Other Articles Archives - MICHAEL O. ALLEN

Stop saying we’re helpless to stop Musk’s illegal impunity

By michael o. allenHomepage, Other Articles, UncategorizedNo Comments

There’s this exercise that some Americans–aghast at Donald Trump’s norms and traditions shattering and, ultimately felonious, rampage across our political landscape– engaged in during his first sojourn as our Commander-in-Chief. They wondered how their fellow citizens would have reacted if Barack Obama did the same things.

This is not a holier than thou jeremiad. I was one of those people.

Never mind that Trump is a lifelong criminal and that Obama, our cautious, preternaturally dignified former president, would never countenance, much less engage in, such behaviors.

But readers, with your indulgence, I want to resurrect the exercise and extend it to another figure on our political landscape: Elon Musk.

Musk is a white South Africa-born modern day robber baron who lied, stole and wrestled his way to being the world’s wealthiest man through sheer thuggery. But, imagine, if you will, that he was instead a black – stanch that – a Zulu who acquired his prominence the same way Musk did by claiming credit for things created by others, muscling them out of their companies and then reaping untold billions beyond anyone’s wildest imagination.

Some of you may be uncomfortable with invoking race and/or caste, so, let’s say instead of a Zulu from Africa, he’s Russian, Chinese (you’ll see why I picked those particular nations in a minute) or Saudi.

February 7, 2025

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KNOW YOUR RIGHTS: If You Encounter ICE

By michael o. allenHomepage, Other Articles, UncategorizedNo Comments

And so it has come to pass, well into the 21 st Century, that whole communities are being terrorized by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on American soil in search of people who “look like immigrants” so the new administration of Donald Trump can throw them out of the country and/or into detention camps.

Immigrants, even undocumented migrants, have rights and here are some precautions you should take:

Do’s & Don’ts

You are not obligated to open your door to ICE agents so don’t open the door.
Ask to see a warrant and ask them to slip it under your door so you can examine it.
The officers need to show you the right type of warrant, which is a judicial warrant signed by a judge.
A judicial warrant authorizes ICE officers to enter a home, question people and, potentially, detain them.
An ICE warrant, which is usually signed by the officers, does not authorize the officers to enter your place of residence.
Ask the agents to get a judicial warrant signed by a judge.
Non-citizens such as green card holders and people with Employment Authorization Document (EAD) are required to carry identification.
If you don’t have identification (or you don’t have legal status), remember:

YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO REMAIN SILENT!!!

You are not required to answer questions from agents who approach you.
Do not speak to anyone until you are provided with an immigration lawyer.
If you have a case in progress, carry copies of receipts of the case around with you.
While the receipts won’t stop you from getting detained, they will help your attorney get you out of detention.
If you’re a U.S. citizen, especially if you look ethnic, get in the habit of carrying your passport on you in case you get swept up in a raid and being detained. It is not unheard of!!!

TRAVEL WITHIN THE U.S.

Be very careful and don’t travel if you don’t have to.
Remember, you’re liable to be pulled over by law enforcement at any time while driving.
There could be checkpoints while trying to board a bus or train.

INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL

Again, be very careful. Don’t travel if you can help it.
Green card holders, and people with advance parole travel document that allows certain noncitizens to leave the United States and return without applying for a visa and those Employment Authorization Document (EAD) cards should refrain from traveling during Trump’s term in office.
Green card holders who encounter problems returning to the U.S. should ask the official that they wish to see an immigration judge and want to be placed in proceedings.
That should allow you to see a judge where you could get a chance to enter the U.S.

FINALLY,

If you have any criminal history, even if you were just charged but not convicted, refrain from driving or traveling.

RESOURCES:

February 1, 2025

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AFRICAN EPILOGUE: Dreams of Death

By michael o. allenHomepage, New York Daily News, Other Articles, Special Report on RwandaNo Comments

null by MICHAEL O. ALLEN
Amidst lesser mountains, Kilimanjaro sat mysteriously in the distance, its brooding, mammoth expanse shrouded by clouds that streaked the rising sun. It was barely dawn at this wildlife reserve, and the elephants were headed out to the swamps.

I must confess that the burden I had carried in my heart to Amboselli National Park, in Kenya, lifted at the sight of that first baby elephant. It loped along goofily, trying to keep pace with its mother.

Twelve more gray pairs followed, then a herd of wildebeest and a span of gazelles, warthogs, and buffalo. Cattle egrets paced with hippopotamus, munching grasshoppers while scampering from underfoot.

This visit last month to the wildlife preserve was my attempt at a vacation. Yet I held little hope that it would banish the nightmares that had been creeping into my sleep or erase memories of the horrors I had witnessed as reporter covering the tragedy in Goma, Zaire, and Rwanda.

A dozen zebras heading to a pond for a drink looked warily at three Maasai warriors approaching in the distance. A pack of hyenas, accompanied by two jackals, ate a baby wildebeest under the gaze of a council of vultures peering from the trees.

Here on the plains under the shadow of Kilimanjaro, the laws of nature were apparent. Animals engage in their own Darwinism. But how to explain the unnatural carnage of the prior month—the gruesome slaughter of 500,000 Tutsis by the majority Hutus, and the mass deaths of refugee Hutus from politics and disease?

Humans, when we deign to acknowledge our place in the animal kingdom, think we are better, more evolved beings than the beasts cavorting on the plains. The scriptures assures us, after all, that we are created in the image of God.

When, with the world’s complicity, a Rwanda happens, it gives us pause. It gave me nightmares—nightmares that started at one site of the carnage, and which have plagued me until I arrived home, in New York, this week.

Inexplicably, the nightmares began shortly after I arrived with other reporters to stay at the CentreCQ Cristus, a Jesuit retreat in Kigali, Rwanda, a few weeks ago. I say “inexplicably” not to diminish the horror of what happened at Centre Cristus, but it’s not clear to me why the story of what happened there affected me more than the horrors I actually witnessed.

June 1, 2008

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