Please

allow me to get this off my chest…

Readers of my substack know that while I will sometimes include political commentary in these pages, I generally stick to the topic of marriage equality issues here in the United States and in Japan.

Close friends know that I revile the current US administration and everything that has been promulgated for the past year. But I want to protect my sanity, and therefore limit my consumption of media and limit my criticisms to my Instagram feed.

But the Minneapolis murder of Renee Good in front of her wife yesterday has lifted the lid on so many of my fears.

I think it bears repeating, but this is my husband, Hiro. We’ve been inseparable for more than 32 years.

Just before the turn of the year, Hiro and I traveled together to British Columbia. We stayed with dear friends, ate dim sum twice, poutine, and Japanese-style pork cutlets (at Saboten in Richmond), and did some shopping for new year foods.

When we started discussing this trip in late November, Hiro was content not to come. Hiro is a green card holder here in the US, and we both have witnessed the capricious whims of US border guards (even when in the NEXUS lane). Both of us were nervous about the potential of being separated at the border, of his being led into questioning.

But, I hear you say, he has a green card.

Yes, but green cards and US passports have failed to shield people from nonsensical arrests and detentions at the hands of DHS personnel (ICE and CBP alike).

Hiro has no criminal record.

But again, that hasn’t protected other victims of DHS cruelty.

When Hiro first suggested he come with me to BC—we lived there for nine years and used to visit friends multiple times a year before the pandemic—I panicked.

Hiro reminded me, however, of the multiple stories from other Japanese green card holders. They might have been questioned now and again, but no one was detained.

He also reminded me of how easily we returned to the US after our Japan last May. Perhaps we were wise to fly back via Honolulu—I’ve heard many horror stories about CBP and TSA personnel with Napoleon complexes at SeaTac—but Hiro was right. The guard barely even glanced at Hiro’s green card then.

But we made it to Canada and back. The guard at the NEXUS lane saw our cards (and Hiro’s green card) on his screen, asked what we bought in Canada, and before I could even finish saying “Japanese groceries,” he waved us through.

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I can imagine what Renee Good’s wife is going through, because I’ve already imagined it happening to Hiro or to me (as Hiro watched me struggle to protect him if it ever came to that). I won’t pretend that America has changed for the worse only since 47 took office. This is a country built on genocide and slavery, and the blood drawn by white supremacy is in the very air we breathe.

It’s not enough to want the Democrats in Congress to do something, anything. They (for the most part) benefit from this violence and chaos as much as Republicans do.

It’s time to know that no one in America is free. No one.

Incremental change can’t help us. But for all of our sakes, abolish and prosecute ICE. That’d be an excellent start.