It's beautifully written. In my limited experience, these words work even in day-to-day life. It's baffling that all it takes is just ask the other person to reconsider. Probably it's a vulnerable gesture that has that impact or one's fucking greatness and their mastery of art :) Either way, a good reminder to ask more frequently than we do.
This piece was fantastic. I will say I literally spat out of my sip of water onto my computer monitor when you casually dropped that ICE was watching the inmate list and would probably deport him. I tend to think of myself as a centrist, but all of my red tribe friends say that there is literally no attempt to deport illegal immigrants, even the ones who repeatedly get caught committing crimes. And my blue tribe friends say that this is an outright lie, that no illegal immigrant who committed a crime would *ever* fail to be deported because the system is set up to do exactly that
So to hear this entire story, and set myself up to sympathize with this man and care about this deep and extensive interaction with the state as a consequence of him committing a bunch of crimes, only for you to then casually drop the fact that he's an illegal immigrant near the end... was kinda shocking to me?
"illegal immigrant on probation for drunk driving gets caught second time and then is released after 2 days of jail on the whim of a judge, gets to remain in country" sounds like the kind of headline I would immediately disbelieve in any other circumstance, it's fox news drivel. It isn't supposed to actually be true and absolutely commonplace enough to go without comment in this story.
She may have done it because you took the extra step, knowing full well what your job is like, and that you wouldn't have asked her to reconsider if you thought he deserved the sentence. You may have also given her an opening to change her mind after the family's reaction made her feel guilty. Could have been a bit of both too.
This piece is why I originally subscribed to you. Hopefully more people see this.
It's beautifully written. In my limited experience, these words work even in day-to-day life. It's baffling that all it takes is just ask the other person to reconsider. Probably it's a vulnerable gesture that has that impact or one's fucking greatness and their mastery of art :) Either way, a good reminder to ask more frequently than we do.
This piece was fantastic. I will say I literally spat out of my sip of water onto my computer monitor when you casually dropped that ICE was watching the inmate list and would probably deport him. I tend to think of myself as a centrist, but all of my red tribe friends say that there is literally no attempt to deport illegal immigrants, even the ones who repeatedly get caught committing crimes. And my blue tribe friends say that this is an outright lie, that no illegal immigrant who committed a crime would *ever* fail to be deported because the system is set up to do exactly that
So to hear this entire story, and set myself up to sympathize with this man and care about this deep and extensive interaction with the state as a consequence of him committing a bunch of crimes, only for you to then casually drop the fact that he's an illegal immigrant near the end... was kinda shocking to me?
"illegal immigrant on probation for drunk driving gets caught second time and then is released after 2 days of jail on the whim of a judge, gets to remain in country" sounds like the kind of headline I would immediately disbelieve in any other circumstance, it's fox news drivel. It isn't supposed to actually be true and absolutely commonplace enough to go without comment in this story.
i will be thinking about this for years
She may have done it because you took the extra step, knowing full well what your job is like, and that you wouldn't have asked her to reconsider if you thought he deserved the sentence. You may have also given her an opening to change her mind after the family's reaction made her feel guilty. Could have been a bit of both too.
Yassssss
Beautifully written, Yassine