Greetings friends,
In the run-up to the 4th of July, it occurred to me that a lot of people who normally celebrate the holiday would be uneasy about doing so this year. With so much suffering along the border, and with Trump bringing tanks to Washington D.C. for what will surely be a racist, warmongering spectacle, even those of us who don’t celebrate the holiday could easily be discouraged. So I decided to work with my friends to give us all something worth celebrating today: We are raising money to bail imprisoned migrants out of detention.
We have been fundraising since Monday in order to help 27 immigration bond funds post bail for as many detained migrants as possible. So far, we have raised almost $30K. But these bond funds are faced with a significant backlog of requests for assistance and would need at least $200K to catch up. I don’t know how much of that we can raise today, but I’m eager to find out. I will be at this all day on social media. If you would like to help us, you can find information on how to participate — including sample Facebook posts, sample tweets and email templates — in our #FreedomDay guide we’ve created.
The guide is expansive because, in addition to getting imprisoned people free, we also want to educate the public about how we got here. That means talking about history, how the system works, who is most vulnerable, and why bail funds are important.
Whether this day normally means anything to you or not, we have the opportunity to make it about something worthwhile — and to give ourselves something worth celebrating. There is no better response to Trump’s jingoistic spectacle than to be too busy getting people free to pay attention. So let’s empty some cages.
Transformative Spaces 