What did you do in the war, Nana?

These are the times that try women's souls.

Harriet Tubman used the call of the barred owl to communicate with “the freedom seekers” she was shepherding north. You can listen here.

ONE OF THE TRAGEDIES about the increasing loss of local journalism (i.e., hometown newspapers) is that the dissemination of news that mirrors or precurses national trends is silenced.

The actions of ICE, for example: random, local, violent, masked, storms that sweep in and out of a community, a brief story here and there, a blog, a post on X or Bluesky, a community Facebook reference—and then, gone, too many people in too many places, and underground network that flashes and disappears—we hear from friends, relatives, guests—and then to dig up verification and amplification, going to blogs and small regional papers (that are often silenced after one story).

FOR INSPIRATION—what can we do?—I began this morning with Elizabeth Yuko’s historically fascinating piece on the Underground Railroad, “5 Secret Codes¹ Used to Communicate in the Underground Railroad.” Dr. Yuko is a bioethicist and a journalist (and a charming writer).

And then, I decided to check out a story I heard yesterday from a friend who has a sibling in Las Vegas. Rough info in a dump from me (a writer, not a journalist): The Mexicans are putting their houses up for sale, to get the cash out—if they’re deported, the government will seize the property (and presumably the inherent worth). Businesses of all sizes are closing, restaurants and casinos are in a death spiral. The convention trade is gone—and the international business is, as it is everywhere, not only “down” but “slapped down.” ² Raids on Los Angeles swap meets have crippled a major similar meet in Vegas.

What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas? What about what’s NOT happening in Vegas? Photo from yesterday’s the Eater by Rooted Elements Media.

A month old (and nothing has improved) is Nicolae Viorel Butler’s piece, “ICE in the Desert: How Trump's Mass Deportations Cripple Las Vegas.”

Remember: Stephen Miller has demanded 3,000 deportations a day. The BBB that passed the Senate today, will allow, as the dreaded New York Post reports: “…ICE to hire 10,000 new officers and double its capacity to detain illegal immigrants. It also offers a $10,000 a year bonus for immigration agents…”

There aren’t that many criminals³—even with the helpful addition of, as WHO used to say at every opportunity, inmates from “foreign” mental hospitals who’ve been released and sent to the U.S.⁴—to make the quota. The new plans—to meet the self-imposed quota—is to “denaturalize” Mexicans who have become American citizens, and end birthright citizenship (particularly for those born of parents who were not legal residents).

What to do? Other than wear a tee-shirt that says “I’m not a ‘good’ German”?

Ideas—and some good tequila— welcome.

1. My favorite, as Yuko reports: It’s believed that famed Underground Railroad leader Harriet Tubman mimicked the call of the barred owl to communicate with the freedom-seekers she was guiding. According to Ranger Angela Crenshaw of the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park in Church Creek, Maryland, hoot owls, as the nocturnal birds are also known, “make a sound that some people think sounds like ‘Who cooks for you? Who cooks for you?’” she told Audubon in a 2020 interview,

2. Friends who just returned after a month in the Netherlands and Italy reported one conversation, in the Netherlands: American man: “You’ll have to come to the Bay Area, and we’ll show you—-” Dutchman: “I’m not coming to America. I’m never coming to America again.”

3. Poor, brown criminals. Dear Stephen Miller: The quota could be easily met if the racial and ethnic restrictions were lifted. Didn’t you watch The Sopranos? Or The Big Short?

4. Where they have blended in well and are unidentifiable from the local residents.