enough to capture these exquisite winter scenes with only a slight blur from the long exposure time.  

And as we circled over Cook Inlet to land in Anchorage, the sunset was still painted on the western sky.  

I went out to get our passes for the Anchorage International Film Festival which begins tomorrow night and to pick up some groceries and just on 36th there was a moose crossing the road in the dark.

One of those amazing moments when out of the darkness you realize there's a magnificent

moose and there's no time to react.  Fortunately it was still in the oncoming lane as I passed.  No time to even take a picture, even if I hadn't left my phone at home.  What a great welcome home.




At my dentist this morning this moose was on the wall.  Not quite the same.  But I was sitting still and so was the moose.



















And I'm pleased to say that my studded tires worked like a charm as I rode over to the dentist and back.  I'm getting a little more confident that they aren't going to betray me.  Hoping my trust in them proves warranted.  I won't be reckless, but a little less cautious.









So, let's just leave this post as it is - on light subjects or art, travel, mountains, moose, AIFF2019, and biking in the snow.

Taking A Long Term Look At Why Humans Have Conflicts

This excerpt from a post called The Thinking Ladder at Wait But Why? offers as good a take on the conflicts between Trumpers and Non-Trumpers as any.  But it also helps explain why Non-Trumpers fight amongst themselves too.  Because everyone one operates using both the Primitive Mind and the Higher Mind, at different times and even simultaneously and to varying degrees.  At least that's my take on this.

"The Primitive Mind in every animal—humans included—has been optimized to near perfection at getting animals to survive long enough to pass their precious genes along to new containers.
Scientists aren’t positive about the timeline, but many believe that all humans in all parts of the world lived in hunter-gatherer tribes as recently as 11,000 BC. So 13,000 years ago—or, if we call a generation 25 years, about 500 generations ago.
500 generations isn’t enough time for evolution to take a shit. So the Primitive Mind—a hardwired part of us—is still stuck in the world of 11,000 BC. Which means we’re all like computers running on the highly unimpressive Windows 11000 BC operating system, and there’s no way to do a software update.
But humans have something else going on as well—cognitive superpowers that combine together into an enhanced center of consciousness we’re calling the Higher Mind.
The Higher Mind and his magical thinking abilities helped the human species transform their typical animal hunter-gatherer world into undoubtedly the strangest of all animal habitats: an advanced civilization. The Higher Mind’s heightened awareness allows him to see the world with clear eyes, behave rationally in any environment, and adjust to changes in real time.
So while our Primitive Minds are still somewhere in 11,000 BC, our Higher Minds are living right here with us in 2019. Which is why, even though both minds are just trying to do their jobs, they’re in a fight most of the time."

It comes with illustrations - both pictures and examples.

This just comes from the first less than 1% of a long, thoughtful post that's well worth the time to read.

Should President Be Removed By Impeachment Or Election? UPDATED

[UPDATE Dec 3, 2019 1pm (Seattle):  The Permanent Select Committee On Intelligence's "TRUMP-UKRAINE IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY REPORT"  was released shortly after I posted this.]

Suppose you hired your CEO on a four year contract and the contract is up in 13 months.  But there's evidence of all sorts of abuses and crimes, both before and after you hired him.  And his personal style is nasty and arrogant, his policies even if they have some positive intent ignore the horrendous side effects they're causing, and your brand is deteriorating rapidly.  And he attacks anyone who raises any questions about his actions.

He does have some rabid supporters who ignore all the evidence and repeat your CEO's spurious allegations.

You're on the Board of Directors.  What do you do?  

There are few corporate boards that would wait until the contract ended to fire the CEO.  There's way too much damage he could still do before the contract expires.  The only way a Board of Directors would keep him on is if the board members were somehow dependent on the CEO for their future livelihoods and/or reputation.

That's the position Congress is now in.  There is a big difference though:  The board hired the CEO.  In Trump's case, he was elected by the shareholders, so to speak.

And using the 2020 election as cover, the Trump supporters are arguing that the timing is so close the Congress shouldn't "undo the 2016 election."  (Recognize that this implies that there is valid reason to impeach, but that it's just better to let the voters decide.)

There is a certain logic to that argument.

Elections are the will of the people and it's better that the people change the president than the congress.

But there are flaws here too:

1. Questions about the legitimacy of the 2016 election.
1.  Trump actually lost the popular vote in 2016 by nearly 3 million people.  While Trump argues that he 'won a landslide in the electoral college' that's not the measure that most Americans use to determine the voice of the people.  It's seen as a technical device, not the actual will of the people. And there is no doubt in any honest person's mind, that if the positions had been reversed (Trump won the popular vote and Clinton the electoral college) Trump's supporters would have been screaming about the election being stolen.  
2. We know now that the election was influenced by Russian interference.  We know clearly that Russians used Facebook to spread outrageous falsehoods in favor of Trump and against Clinton.  Without that campaign Trump likely wouldn't have won the electoral college.
3. We know that there was voter suppression by Republicans in 2016 and it's being used for 2020.  Various states purged valid voters from the voter registration lists.  Polls in black neighborhoods were in short supply in a number of states making it harder for people to vote.  Photo id cards were required to vote in some states.  
4. These problems combined helped Trump win the election.  And there's no guarantee that they won't be used again in 2020.  In fact there is strong evidence they are already happening.  Plus there is also the concern about tampering with voting machines.  We know of attacks on voting machines, but we don't know whether there was actually any successful operations to change the voting outcomes.  Without paper ballots as backup, such hacks will be hard to overcome without resorting to complete new elections. 
2. The Constitution gives Congress the power to remove the president when he's abusing the office and there is no question that that's happening.  
1. It's Congress' job to remove a bad president.  McConnell's made up rule about waiting for the election to put in a new Supreme Court justice in the last year of Obama's presidency was simply politics.  We know that if there is a vacancy before the next president is elected, that McConnell will scrap that rule, even if there are only two weeks left before the president leaves.  

So the argument about the elections is not nearly as strong as Republicans claim.  Plus there's a giant counterargument.

The damage Trump can do between now and January 20, 2020 (when he leaves office) is enormous.  Some examples:

1. There's clear evidence that many of Trump's actions benefit Putin and Russia to the detriment of the United States and the free world. (All his attempts to break up Western alliances from NATO to the EU to the Climate Agreement, to trying to lift sanctions on Russia.  
2. There's clear evidence that Trump is using the presidency to enrich his own companies and those of his children. 
3. There's evidence that Trump's business ties to countries like Turkey, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and others are influencing foreign policy with those nations
4. Trump is dismantling regulations that protect the environment and public lands and public health
5. Trump has interfered with the integrity of the Justice Department
6. Trump has encourage public hate groups in the US 
7. Trump has unnecessarily treated would-be asylum seekers cruelly and in violation of international law
8. Given massive tax breaks to the very wealthy increasing the levels of inequity in the US and increasing the long term debt of the US 

If Trump were impeached by January 2020, it would cut a year off the time Trump had to inflict further damage on the US and the world.

In my mind, impeachment is the only proper action to take here to reestablish the standards of government the US has attempted to follow over the last 200 years as well has to minimize further damage to the US and the world.  Doing the right thing is usually a better long term choice than playing with lots of possible scenarios that give one future advantages.

That said, if Trump is impeached, Pence would become president.  There is no guarantee that Pence wouldn't carry out many of Trump's terrible polices.  And he's likely to give Trump and his family members absolute pardons for any crimes they have committed or will commit.  And Trump's supporters would punish in the primaries any Republicans Senators who didn't support Trump.  Leading possibly to much weaker Republican candidates in the general election.

So, taking a very long term perspective, Democrats might be best served by forwarding the impeachment to the Senate and letting the Senate acquit Trump.  (Well, they don't have much power over what the Senate does.  Unless public opinion is fired up by future revelations. it's unlikely the Senate will vote to convict.

The amount of abuse that has already come out and that is likely to still come out, will convince the US voters to not only throw out Trump, but to give the Democrats a majority in the US Senate, as a response to the Republican Senate NOT doing its duty to convict Trump.

But this all assumes they can overcome Republican voter suppression, Russian interference in the elections, and the Constitutional skewing of power in the Senate that gives small (often rural) states very disproportionate power in the Senate.  Because of this Democrats in the Senate represent far more people than Republicans, but the Republicans have the majority  From the Guardian:

"Among the most eye-catching was a statistic showing Democrats led Republicans by more than 12 million votes in Senate races, and yet still suffered losses on the night and failed to win a majority of seats in the chamber. 

Constitutional experts said the discrepancy between votes cast and seats won was the result of misplaced ire that ignored the Senate electoral process. 

Because each state gets two senators, irrespective of population, states such as Wyoming have as many seats as California, despite the latter having more than 60 times the population. The smaller states also tend to be the more rural, and rural areas traditionally favor Republicans."

And GovTrack further notes that because of rules changes that used to require supermajorities for  approving appointments (as a way to protect the minority in the Senate) the percent of votes needed to approve has gotten lower and lower and

"we might see nominations confirmed by a coalition of states representing less than half of the country’s population."

But I think a fired up electorate can overcome some of these problems.  There are still many disillusioned people who do not vote.  Trump's administration has been the best example of why not voting is a terrible  idea.

AIFF 2019 - Features 2 : Dying and Ghosts, Maybe He's Not, Tossing The iPads, Road Trip [UPDATED]

The Anchorage International Film Festival begins this Friday.

Here's a quick overview of the second half of the Narrative Features.  The first half is here.
[UPDATED Dec. 6, 2019 - I've confirmed that Those Who Remained will be showing - Thursday at the Museum at 7:45pm]

Laugh or Die

Director:  Heikki Kujanpää

Finland

103 minutes

Showing:  Sun, Dec 08, 2019 6:00 pm
Bear Tooth Theatrepub

"In a detention camp in 1918, a group of Finish actors are sentenced to death. When an important German general arrives, the camp’s vicious commandant forges out a cruel plan: The prisoners have to perform a play - and if they can make the visiting general laugh, they will be spared. Due to the brutal conditions within the camp, this goal seems to be impossible to reach. But after some time, even the commandant’s wife starts to sympathise with the prisoners, watching them rehearsing dressed up in woman’s clothes."

LAUGH OR DIE - TRAILER - TIFF 2019 from Tromsø Int. Film Festival on Vimeo.

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Straight Up    [If we still had a gay-la night this year, this would be the feature]

Director:   James Sweeney

USA

95 minutes

Showing: Saturday Dec 07, 2019 8:00 pm  Bear Tooth Theatrepub

From Keith Uhlich at the Hollywood Reporter:

"Todd's truth is that he doubts he's the gay man he thought he was. Years of failed dating, and a disgust/fear of the bodily excretion that is the primary ingredient in a Dirty Sanchez, have brought him to this point. Clearly, as he tells both his sarcasm-prone therapist (Tracie Thoms) and his befuddled friend group, he must be straight. That in itself is another deflection, though it will take a feature film's length of time to identify the real culprit. (Hint: It's the L-word — not that one.) Until then, he'll work through his hang-ups with struggling actress Rory (Katie Findlay), with whom he meets-cute in a library and who proves to be in almost every way his soul mate. 

She's the Hepburn to his Tracy (don't you doubt that Katharine and Spencer get name-checked). And the duo grow closer as they play house in the sunlit California residences that they look after to make ends meet. The pair heatedly dissect Alanis Morissette's "Ironic" and participate in an uncomfortable "Truth or Dare" evening. They even go to a party dressed as Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman in the movie version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which begets an exegesis on the sublimated homosexuality of Newman's injured character Britt."

Here's a fund raising video link.  You'll either decide this is someone you want to spend 95 minutes with or not.


Straight Up - Seed&Spark from James Sweeney on Vimeo.

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Team Marco   

Director:  Julio Vincent Gambuto

USA

90 minutes

Showing:  Saturday Dec 14, 2019 10:00 am

Anchorage Museum Auditorium

This film's world premier was October, 2019 at Mill Valley Film Festival, so we're seeing it pretty early on.  In the interview below it is touted as a great family film - it's showing Saturday morning at the museum.  

From silive

"The title character is obsessed with his electronics and hardly leaves the house. But when his grandmother dies and his grandfather moves in with his family, Marco’s life is turned upside down and he’s forced to play outside.
When “Nonno” introduces him to bocce and the neighborhood crew of elderly Italian men, Marco finds a connection to other people “in real life” -- and inspires a team of neighborhood kids to put the devices down and band together to take on his grandfather and his pals.
'This film is really about getting kids up and off their iPads and into the world," Gambuto said. "This is my love letter to Staten Island and all the communities involved in it. It is quite possibly everything I wanted from this experience.'"

Here's part of an interview with the director and other members of the film crew after the premier at the Mill Valley Film Festival in October of this year.

TEAM MARCO – Mill Valley Film Festival Q&A from Mill Valley Film Festival on Vimeo.

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The Ghost Who Walks 

Director:  Cody Stokes

USA

100 minutes

Showing:  Tuesday Dec 10, 2019 6:00 pm  Alaska Experience Theatre - Small

For St. Louis fans, this is done by a St. Louis native in St. Louis.  It's also fairly new (this year) and hasn't been seen by that many folks yet.  From St. Louis Magazine:

"Just as writer/director Cody Stokes’ career began to take off in New York City—meaning that he was traveling a lot—his first child was born. The St. Louis native began thinking about what it means to be gone and miss things back home, from his, his wife’s, and his child’s perspectives. He knew he wanted to make a film about it. But rather than create a simple kitchen sink drama about fatherhood, he set it in a world beyond, made it exciting, turned it into a crime thriller. “I wanted people to feel like they’re going to watch some sort of Liam Neeson movie but by the end be completely moved,” Stokes says. And he shot it in St. Louis, having moved back home with his family. The Ghost Who Walks screens as part of the St. Louis Filmmakers Showcase later this month."

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Those Who Remained (Someone To Live For) 

Director:  Barnabás Tóth

Hungary
89 minutes

Showing:  Thursday, Dec 12  7:45pm
Museum

Another film only recently shown brings us a post Holocaust story of survivors.  

"Many films deal with the suffering of the Holocaust years, but far fewer focus on those who managed to return from the camps. The achingly tender Hungarian drama “Those Who Remained” fills that gap. Perceptively directed by Barnabás Tóth, it taps into a deep well of honestly earned emotion as it tells the story of two traumatized survivors whose relationship helps them to heal and provides them with someone to live for. Set in the period between 1948 and ’53, the period drama also takes on the purges of Hungarian politician Mátyás Rákosi’s Communist regime. Following its world premiere in Telluride, this exquisite, poignantly performed tale will be released in North American by Menemsha Films.
After the war, the gentle but haunted Dr. Aládar “Aldó” Kőrner (Károly Hajduk), 42, returns to his ob-gyn hospital practice. His wife and two small boys perished in the camps, and he lives alone, with only his medical journals for company, until Klára (Abigél Szőke), a 16-year-old force of nature, storms her way into his life."

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Vanilla 

Director:  Will Dennis

USA

87 minutes

Showing:  Tuesday Dec 10, 2019 8:00 pm  Alaska Experience Theatre - Small

Everything about a film is how it's carried off.  Here's a snippet from one reviewer who thought it went well:

"We have an odd couple on the road, so funny stuff happens – and this is a funny movie.  Naturally, the audience is waiting for the two to jump into bed together.  But Vanilla is fundamentally a portrait of these two people, both comfortable in their ruts.  Elliot is posing as an entrepreneur, and Kimmie is posing as a comedian-in-the-making; something is going to have to shake up these two so each can grow.  Kimmie seems utterly intrepid, but we learn that she can be paralyzed by self-consciousness, just like Elliot.
Vanilla is written and directed by its star, Will Dennis, in his first feature film.  It’s an impressive debut, rich in character-driven humor."

Vanilla (Official Trailer) from Will Dennis on Vimeo.



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Understanding Privilege - When Christmas Parade Becomes Winter Parade, It's a War On Christianity

Privilege is such a loaded word.  No one wants to believe they have 'privilege' that others don't.  At least not undeserved privilege.  People want to believe that they worked for their advantages.  But this case gives an example of how privilege works and also how those with it don't even know it.

From Friday's NYTimes.

So the newish mayor of Charleston, West Virginia wanted to make the holiday event more inclusive.  So the annual Christmas parade was announced this year as the Winter Parade.

The reaction was swift  and negative and within 72 hours, Charleston had its Christmas Parade once more.

Who Supported The Mayor?
The high school band coach, whose music only included secular music like Jingle Bells
The rabbi
The Muslim community

Why Is This Privilege?

I hope I can use this situation to help explain what 'privilege' looks like.  In this case it's most directly Christian privilege.

Here are some of the reactions quoted in the article:

1. “The new mayor needs to be voted out if she does away with the Christmas parade,” read one comment on the initial Facebook post. 
2. “Christmas is all about Christ, not some winter parade.”
3. A local lawyer and newspaper columnist, Mark Sadd, said he didn’t understand why the mayor needed to show the city as more welcoming. It wasn’t like there were a lot of complaints.
4. “A Christmas parade is about as inclusive as we can get,” he said.
5. Some people thought renaming the parade was an attack on Christianity and traditions held dear in a city of 48,000 that feels more like a small town.“

1.  The new mayor needs to be voted out if she does away with the Christmas parade,” read one comment on the initial Facebook post. 

Well, the parade had not been "done away with."  The only change was the name.  I'd note here, that as a government, Charleston should not sponsor and pay for events that celebrate one particular set of  religious beliefs.  A group of private citizens, a church or collection of churches, could sponsor a Christmas parade, but not a government entity.  (There's a lot of First Amendment law on this.)

In some future (I used to think in some reachable future, but not any more) where everyone respects everyone else's background and religion equally with their own, I don't think this would be an issue.  But in the US where Muslims and Jews (particularly) are being targeted for abuse because of their religion, this is definitely not the time for a government to favor the majority religion over others.  

2.   “Christmas is all about Christ, not some winter parade.

Exactly.  And this is why the government shouldn't be sponsoring such a parade.  And a number of Christians don't like the secularization of Christmas caused by turning it over to commercial interests and government interpretation.  

3.  A local lawyer and newspaper columnist, Mark Sadd, said he didn’t understand why the mayor needed to show the city as more welcoming. It wasn’t like there were a lot of complaints.

And this is why I'm labeling this privilege.  Christians, particularly Christians who live and have always lived in a predominantly Christian community, tend not to even understand how a "Christmas Parade" isn't welcoming to say,  Jews or Muslims, or Hindus or any other non-Christians. Christmas is such a warm and fuzzy holiday, how can anyone be offended?  (Look back up to #2)  That kind of ignorance is part of the privilege.  Living in a setting where your own point of view is not only coming from your family, but is echoed at school, and overall in the community IS the very definition of privilege.  

• The privilege of having your world view echoed everywhere you go.  
• The privilege of not having to pay attention to, let alone understand, people who disagree with you.  
• The privilege of having your religious view supported by your government.  (Like swearing on a bible to take office.)
• The privilege of being able to protect that privilege when it is threatened. (As when religious Christmas is replaced with the secular Winter).  
• The privilege of not even knowing that any of this is not 'the natural way it is' but rather a privilege that others don't share.  
• The privilege of  believing that those who don't share your view shouldn't share your privilege.  
• The privilege of being so powerful that no one else even dares complain.  ("It wasn't like there were a lot of complaints.")

4.  “A Christmas parade is about as inclusive as we can get,” he said.

Dear Hindus and Muslims and Jews, welcome to your own city's "Christmas Parade."  You're welcome to join us celebrating Jesus Christ with your taxes, but don't ask for the city to sponsor a similar parade celebrating your religions.  Inclusive?

5.  Some people thought renaming the parade was an attack on Christianity and traditions held dear in a city of 48,000 that feels more like a small town.

And this is the ultimate of privilege here - leveling the playing field so that no religion is favored with tax payer money over any other religion is seen as "an attack on Christianity."  No one here is attacking Christianity, only that taxpayers are supporting it.  

The privilege is believing that one is entitled to a privilege and when that privilege is taken away in the interests of fairness and equity, it is 'an attack on Christianity."  

People with 'privilege' rarely feel privileged.  They may even get insulted when others without their privilege (of skin color, religion, sex) having more benefits than they have.  What is critical here is when someone's privilege, such as skin color, religion, or gender or sexual orientation is backed up by institutional structures - laws, courts, algorithms (red-lining was just an algorithm for how to give housing loans, well before that word was used to describe formulas for computerized decision-making).

And recognizing one's privilege seems about as hard as recognizing any other kind of addiction.  Some people get it quickly and can give up smoking or alcohol without much trouble.  Others have a much harder time of getting past denial.  Giving up privilege, though, isn't an individual decision.  It's about dismantling the structures that give certain skin colors, religions, genders, etc. governmental and societal advantage (or disadvantage.)  

Basically, I think most of the Trump true-believers are addicted to their white, Christian, male privilege.  Because all the other advantages those privileges might have afforded them in the past are slipping away from them.  

The article talks about how change has hurt West Virginia, a state that is still synonymous with coal.  Just think.  These are people who are fighting for the right to work under the horrendous working conditions of coal mines.  Doing what's slowly killing you, for many, is better than facing the uncertainty of change.  This is a monumental failure of our education systems.  But then those who control coal mines don't want their supply of workers to realize they have better and healthier work opportunities in industries that aren't destroying the planet through climate change.   

Japanese Internment In WWII Is History, But We Can Still Change Border Internment Today

Esther Nishio, according to an LA Times story today, was a guinea pig, a test.  A white family friend, Hugh Anderson, had been fighting against the internment of Japanese-Americans in WWII.  He'd gotten permission for one young Japanese internee - Elizabeth - to come get out of the camp in 1944 and begin Pasadena Junior College.

"When she arrived in Pasadena on Sept. 12, Esther was greeted enthusiastically by the Anderson family, along with the editor of the school newspaper and members of the Student Christian Assn.
She moved into the Andersons’ two-story home with a swooped roof on Roosevelt Avenue in Altadena and was the guest of honor that night at the Eagle Rock residence of E.C. Farnham, executive director of the Church Federation of Los Angeles.
The warm welcome was short-lived. The next morning, newspapers tipped off by the editor of the campus newspaper published articles about her arrival — including the address of Anderson’s home. The story was picked up by Stars and Stripes and published in papers around the world.
Local nativist groups began whipping up a froth. Menacing letters started piling up in the Andersons’ mailbox.
“The only kind of a Jap the people of Cal. trust is a dead one,” an anonymous correspondent from Los Angeles wrote.
Others railed against Anderson as being un-American.
'I have a son in the service who has just recently been discharged.' a Mrs. J.H. Wilson wrote. 'The boys wonder what they are fighting for when the government tells them to kill them and our citizens take them into their homes.'”

It seems appropriate to recount this tale now as the president and his henchmen (why is Stephen Miller still allowed to be working the White House?!) abuse legitimate and legal asylum seekers.  The details are a bit different, but this is a racist policy that intentionally and cruelly treats innocent human beings.  At least back after Pearl Harbor, in the pre-civil rights era, one can sort of understand how people might believe there were Japanese spies among the Japanese-American communities of the west coast.  But, of course, no similar program was set up for the German-American citizens.  And a number of white neighbors were able to profit from the rush sales internees were forced to have before being taken to camps.  

I would also note, that I first learned about the internment camps in 1956, when I transferred to a new elementary school and YF was in my new class.  And in junior and senior high there were a number of other Japanese-American students who had been born in internment camps at the end of the war.  

And as I write this I'm on Bainbridge Island and I've visited several times at the memorial to the Bainbridge Island residents who were shipped off to internment camps.  And I've seen the movie, The Empty Chair, about the how the valedictorian of a Juneau high school's chair was placed on the stage, empty, after he was interned before graduation.  I know that there were whites who essentially stole the property of interned Japanese and there were whites who kept their property safe and returned it to them when they got out.

But this is the first time I've heard about groups of white Americans fighting against the interment camps.  

Fortunately, today, there is a lot more opposition to the internment camps and family separations (which was not part of theWWII policy) that we have now.  Yet that doesn't seem to be ending the practice.  

And today we still have rabid haters who know nothing but their own anger projected out onto suffering people in support of the president.  

We can't send too many emails and letters, or make too many calls to our legislators.  You are right if you think one call doesn't matter.  But 50 people making one call on a topic does.  Particularly in a small population state like Alaska.  At the very least, you can show your grandchildren copies of what you sent and tell them you did what you could.  

This is Thanksgiving weekend.  It's a good time to try to make amends for what Americans have done to the people who helped them survive those first winters in Massachusetts.  (A number of the refugees are indigenous peoples of Central America.)