It's been a quiet day. I finished year three of the Harry Potter saga in preparation for the release of the new volume on July 16 (midnight, Borders in Mission Valley -- be there). We grilled brats (the sausage kind, not my children), and ate peach pie.

Early in the morning the multicongregational pastors met and talked over some plans. Pastor Anthony of the French congregation gave me an email from the 15 Haitian refugees in La Dominique. Yesterday I talked with the immigration lawyer from Catholic Charities (thanks to a wonderful lead by Tiana Reinhardt, famous from ericisrad.com). The lawyer told me point blank that he hasn't seen a Haitian granted political assylum in the United States for years. The odds are very small that the US government would let them in now, especially seeing that they are not in Haiti, but a third "country".

Meanwhile, the email spoke of the physical abuse the Haitians are facing in La Dominique. One was beaten so much that he urinated blood. Next week we have some more leads to chase down -- the Organization of American States is one.

If one notices, in matters of "citizenship", the contemporary liberal-nation state is not "inclusive" at all -- inclusion is an inner-virtue within a nation-state, but exclusion is the rule outside. The Bush regime-led coup of Haiti, I am convinced, was to put "order" at the top of the Haitian government to avoid any possible disruptions in Florida state politics, and the crucial dimensions it plays in the current monopoly of power in the United States. Meanwhile, people die; more are treated as non-persons.

So, after centuries of pillaging Haiti for colonial purposes, leaving it in an economic, environmental, political, and cultural nightmare, the Western nation-state has no room in the inn. But we do. And we will keep working as the weak, trying to live in solidarity with our brothers in La Dominique. Among other things, I have shoe sizes and we probably need to see if we can get shoes and other goods and food to our friends to sustain them until we find assure their safety so that they might flourish as God intended.

It is humbling, planning to jump in a van in the morning, crossing the continent, knowing that 15 human beings are in hiding in a resort island, treated as "non-wanted" by the principalities and powers in the world.