Dear Patty Murray,
Dear Maria Cantwell,

My name is Sydney Stevens.  I live in Oysterville, Washington, a village of fourteen full-time residents.  My family has been here since 1854 – long before Washington was a State; when it was a newly created Territory.  I am one of your constituents.

Our corner of the world still feels remote from the mainstream.  It takes a concerted effort to get here and an even greater determination to live here year-round, to find work here, to provide for a family and to take care of our elderly.  Like rural communities everywhere, we struggle, we cleave together, we look after our own.  And, we depend upon you to look after our interests in the ‘other Washington.’  We are your constituents.

Right now our neighbors are under siege.  Day before yesterday a mother of three young children (little girls all under 12) was taken by ICE.  She is the 22^nd person to be snatched from our little corner of the state by lawmen who sit in unmarked cars and wait.  And watch.  Until their target steps from private property onto public land.  And then they pounce. The friends and relatives of these victims are your constituents.

I am a contemporary of Anne Frank.  The year she and her family were taken by the Gestapo was the year I began fourth grade.  It would be some time before any of us here in ‘the land of the free’ knew of the horrors that had been occurring in Europe in the name of ‘the law.’  And now my own community is under siege.  Your constituency, Senators Murray and Cantwell.  Your constituency is under siege.

I am told that the per capita number of arrests by ICE in our little corner of Washington far exceeds that of other comparable areas.  I don’t know why, or even if, that is true.  Our local newspaper stopped coverage of the problem at the first two arrests.  I don’t know the why of that either.  Our ‘grass roots’ information is spotty, at best, and comes directly from our Latino neighbors who dare to speak – in whispers to trusted friends in the hopes that someone can help.  Can we?  How?   What help can you provide?  Do your constituents need to whisper, too?  Do you?

Sincerely,