[With respect to The New Yorker’s Borowitz Report]
“Aussie and Henry, I’m driving to Maryland next week. I want to leave you with the best, most compassionate dog sitter I can find. Whom would you like to dog sit for you while I’m gone?”
“Donald Trump.”
“He won’t come, Auss. I never heard that he’s a dog fan. You may be the one taking care of him instead of vice versa.”
“I can always go to Mar-A-Lago and bring marrow bones for him. If Biden can meet the Queen of England, I can meet Donald!”
“Aussie, the Proud Pooches of New England have disbanded, it’s time to move on.”
“Don’t you liberals always say that you can’t move on without looking at the past? You want us to look at slavery, at what happened to immigrants, at what happened in Tulsa. Well, you can’t move on without examining the Big Steal, which is the crime of the century.”
“The century is only 21 years old,” Henry points out.
“Aussie, you’re not bringing our marrow bones to Donald.”
“Wellbites’ Beef and Turkey Recipe? Bison Jerky? Pure Buffalo?”
“He can have Tricky Trainers with Cheddar,” from Henry. “More his style.”
“Henry, who do you want me to invite to dog-sit for you?”
“El Chapo.”
“Guzman? The drug lord? He’s a terrible man. And he’s in prison.”
“Watch Henry try to dig him out,” says Aussie. “Hee hee hee!”
“He’s in a supermax prison far from here, Henry.”
“But he always escapes! If you invite him to dog sit for Aussie and me, I bet you he makes it. Of course, depends on how much money you offer to pay him.”
“Aussie and Henry, there are so many kind, compassionate dog sitters in this area, why would you want Trump or Guzman? You know what the Buddha said, don’t you?”
“Oh no, here it comes. Henry, it’s dharma time. Shut your ears.”
“He said, ‘Having good friends isn’t half of the Holy Life. Having good friends is the whole of the Holy Life.’ By good friends, he meantt fellow companions on the path, who help you ask good questions, don’t distract you from your journey but rather strengthen your resolve and keep you going.”
“Henry and I don’t want a Holy Life. We want a life!”
“With Donald Trump and killer El Chapo?”
“I bet they eat steak every night.”
“And they have such gorgeous wives,” murmurs Henry.
“Who’re tall and don’t get shorter by the minute like Miss Compassion out there,” says Aussie.
“You mean the Kwan-yin who lost some of her base when we stood her up?”
“We don’t want to have anything to do with her anymore,” says Auss. “You see what happens when you go with compassion? You lose your stature. Life is too hard, too much, the compassion just ekes out of you, and you get shorter.”
“Right,” says Henry. “Melania doesn’t get shorter.”
But compassion doesn’t eke out and you don’t get shorter (unless you’re getting older), it’s here to stay. And in that spirit, in my work to support the community of immigrant families that live in our area, I’m asking you to buy Walmart cards for them directly and mail them to me.
Till now I’ve bought Stop ‘n Shop cards with your donations. Stop ‘n Shop is a local New England supermarket and doesn’t sell food cards online, I’ve been going there repeatedly to buy them. The Walmart sells its cards online and the store offers food, clothing, diapers, and drug items that are far lower priced than the supermarket. I’m told that families carpool with those who have cars and go up there to buy essentials.
This will also enable me to dedicate the money I have in their account to special needs, such as flying a young girl up here to reunite with her mother. I’m sitting down with more and more parents and finding out about special circumstances, which at times involve losing one’s home and needing to quickly move (they often double up in small apartments in order to afford the rents) and help to reunite families, members of which are deported or left behind. The pain of deportations or a family split apart is worst of all. I will write these stories down and ask for your help.
Meantime, please go here for Walmart cards. You can buy them in any amount and ask to deliver to me, Eve Marko, POB 174, Montague, MA 01351, and I will get them to these families. You can’t send them directly to families, I have no addresses for them. Delivery is free.
In these past 15 months we’ve raised over $60,000 in help for food, rent, utilities, and special assistance for people who suffer illness, emergencies, deportations, and even death. This is incredibly generous and I would like to continue reaching out on behalf of the families and not just asking for donations, but also telling their very human stories.
If you prefer, you can continue sending checks to me as before, at the address above or through the link below, and if you write Walmart cards on the memo line I will buy them.
Again, you can buy Walmart cards here.
Thank you for reading my blog, and thank you for helping people who’ve risked so much to live and raise a family in our country.
You can also send a check to: Eve Marko, POB 174, Montague, MA 01351. Please write on the memo line whether this is in support or immigrant families or of my blog. Thank you.