“The more deeply immersed I became in the thinking of the prophets, the more powerfully it became clear to me what the lives of the Prophets sought to convey: that morally speaking, there is no limit to the concern one must feel for the suffering of human beings, that indifference to evil is worse than evil itself, that in a free society, some are guilty, but all are responsible."
— Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Prophets.
On February 22, we'll gather to discuss Satsuki Ina's powerful memoir The Poet and the Silk Girl, which tells the story of her parents' incarceration in American concentration camps during World War II. Born herself at the Tule Lake War Relocation Center, Dr. Ina weaves together her mother's diary, her father's haiku, and smuggled letters to reveal both the brutality of that injustice and her family's resilience. But this isn't only a historical discussion. Dr. Ina, a trauma therapist and co-founder of Tsuru for Solidarity, explicitly connects her family's experience to contemporary mass detention at our borders and the separation of migrant children from their families. We'll explore what these parallel injustices reveal about complicity, witness, and faithful response. When the state dehumanizes people—whether as "enemy aliens" then or "illegals" now—what does our faith require of us? How do we move from empathy to action, from comfortable distance to costly solidarity?
For an introduction to Dr. Ina, see on YouTube, 'We need to speak up': Rachel Maddow sits down with Japanese-American incarceration camp survivor, Dr. Satsuki Ina.
Join us, even if you don’t have time to read the book. Nick and Eleanor Crump will lead the discussion on Sunday, February 22, in the Fireside Room.
How to get the book:
Amazon: hardcover, Paperback, Kindle
Heyday Press: Paperback and Hardcover
Kensington Library: e-book available as well as hardcopy available through Link plus service, where Contra Costa County Libraries borrow the book from other library systems in California.