Prompt 62: October 1, 2026
I missed a strange scene, which will be an important note in the history of my community. Last week, I was away for work when the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids occurred in Liberal and the surrounding areas. Growing up in Liberal, there was always the expectation that la migra would have a hay-day rounding up illegals, if that day ever came. It was an ongoing joke from citizens, to legal residents, to illegals alike; though each with their own intonation of what the joke was directed at. This political fantasy fueled the national sentiment in the 2024 sweep of republicans after the egregious border policy of the Biden administration, but quickly lost favor, even in those who support deportations, when the real action started.
There are different accounts of how the local operations were conducted, but the gist is that federal agents came to town on the night of Monday, September 21st and conducted traffic patrol and job site raids to “catch” anyone who couldn’t prove their legal residency. Starting at 5am Tuesday morning, people on their way to work were surprised by the organization of and randomness by which the federal officers conducted searches for undocumented immigrants. Businesses closed for the week. People hid in their homes for fear of encountering the feds. Children were pulled from school. Protestors patrolled the town waving Mexican flags. Senators posted banal statements of ignorant neutrality on the issue. By the end of the week, over 100 people were swiped by the unidentified “authorities” and disappeared from the lives of their families, employers, and friends – no phone calls, no trials.
Lex Rex: Law is King was written by Samuel Rutherford in 1644 in which he justifies “once and for all” the preeminence of blind jurisprudence over all people. This revolutionary idea was the basis for subjecting royalty and elites to the same laws imposed on the citizenry, which 132 years later was famously elaborated by Thomas Jefferson when he wrote an even more profound statement:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Equal judgement under the law is one thing; execution of laws is another; solving the technical problems of enforcement is yet another, balancing the political reactions of the laws is another still, yet we are no closer to the rule of law or liberty. Entropy happens. Without elaborating on the failures of political solutions, critics of the situation are left clinging to the long-fading fashion of human dignity without any solution.
And yet, this is only one of the impossible problems in our country that no one can answer for; and no one will answer for them [homelessness, conservation, debt, corruption, rotting infrastructure]. So there is a growing dichotomy within the broader culture – no dignity at the bottom, no duty at the top. Too many symptoms makes diagnosis impossible. The unrelatedness of each ill to “society” gives the impression that nothing is in line with its purpose and that we can no longer trust institutions or their stated missions. Confusion reigns.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed on the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
W.B. Yeats
This is not intended to be a cynical lament over the futility of our situation. Rather, the Ode to Culture project is meant to face such challenges recognizing the temptation and pitfalls on both sides of debate; so this is dialogue.
The thread is open. Create boldly, and may the Spirit guide us all