The Crisis at the Border

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” -Anne Frank

You probably read the title of this blog and thought, Wait, isn’t this a site about creative writing? What does the border have to do with Plume?

To answer the first question, yes, Plume is a writing community and subscription service that seeks to uplift and inspire women who are creative writers. But we need to unpack the second question. The crisis at the border (and let’s be absolutely clear, it is a crisis) has to do with all of us. Living in New Mexico, it’s impossible not to think of the human beings housed in deplorable conditions in the 23 ICE detention centers in our state. Thousands of children have been separated from their families (Though many have been reunited, some still aren’t, and the trauma of these separations is immeasurable). Immigrant children are dying, some right here in New Mexico. Meanwhile, the current administration recently went to court to argue that detained child immigrants aren’t entitled to things like toothbrushes, soap, and comfortable sleeping conditions. None of this is acceptable.

Part of Plume’s mission is to support local businesses and our community. When we recently started a Kickstarter to fund a writing anthology, we knew we wanted to donate a percentage to something meaningful close to home. It wasn’t even a question. We knew we wanted to give to a group that was helping immigrants trapped in the border crisis, so we chose The New Mexico Faith Coalition for Immigrant Justice. This group provides compassionate and wide-ranging support for immigrants, offering everything from educating the community about immigration issues to organizing protests to mobilizing rapid response teams when ICE is targeting community members.

We will donate 10% of what we raise to support this advocacy group, so we hope that you will consider contributing to the Kickstarter and sharing it with friends and family.

As writers and as human beings, we must bear witness to what is transpiring in our country, and do whatever we can to help those in need. It’s not much, but if we all do something, hopefully we can make a difference.