Calling in Sick from the Protest

Yesterday, on Monday, April 14, in the year of our lord 2025, I was determined to get to Washington, D.C., and wave the welcome sign you see here in honor of the visit of the dictator president of El Salvador, who was scheduled in with His Golden Holiness at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. I'd posted something on facebook about this trip and was non-plussed that nearly half of those who commented either urged me to be careful or expressed honest concern that I might disappear just like the people who I was concerned about. All because I wanted to go and welcome Nayib Bukele to America. Bukele, the dictator president of El Salvador, is the smirking cunt you see HERE . And if you are unsure why his visit to the U.S. is offensive, read a couple paragraphs in the link and you'll understand. The Trump administration has been carrying out extra-judicial arrests around this nation, raiding students in their dormatories and whisking doctoral students off the streets in raids that look suspiciously like kidnappings and jailing them in a notorious prison, CECOT, in El Salvador. In America, you have the right to be presented with the charges against you, you have a right to confront and question your accuser and a right to a strenuous defense. You may not be jailed without being charged. This is a matter of Constitutional protections for all people in the United States, regardless of your status or nationality.

When we say that people are being charged in an extra-judicial way, it is a short-hand way of saying that none of the conditions for a lawful arrest or detention are being met. So when I say the Trump Administration is, in this regard, a criminal enterprise, you should not be shocked. It is clearly illegal to do what is being done. And because of this and many other things, it is clear to me that our country is in serious trouble and it is hard to suss out what a responsible citizen should do. So me. I woke up at 3 a.m. of the 14th, sick as a dog and intending to drive three hours to get to the White House in order to wave my sign at these pricks. But I checked myself. I really didn't think I could make the drive safely, so I called off sick from my one-man action vs the U.S. Capitol. Still sick as I write, I did try and freshen up on Monday, put on my go-to-meeting clothes and drove down to U.S. Rep John Joyce's office on 6th Avenue in Altoona, Pa. My goal was to talk to them about this problem of extra-judicial arrest and extraordinary rendition of apparently innocent people. When I got there I was greeted by this sign.

Now, I don't know about you, but my curiosity about this sign takes me to a few realizations.

One is that in a public office, restricting the use of digital recording should be the last thing on your mind. Two is the last dependent clause, "Due to constituent privacy." Oh, I get it now. This restriction of the taking of digital information is for MY privacy. It has nothing to do with the fact that my representative's staff feels the need to hide from their constituents behind locked doors. Look. I get it. These are charged times. Just the other night some nut-bag threw a molotov cocktil into Pa. Governor Josh Shapiro's home. I get it. And I can imagine that being a fair minded staffer at some congressional office that we (the people) pay for is no protection against the random nut-bag. And I get that the use of cell-phones allows protestors (like myself) to potentially put such a well-meaning person in a bad spot. Dude, I get it. Further, there was this sign:

"Per the Reccommendation of the U.S. Congress, Sergeant at arms: All visits to this office are by appointment only. Please call 814-656-6081 to schedule an appointment. Thank you.

Well, shit. I got all dressed up and combed my hair and thought you could just walk into your representative's office as you were running errands or something. Well. I thought about this. I looked around since the entryway served two offices. There was a little table with a couple forms attached to clip boards. One form was a thing that asked what government agency you had a concern with. That one asked for all your personal information. The other form was simpler. It had a place for name, phone, email and would you like to receive Congressman Joyce's newsletter? I sat down and decided to call the number and set up an appointment, having no idea where that number was ringing. Of course, nobody answered. I was beginning to think getting ahold of my representative was going to be harder than calling the phone company. It was a leave a message and we'll get back to you. "Hi," I said as innocuously as possible. "I'm Shawn Inlow and I'd like to set up an appointment to talk about my concerns with someone. A staffer would be fine. Mr. Joyce would be even better." I gave my phone number and told the answering machine I had sent them a letter via their web page and had received no response and that if they wanted to prepare for such a meeting they could read it and be well prepared. "But if you have time," I continued, "I'm a retired state trooper and I'm sitting in the lobby of the 6th Avenue office right now and that would be convenient for me." I told the answering machine I was concerned about everything going on right now. I led off with these arrests without warrant and that a police officer - any police officer - ought to have concerns about arresting people without charge. I told the answering machine I'm worried about social security and just a lot of other things. I sat there. Looked around. Somebody bustled in from outside and went in the adjacent office. Beside the locked door was an intercom with a red button. Sign there said, push button. I went over and did as instructed. A person's voice came out and we began a dialogue about the whole process. A process where someone's real concern about an issue of alarming importance in America can be reduced to an idiot program of having to set up an appointment and we'll get back to you. This was precisely my idea of what a responsive democracy looked like. The man on the other side of the locked door seemed nice enough, although the interaction had the real feel of being on the severed floor at Lumon Industries. And the polite man encouraged me to fill out a form located on the bench there, that I should leave it in the basket and that someone would get back to me. Hmph. Looked over the two forms and decided the one I should fill out was the one where I, for "Constituent Privacy," should fill in ALL of my personal information. I put in MOST of my personal information and began writing a narrative that, if you'd just read the letter I already sent you, you'd be well prepared for our meeting. I flipped the page over to the blank side and continued my narrative and all this was going on 15 minutes of sitting there when a middle-aged, conservative looking office worker's head popped out the door and looked in the empty basket. "It's over here," I said, surprising him, and offering the form, unfinished narrative and all. Caught out, the nice man stepped into the foyer, keeping the door ajar. I told him I was a retired police officer and I thought it was deplorable that staffers had to hide behind locked doors these days. I briefly told him what I was on about and that I'd already sent them a letter.

My host was polite, as I've uniformly found staffers in local offices of elected officials to be. I've had many friends who have held such positions. But I was unhappy that there seemed to be a patina of fear through which our intercourse was filtered. The fellow told me he would hand this off, shaking the form, and that someone would get back to me. That was my day of protest. And I gotta tell ya I don't think we're done here. Honestly, I'd rather vote for Rep Joyce than run against him. But in order to vote for the man, he's got to answer some basic questions. How do you feel about arrest without warrant in America?

Do you not agree that such arrests and renditions are illegal? If you agree that such things are illegal, what is our recourse against an illegal administration? And if you don't agree that such things are illegal, you need to justify why not. I have so many fears about what is happening to this country. And we are already the subject of a Trumpian submission hold in a street fight we've not yet begun to fight. We need resources. We need options. We need redress under the law. And we need our legislators to be our voice in the Capitol. I ask John Joyce one last question and my gut feeling is not a good one as to the anser: Are you a voice of the people or are you a henchman?