This is the time for good trouble by Marie Cartier

This I can guarantee you: there will come a day when it seems you cannot stop crying.

When will that day come? Today it came for me reading The Atlantic while I drank my morning coffee:

This is what they are reporting: the Trump administration has given the order to incinerate food instead of sending it to people abroad who need it. Nearly 500 metric tons of emergency food—enough to feed about 1.5 million children for a week—are set to expire tomorrow…the food, meant for children in Afghanistan and Pakistan, will be ash.

There will come a day.

And here we are in these United States with people in hiding, speaking of food. Why are they hiding? They are hiding from immigration officials and some of us are sending those people in hiding – food. Toiletries. Macaroni and cheese boxes line my grocery cart,

In these United States, we are building more prisons. And I read the detention center known as Alligator Alcatraz puts thirty-two people in a cage. Each person/prisoner costs the United States taxpayer approximately $275 a day. I guess I mean not prisoner, immigration detainee.

The woman making tacos on the corner who was picked up, or the guy who leaf blows your neighbor’s lawn, irritatingly on Saturday morning. But, hey, a job’s a job.

 “Give me your poor…yearning to be free,” sure the Statue of Liberty is weeping now in all those memes. She’s lying on her side, cracked, or being arrested.

There will come a day. Give me your huddled masses yearning to be free- so I can make money off of having them detained inhumanely.

So, if an immigrant costs the taxpayer approximately $275 a day that’s $1925 a week. If you put 32 people in a cage for one week $61,600. https://www.cnn.com/2025/07/12/us/alligator-alcatraz-lawmaker-tour-conditions

If they are all there for a month that costs the US taxpayer $246,400. If you keep them there for a year that is $12,812,800 times 100 cages (this is conservative based on the fact I am estimating 3000 detainees when they want to go to 5000) but at 100 cages with 32 people per cage the cost to the taxpayer is $1,281280000. I have to google how much money that is…how to say it in English…that is one billion two hundred eighty-one million two hundred eighty thousand dollars the US taxpayer will pay to house the detainees at Alligator Alcatraz for one year.

One billion, two hundred and eighty-one million, and two hundred and eighty thousand dollars.

Amnesty International just put out a post—these are the conditions at Alligator Alcatraz: no clean water, toilets that don’t flush, food infested with maggots, no medical care, lights on 24 hours a day…. ACLU demands that the facility be shut down.

And the immigration department, ICE, just got the largest share of the new bill…the budget the big b*** bill…to build more cages in more camps and send out more ICE to do more raids.

Who is getting all of this money? Well, all of this is easy to google—nothing is hidden: The construction companies profiting from this seven-figure contract are tied to prominent GOP donors, raising serious concerns about corruption and unethical profiteering.

The approximate amount of $275 a day is not being spent on humane detainee conditions. That is one big reason why people are hiding. People are afraid to get caught, afraid to get caught…. crying and screaming when they are caught.

What will happen? People are being sent to other countries- El Salvador, Sudan…without a trial. The Supreme Court has said this is…okay.

We are doing this to people who have legal rights to being here- people with visas. DACA students, people who show up for legal amnesty hearings, people who pay taxes, who have jobs…people living their lives here.

I am haunted by the picture of the makeup artist that is now a case Amnesty International has taken up. Here. In These United States.

Andry Jose Hernandez Romero, 31, fled Venezuela for California in 2024, fearing persecution under Nicolas Maduro’s regime. He has no criminal history or gang ties.

He lawfully entered California with an appointment through the CBP One app but was swiftly transferred to the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which labeled him a security risk because of his tattoos. His tattoos that say “Mom” on one wrist, and on the other wrist “Dad.” They shaved his head, accused him of being in a gang and he cried for his mother. And now he is in the notorious prison in El Salvador.  Who is making money off the guy who is deported?

Or the guy who painted my deck…with the beautiful smile and we shared coffee every morning he worked. Is he in hiding or is he free? Was he documented? Where is he?  Who is making money off the guy mowing my neighbor’s lawn if that guy is deported? Where are they–these people? The macaroni and cheese boxes pile up in my shopping cart and I know you need milk to make macaroni and cheese, and instant milk is only sold in large boxes, and I don’t know what to do in the grocery store and I look at all that mac and cheese and just cry because what…what is happening? The food in my cart is for those who can’t leave their homes because they are afraid and I know these people.

Of course, we are thinking about the Jews in Germany during World War II…this is what it looks like—people are in hiding. And I think whoever helped the Jews was so brave because we can’t help but say—what can I do? What can I do? And I guess they said that too—what can I do? People are being rounded up, they are being sent somewhere and later they will say—we will say? –we didn’t know that was where they were being sent. But that is where they were being sent.

Are being sent.

The endless scourge of a master race, of making a profit. And yes, this is a rant, not a poem…one hundred cages housing 32 people in each cage, a billion dollars.

It gets unreal. All of those Ann Franks.

When I went to visit the attic where Ann Frank stayed, I was so glad, so glad to see the ladder she climbed up and where she was able to kiss Peter. Because she was a kid. Because she got to have a first kiss. Thank you, Peter. Thank you, attic. Thank you, hiding.

And yes, in these United States they might even be rounding up kids. They are certainly leaving families without parents. A man was taken who still had his family’s rent money in his pocket.

And in the midst of this, there are  children in the world who will starve while we incinerate the food originally planned for them– to ash.

And the crops in California will not get picked. The “administration” is saying people on Medicaid will pick the crops in America. We don’t need immigrants.

 I mean, this is fodder for Saturday Night Live—except maybe it’s not. My classes are not filling enough to be held because people do not want to go out.  The swap meets are silent.

And people go to their jobs at high risk. But everyone needs money. Needs a job.

Except I guess those 813 billionaires, that’s all there is, in the United States who will get the biggest tax break of all time.

I wake up and my first thought is of Andry Jose Hernandez Romero. I go to sleep, and I wake up and my first thought is of Andry Jose Hernandez Romero…I don’t know why except maybe I’m human? I’m gay? I don’t want this to be happening? He’s a person who I’ve be come to know in some way—looking at the image of him with such beautiful hair, or the one of him holding a large stuffed bear—so gay. So beautifully gay.  Where are you, Andry?

Planned parenthood has been defunded. https://firstthings.com/planned-parenthood-defunded-for-now/ You can’t write grants that have the words “woman, gender or female” in them.

And are you overwhelmed yet? Is this the day you cry…again?

 I know it will come because if you’ve read this far, this is the day before the administration, a generous term for who they are, will burn 500 tons of food to ash because they don’t want to distribute it. It will cost $130,000  to burn the food that would have fed 1.5 million children.

We don’t want this—do we? John Lewis’ fifth year of leaving us is upon us. The anniversary of his passing is July 17 –two days from now as I write this. Go do necessary trouble, he said. Get in good trouble.

“Get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.” – John Lewis

I don’t know what else to say, friends, except—get in good trouble. Necessary trouble.

–Marie Cartier

July 15, 2025, from In These United States, a series of documentary poems and rants