It has been an intense 24 hours.  Wednesday night several hundred people gathered for a candlelight vigil for our friend and fellow activist David "Doc" St. Germain.  Many people spoke of his love, his passion for justice, his love of talking things through, and how we will all miss his wonderful bear hugs.  We were people from his church (First Unitarian), fellow activists, people who had been homeless, his family - all people touched by his generosity of spirit, his love (which meant action, not just some nice mushy feeling) and his determination that ALL people be treated with dignity.  It was a powerful gathering. 

This afternoon over 200 people gathered at Dexter Park in Providence to say NO to racism and racial profiling, to say NO to RI being like Arizona.  We have come close.  Governor Carcieri's Executive Order  implementing E-Verify and police participation in the 287 G program have put us closer that many are aware.  Though it is hard to document changes, many people of color are clear that there is increased racial profiling, more pretext stops (a broken taillight that leads to further questioning, including on immigration status) and more deportations, often of people who have been living and working here for years. 

Following the rally, over 100 people loaded onto buses for a trip to the Chaffee for Governor campaign office.  All candidates for Governor had been asked to fill out a survey of policy positions, ranging from their willingness to withdraw the Executive Order (stop insisting on the use of E-Verify for all state contracts and sub-contracts and withdrawal from the 287G program), support instate tuition for RI high school graduates, regardless of immigration status, drivers licenses based on ability to drive not proof of residency, and more.  Chaffee's office had not returned to survey, and as one of the top candidates, the group wanted answers.  100 people streamed into his office, and presented the list of questions, one by one.  Most of the answers were actually pretty good.  He has declared that one of his first acts as governor would be to renounce the use of E-Verify and he supports the in-state tuition bill and the bill curtailing racial profiling.  It was not clear that his office understood the 287G program and that there was hesitancy on the drivers license issue.  There will be more conversations!  But it was a strong visit, with the group making it clear that we expect to be consulted and listened to.  

R.I.P. David St. Germain (Doc)

My friend Doc jumped to his death on Friday, July 23rd, despairing that the medical care he needed to survive would not happen.  But that is not what I want you to know about Doc.

David St. Germain, known to most of us as Doc, was a man with a huge heart, an intolerance for injustice and the courage to speak truth to power, even when doing so cost him personally.  If someone was being wronged, he simply couldn’t stand by and not try to address the problem.  It breaks my heart that we were not able to adequately stand by him in his latest troubles.  I’m sorry Doc.  All I can say is that I, and I suspect others as well, will try to pick up where you left off.  They are big shoes to fill.

I met Doc shortly after moving here three years ago.  In what became a pattern, Doc would show up at some event, wait till things quieted down afterward, then ask if we could talk.  Something was troubling him.  Sometimes it was individuals he was concerned about , but often it was systems that were causing harm that so troubled him.  I remember him looking at me, tears pooling in his eyes, and asking if I knew that there was human trafficking in Providence.  It hurt him deeply that people could be caught in such a degrading situation right in front of us and people were looking the other way.   Later he refused to stand by silently after the police brutally beat a man in their custody and he struggled to find a way for the community to hold the police accountable.  Other times he was searching for ways to approach problems.  He queried me about Quakers and the American Friends Service Committee, about non-violence and ways to speak truth to power that would achieve the results he wanted, always wanting to learn more so that he could be as effective as possible.  Would that more of us were as humble and as open to learning new skills as Doc.

Over time we talked about some of his problems, but all too often he pushed those aside to refocus the conversation on whatever injustice  weighted on his heart at the time.  I wish I had been a better friend and worked as hard on the ways the systems he needed failed him as he worked when it failed others.   There is much work to do.  I hope that his death reenergizes us, helps us understand how essential this work is to real people.  May we do so with the love and passion and humor that he modeled, but may we also be sure to care for one another along the way.