Edwige Danticat’s uncle, an 81-year-old Baptist minister from Haiti with a valid visa, died while in the custody of Homeland Security. Danticat is the author of The Dew Breaker and Breath, Eyes, Memory among other books. If any of you happen to be stopping by, I urge you to check in with Maud and Moorish Girl to learn more. It’s a hideous piece of business and we shouldn’t allow it to be swept under the rug.
UPDATE:
Moby Lives, Beatrice and Return of the Reluctant have also weighed in. Beatrice is providing updates, along with the news that PEN is following the case.
Human Rights First (formerly Lawyers Committee for Human Rights) is now involved and you can send a letter of appeal through their site. Thanks to Robert Birnbaum for the information.
ANOTHER UPDATE: Kitabkhana also has an excellent post about Mr. Dantica’s death, providing some background on Edwige Danticat’s relationship with her uncle, and outlining some of the more outrageous aspects of the incident.
Ron @ Beatrice, Ed @ Return of the Reluctant, DJ @ Moby Lives also note this monsterous outrage.
Consider, would we have known about this despicable government sanctioned atrocity had the good Reverand not been related to Edwidge Danticat?
Comment by birnbaum — 11/20/2004 @ 11:44 am
Likely not… and you have to wonder how many other people this kind of thing is happening to that we have no fucking clue about.
Comment by gwenda — 11/20/2004 @ 8:32 pm