So, let’s start with these words from yesterday:
A reminder: I am not a journalist. This is not breaking news. I did not see it with my own eyes. So, is it irresponsible to share it here? I am uncertain. I will be working today to try to find out more.
Well, I did find out more and I posted it widely:
I am relieved to share that what a variety of residents saw last night was, in fact, something very different .
(Something about their clothing and flags and the environment of fear we are living in makes this sadly understandable .)
“A witness chased them down & it was a group of Quakers marching (sic) to a rally in DC. They gave him this pamphlet. “
Of all the things one could see in Howard County, Maryland that are unequivocally not dangerous, it would have to be Quakers walking for peace and justice. I taught at a Quaker school for several years and came away with deep respect for their thoughtfulness and conviction.
Here is more information about their march, shared by one of my former colleagues:
Quakers march 300 miles to protest Trump’s immigration crackdown , Associated Press, from The Guardian
Here’s a question I have been asked by several people since yesterday and it’s the same one I’ve been asking myself: How could people mistake Quakers for Nazis?
I don’t know.
Should this be a lesson to me, personally, not to click publish on something I don’t have all the information on? While I can’t promise a strict adherence to the boundaries of professional journalism that’s not license to be an idiot if I can possibly avoid it. If we were living in normal times I don’t think I would have published yesterday’s piece so quickly.
But we are not living in normal times.
People are being disappeared daily and ripped away from their families by masked, unidentifiable strong men and removed to places unknown and with no access to due process. These are human beings who are our neighbors and their lives are being upended in a split second. The rule of law, as it applies to the vulnerable, is dissolving.
In that context, it was hard to me to see word of these local sightings and not feel that they might be signs of danger.
I wanted to get more information because I thought that would be better than little, isolated pockets of fear. I hoped to find verifiable facts that would shed light on what happened. I didn’t want there to be Nazis in Howard County. (But I didn’t want be someone who would look the other way if they were here.)
The people who were alarmed by seeing marchers in their community were sincere in their concern. I wouldn’t have shared what they said if I didn’t believe that.
It’s also true that they didn’t see what they thought they saw, and that those who participating in the walk are good people who mean absolutely no harm to anyone.
As I lay awake last night, troubled by the day’s events, I thought of my parents. They lived through the Great Depression and World War Two and those events shaped their entire lives. They cast a long shadow on their children. Yesterday was a reminder to me of how much I carry that, even today.
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