Anxiety on the Island

Martha's Vineyard Island seems intent on accepting a state designation as a "Seasonal Community" in the hope of winning help from Massachusetts with providing more housing to the people who live and work here. The population booms about seven fold in the summer, then recedes for the winter.

It's easy to think of this remote bucolic place as just a summer playground, but for the year-round residents, it's simply home. And for this community, the horrors the Trump regime is inflicting on the nation are all too close by. A couple of mental health professionals spelled some of this out in the Martha Vineyard Times. (Yes, we have two little local newspapers!) Charles Silberstein and Laura Roosevelt explain: 

The immigrant community, estimated at 20 percent of the Island’s year-round population, is currently particularly prone to fear and sadness. Many of those I’ve spoken with are U.S. citizens, and still feel relatively safe. But almost all have family and friends who are undocumented and experiencing terror.

Recent rumors that ICE raids on the Island were imminent prompted many immigrants to stay home from work and school; many didn’t show up for appointments at Community Services and doctor’s offices, and generally kept off of the roads. I was told about a child who was so frightened that she stayed up most of the night crying.

One immigrant, a professional who arrived here just after 9/11 in 2001, told me that it was even more frightening then than it is today. ICE set up roadblocks, and if a person were caught, there was a likelihood of being sent immediately to an immigration center. Just seeing a police car or even an animal control vehicle could send his fellow immigrants into a state of panic.

After 14 years in limbo, he is now a citizen. He reminds himself and frightened members of the immigrant community that none of us know what the future will bring. He believes that immigrants need to decide either to return to a country where they feel more comfortable, or just learn to live with the threat without letting it dominate their lives. Living in a constant state of fear he says, is annihilation.

He shared a Portuguese saying with me: “We kill a lion today, and we tie up the bear to worry about tomorrow.” In other words, every day has its own problems, and we don’t need to add to them by worrying about tomorrow. ...

The island has long been a place that absorbed immigrant workers; locals knew what to do when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis flew a planeload of confused Venezuelans here in a political stunt in 2022. 

Silberstein and Roosevelt offer ideas for how to get by in the current terrifying moment: 

Many Americans are grieving the loss of the country as they knew it, and the collective ideals held in common with fellow Americans. ... [Some concrete suggestions] ...

• Take a deep breath, and then run toward the monster that has no teeth. Or, as the Rev. Cathlin Baker, minister of the First Congregational Church of West Tisbury, has advised congregants, “Do the good that is yours to do.” 

• Spend time with kids and pets. Connect with friends, and accept that you are unable to impact a crisis alone. 

• Remember that throughout human history, governments and political movements come and go. Nothing is permanent. Work on accepting that the future is always uncertain.

• If you are an immigrant, know that much of what you hear may be bluster or misinformation. Consider talking with an immigration lawyer who can gum up the deportation process if need be. Know your legal rights.

We're all in this for the long haul.