The Longest Day

Were you up at 6:07 this morning? If so, you were awake at the moment that the sun was directly over the Tropic of Cancer, an event that marked the Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. You may know it as the First Day of Summer or the Longest Day of the Year. Even if you don't celebrate love and fertility or rollick around Stonehenge on this day, it is certainly a day worth celebrating, especially after the harsh winter that some of my Northeast friends experienced. Now if you happen to reside in the Southern Hemisphere, today marks the Winter Solstice, and that's a whole different ball game.

(Sidenote: On December 23, 2013, just two days after Solstice, I crossed the Tropic of Capricorn in Rockhampton, Australia. It was hot! I have yet to cross the Tropic of Cancer, but I have a plan to step on the Equator next April. Bucket lists can be demanding and exhausting!)

So today is the longest day, but how long is it? That depends on where you are. If you are in the Arctic, the day never ends. In my home state of New Jersey, daylight prevails for 15 1/2 hours. For reasons which will be revealed a blog post or two down the road, I am now back in a place where this longest day is under 14 hours long. Does is matter? Not at all!

But generally speaking, the days do seem to be very long, full of angst and disbelief and hand-wringing. That has certainly been true in the last few days, as more and more details about the separation of children from their parents at the southern border have emerged. I do not feel that I need to pontificate on this nightmare in this post. Either you are a decent human being and you are devastated by this horror . . . or you are beyond redemption.

What to do? I'll channel Blanche DuBois in Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire: "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers." That idea has come to fruition in the effort by Charlotte and Dave Willner of San Francisco to raise $1500 to go toward legal help for the families separated by this heartless administration. They directed donations to go to RAICES, the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, a 501 c3 charity based in Texas, their intention to provide legal help for one or two of the family members suffering this separation. As of this writing, the amount raised is $17,095,448. I suspect it will not be long before the new goal of $20,000,000 is reached. The new plan is "to locate every separated family in the United States, get them lawyers, and when possible, get them out of federal detention - parents and children alike." A Facebook spokesperson claimed this is "one of the largest fundraisers we've ever seen on Facebook."

It warms the heart, doesn't it? Despite the evil policy enacted by this heartless administration, regular American human beings have rallied toward a cause to the tune of over $17,000,000! Won't you do your part to help them reach their goal? It's pretty easy to do. Here's the link:

Donate to RAICES

Thank you!