OccupyICEPDX continues

A bike path runs through the middle of the camp, and some bikers have insisted on tearing through at great speed, despite requests for them to slow down and be careful for the children. A bicyclist who looked to be male and about my age came through the camp at dawn Monday morning, dismounted (is that the right term for bicyclists?), and paused to say thank you to those of us near the entrance. 

"I really appreciate what you folks are doing. And there were 400 people protesting at the prison in Sheridan [OR] on Sunday afternoon!" He's referring to the prison about an hour from Portland by car, where 120 or so refugees have been locked up, thanks to the immigration policies of the US administration. Most are from India and Bhutan, with about 1/3rd from South or Central America. I am glad so many people in the US are protesting the policies that are causing trauma to so many people.

I've acquired a throat infection after being very cold all night Sunday, not sleeping, and feeling considerable tension when the armed "Homeland Security" agents (that misnomer) arrived at 4 a.m. Started antibiotics today (Tuesday).

Many of the people in the camp are sick. It has been a long nine days with endless sleep-deprivation for them. The dedication of the young people who are living in the camp is awe-inspiring, though I have begun to wish they would declare victory, close the camp, and find some more sustainable (and less draining) way to protest. This is not a popular idea, so I murmur it to this one and that one in hopes it will catch on, though I am met with the insistence that it would mean capitulating. It is hard to imagine an "exit strategy" that would appeal to all involved. In the Extra, at dawn people re-lit the candles for the ongoing vigil for the children.