Dear Editor: More than 40 Sitkans stood in rain and hail on Saturday to remember the lives of the 22 people who have died in ICE detention this year. Those who died were from Mexico, Guyana, Canada, Ukraine, Ethiopia, China, El Salvador, and Haiti. They ranged in age from 27 to 75. Many had called the United States home for decades.
The Sitka vigil was part of a Day of the Dead National Day of Action coordinated by the Detention Watch Network to both honor those who have died, and to call for an end to deportations, an end to detention expansion, and freeing of detainees.
The vigil featured a traditional ofrenda, or Day of the Dead altar, adorned with paper marigolds, incense, candles, traditional foods, and water, to honor the deceased and to attract their spirits, who come to visit loved ones on this day. Community members made and held signs for each person who died in detention. Some signmakers found photographs of the person they honored and information about their lives; for others, only their deaths were recorded.
Passersby were overwhelmingly supportive. In truth, I believe that most of us understand that there but for fortune, any of us could be among the detainees. At the very least, I believe people strive to live by the Golden Rule: Do to others as you would have them do to you. I do wonder whether people who are unmoved by these abductions and deaths believe that they are born into their lives of good fortune through personal virtue, rather than mere chance.
When the hour-long vigil was almost over, the sun came out. I like to think the spirits of the dead were visiting to affirm that their lives did not end with their lonely deaths, but live on through those committed to honoring and remembering them – and to working toward an America where every life is valued.
Cindy Litman, for
Sitkans for Peace and Democracy
