Good news, bad news

My good news is I went to the consumer advice bureau, hoping for help with my tax code, issued by Her Majesty’s Customs and Revenue office. At the bureau, they gave me a number to call. I found this frustrating as I had hoped to speak to a human. The person I called at the bureau (maybe on the other side of the wall?) gave me a different HMRC # to the one I had used previously. I got a very helpful human who reported that the incorrect tax code applied after I did a small freelance assignment had caused over-withholding from my Preventable Surprises income, as I suspected. I’m due a refund of 450 pounds. Happy days!

The bad news is what is happening on the US border--children being taken from parents, sisters from brothers, and put into metal cages. I left the US because I have always been sensitive to the dark side of US culture--but it’s hard to watch from this distance as it descends into a Kafkaesque hell. I’m glad not to be there AND I wish I were part of the resistance. I’m haunted by the question: If you want to know what you would have done to resist the Holocaust, you have your answer now.

When I get my refund, I will donate to a refugee organisation somewhere. That is hardly a robust response but it’s something. I watched the UU Ware lecture the other night and the speaker challenged us not to be allies who show up occasionally but to be accomplices, elbow-to-elbow with those who are suffering from unjust policies. It is a good challenge. I honestly feel limited in what I can do as an activist as long as I don’t have a permanent visa. Every country is looking for reasons to exclude people--the UK is no different.
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