This afternoon at three o’clock, a small group of people will be gathering at Jack’s Corner in Ocean Park to display their solidarity with our Hispanic community. Some will carry signs. All are protesting the siege upon our neighbors that is being carried out by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement – the dreaded gestapo-likened force known simply as ICE. All of us are invited to join them.
The group had hoped to gather in Okie’s Sentry parking lot, but the owner refused permission, telling them that “getting involved—could be bad for business.” Never mind that at least two of the arrests by ICE in recent months have taken place in that very parking lot. According to the woman who spoke with him, “The owner said he shared our concerns but his father and grandfather had made it a policy not to get politically involved which I didn’t find too heartwarming……three generations of men unwilling to take a stand.”
All of which begs the question that ICE agents seem to operate out of that very parking lot. (When concerned citizens asked last summer if Okie’s couldn’t ask ICE agents to leave, the assistant manager said the parking lot was open to the public so the federal government could not be barred.) Was that staying uninvolved? Was it considered good or bad for business? Just sayin’…
I commend all of the folks who are gathering today. I understand that some signs will say “50 Good Neighbors Taken by ICE !!” and “Tell Congress the Peninsula needs our Hispanic workers”. There will be handouts available with contact information for Maria Cantwell, Patty Murray, and Jaime Herrera Beutler. Democracy-in-action doesn’t get very much more “grass roots” than in Ocean Park, Washington!
By “not” taking a stand, Okie’s has taken a stand and has lost my business when I am on the Peninsula.