Olive is playing with these exquisitely lovely toys that were given to her by doting friends and family. She is surrounded by comfort and color and generous adults who love her and will look out for her. Olive has white skin, blue eyes and fair features, and the world is not fair, and right now in the neighborhood up the road there is chaos and fear and ICE. She plays at my feet and opens her mouth in the smallest yawn; I lay my back against the wall and pray to nothing that we flip the house in November.
Years down the line Olive will be reading from a text book at the dining room table. She'll place a finger on the page to save her spot, look up at her mother and ask, "During those years, you did everything you could- right?"
And what will I say? I'll say I did as much as most of us did, which is to say not enough, and not nearly fast enough.
(For those living in Western North Carolina, there is more information about today's ICE raids and a place to donate to these families Here- some are facing the loss of their sole breadwinner.)
