Editor’s Perspective
and Publisher’s Message

Here Comes the Bride – and the Border Patrol Agents

By Margaret Michniewicz

Ahhhh, weddings! We’ve all been to our share of them, and no doubt have witnessed at least one in which something didn’t go quite the way of Bride Today… The tipsy best man making not one of his best-mannered toasts, a waiter spilling the plate of filet mignon on the mother-of-the-bride’s lap, the border patrol busting in just as the bride is throwing her bouquet toward a throng of her starry eyed gal pals…

What? This last one hasn’t happened to you?

Unfortunately, something like this did happen on June 5 to Danielle and Thierno Diallo, who were celebrating their marriage at a reception in St. Albans. Danielle, who is white, is originally from Winooski, and Thierno hails from the African country of Guinea, and is not white. He has permanent residence status in the United States, and is longtime player and part-time coach for the Vermont Voltage semi-pro soccer team based in St. Albans.

Their 70 or so guests had traveled from all parts of the globe to celebrate the couple’s nuptials. Now they found themselves being asked for identification rather than ‘would you like another piece of wedding cake, sir?’.

Two or three vehicles pulled up and, according to Thierno, eight or nine agents started questioning guests.

According to a Burlington Free Press report Mark Henry, operations officer for the U.S. Border Patrol’s Swanton sector, confirmed that agents did respond to a complaint that night involving conduct in downtown St. Albans, but he disputed the Diallos’story and racial-profiling claims. “We received a call that there was a large group of people, or multiple suspicious people, on the street in St. Albans,” Henry said. “Our agents responded to that report.”

While it’s not so uncommon for wedding celebrations to last, raucously, into the wee hours to the dismay of uninvited neighbors, it is curious that some party-pooping curmudgeon out there apparently didn’t think to call the local police first.

Put it this way: if the bride & groom were getting down on the dance floor to ABBA, and their guests generally resembled Anni-Frid, Björn, Benny, and Agnetha – I’m willing to wager an inviting sum that the locals, if they were to complain about the volume of Dancing Queen, wouldn’t take the time to look up the number for the Border Patrol and Immigrant and Customs Enforcement fellows. Even in as close-to-the-border villages as, say, Swanton or Derby Line, it would be the state or local police department who’d get the SOS call first.

Which brings me to the recent law passed in Arizona, SB 1070, the so-called Immigration Law.

The Support Our Law Enforcement and Safe Neighborhoods Act (introduced as Arizona Senate Bill 1070 and generally referred to simply as the Arizona bill), is the broadest and strictest anti-illegal immigration measure in decades.

The act was signed into law by Governor Jan Brewer on April 23 and is scheduled to go into effect on July 29, 2010.

The act makes it a state misdemeanor crime for an alien to be in Arizona without carrying registration documents required by federal law, authorizes state and local law enforcement of federal immigration laws, and cracks down on those sheltering, hiring and transporting illegal aliens.

Supporters say the law simply enforces existing federal law; critics of the legislation say it encourages racial profiling.

Some of the critics include members of the law enforcement community.

"This is not a law that increases public safety. This is a bill that makes it much harder for us to do our jobs," Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said. "Crime will go up if this becomes law in Arizona or in any other state."

The Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police opposes the new law, as well.

This isn’t to say that there’s no problem with people entering the country illegally and staying in the States. “It’s not racism – you’re here illegally!” crow the Facebook pages and protesters’ signs in support of SB 1070. But to whom is that accusation being addressed? Who is “you”, and how is it determined whether or not you are a “likely” illegal immigrant? Again, it’s not generally Anni-Frid & Björn who are going to automatically be scrutinized and routinely stopped for papers.

And to the newlyweds, Danielle and Thierno – best wishes for a happy marriage.

Publisher’s Message – Intensity of Love

By Sue Gillis

I’m old enough to have experienced the deaths of many loved ones, but not much had emotionally prepared me for the almost sole responsibility of assisting my brother Brad through the maddening swings of his compounding health crises, to his death three weeks ago. It all began with the optimism of his full recovery – and therefore, a clear path of decision-making and a care plan was possible. Swiftly, however, his health problems moved into crisis – system by system narrowing his care to day by day to fit his needs. Soon emotional chaos took me over.

At what point did I falter? At what point did I start to create distance? Who was that person inside me who considered running away? At first it was loss of control; then fear. Fear so raw nothing helped; no words, no Gods, nothing. The mirror reflected no one I recognized and no one I wanted to be. The only truth I knew was that there was no escape; my personal setbacks required a quick turnaround.

Wrestling with impending loss was not new to me. However, I realized that it was unthinkable that I should be losing my brother, a sibling I had known all my life and had pulled out of the weeds more than a few times over the years. Like many sibling relationships ours was testy at times, but a verbal honesty always existed between us. Yet in spite of the difficulties we always knew we were there for each other. So when it became apparent that Brad may not survive, and his care level increased, we developed an intimacy that I had not known possible.

It was also during this period that my sweet nine-year-old cat Cashmere was killed. We believe he was struck by a tractor during the early May haying in the neighboring field.

Cashmere was my first pet, and all who had experienced him knew of his remarkable social skills and his unusual ability to interact with all around him. This loss – at this time – seemed almost unbearable as he had consistently given us so much love… and suddenly that, too, was gone.

To articulate the emotional impact of these deaths is so difficult. It really makes so little sense… even as I struggle to find the appropriate words they all fail to mark the measure of grief and the void left.

But this I know for certain. The level of the intensity of the love both for my brother Brad and for Cashmere was, and is, immense. To love with so much intensity means that their loss is wrenching.

Yet even if I could choose to love less, I would not.

To live in this world

you must be able to do three things:

To love what is mortal;

to hold it

against your bones knowing

your own life depends on it;

and, when the time comes to let it go,

to let it go.

 – Mary Oliver

In Blackwater Woods

(American Primitive)