Where are we eating tonight?

more layers than I have usually thought about

Photo courtesy of sutyo.com

Contrast? Paradox? “Hmm…didn’t consider this.”?

I have been thinking the past few days about the number of times a year a person, family, friends debate about what restaurant they want to go to or from which one to order takeout.

“Oh, let’s get Mexican tonight.”

“Oh, let’s get Cuban pork tonight.”

“Oh, I love the Brazilian steakhouse. Please, let’s go there.”

“ Oh, my mouth is watering for Thai food.”

“Oh, you know we always order out from Chinese.”

“Oh, I have a taste for Indian tonight. You know that Naan and Masala make me so happy.”

And the list goes on.

The first one on this list is a highest example that should have us asking a serious question of our souls. Others apply also.

How can I love and say I want to go to a Mexican restaurant tonight and satisfy my hunger if I support deportations of those who have been given legitimate status in this country?

How?

How do I dare spoil myself with their recipes, their culture, their gift to us without defending those who rightly belong here when it comes to the likel thousands, being deported for no legitimate reason?

The fields, too, are emptying, my friends. Produce is not being harvested and it is likely our restaurants and stores will not be as bountiful as we are used to.

How often when we go into the produce section of the store do we picture workers in the fields? I certainly don’t.

I watched a video of strawberries being harvested and it is backbreaking work in hot sunshine that is by and large done by immigrants. I can't get it out of my mind, now with the photos of their disappearance from the fields.

So, if I choose to go to, for example, a Mexican restaurant during these times, perhaps along with a tip I ask, “How can I help your people right now? Tell me something I can do. What is one thing? How can I support you and your people who do not deserve to be deported?”

It’s so easy not to think about, not be conscious of, especially in this time, the interconnections that matter. How I am enjoying the gifts of people of myriad backgrounds and how those gifts enrich my life.

This morning, I read a piece by Ben Meiselas founder of Meidas Touch, telling how his wife who is first generation Mexican in this country, met her family for dinner last night in a neighborhood in CA that is of high Latino population. She shared how the restaurants and shops are emptying because it is one of the neighborhoods being most terrorized by ICE. People are afraid to go out.

Ben’s 12-year-old niece told how those in the community feel paralyzed and are hiding. This while a commercial was playing on the restaurant TV of our Department of Homeland Security Secretary telling people to self deport, “or else,” and encouraging community members to “rat on each other.”

I love the diversity of this country and to say I fail to comprehend the current state we are in does not do justice to what I feel in my being as I witness what is taking place. It is about far more than restaurants but this common activity of eating out is what came into my awareness in this moment.