First, let me state the obvious: writing about the out-of-control Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency that is sending out undertrained agents with dangerous weapons and their superiors’ permission to ignore US laws and the Constitution, does not bring me bliss. But the idea that speaking out against their policies and operations may help change things in a way that better protects me and my family, my neighbors, my community, and my country…well, that can bring me some joy.

In the there-are-no-coincidences department, it just so happened that yesterday’s service at my spiritual community was on the topic of Mobilizing Anger. In her talk, our minister contended that anger can be a productive spiritual tool. Anger can alert us to the fact that something is wrong and it needs to be dealt with. The trick is not to just react with rage, but to find a way to address the cause of the anger in a loving and forwarding way. A righteous, nonviolent, and positive channeling of anger has been part of some of the greatest areas of progress in our nation.

For example, was there a lot of anger among Black Americans during the nonviolent campaign for civil rights led by Dr. Martin Luther King? Yeah, there was. In 1967, in response to black rioters in Detroit and Newark, King and Stanley Levinson, one of his closest collaborators, wrote a report called “The Crisis in America’s Cities.” In that they said:

Mass civil disobedience can use rage as a constructive and creative force. It is purposeless to tell Negroes they should not be enraged when they should be. Indeed, they will be mentally healthier if they do not suppress rage but vent it constructively and use its energy peacefully but forcefully to cripple the operations of an oppressive society. Civil disobedience can utilize the militancy wasted in riots to seize clothes or groceries many did not even want.

I have watched the videos and read the accounts of ICE acting in cruel, illegal, unnecessary, and even deadly ways. But I didn’t know how to make a difference about how to reign in ICE’s excessive violence and unconstitutional operations. I wrote to my legislators to express my horror and my belief that they needed more restrictions. However, the Republicans in Congress have refused to hold them accountable for the deaths and the injuries and the disruption of lives of immigrants who live in this country legally.

Then Sunday afternoon, shortly after I had been pondering this question about mobilizing anger for social good, I received an email that I perceived as being a chance for me to practice positive, nonviolent anger in a way that would be uplifting and might help at least a couple of ICE’s latest victims.

For the past several months, I’ve been attending our nonviolent Freedom Friday rallies in downtown Cary on the sidewalks along our big Downtown Park, our old-elementary-school-turned-into-an-arts-center, and our new regional Library. They run from 4:00 to 5:30 PM, so it’s not great timing for working people unless they have school-like working schedules. There are usually somewhere between a dozen to around 30 or so of us, and we’re a pretty senior group. Somebody brings a sound system and plays a menu of songs popular with the AARP crowd. I usually hold my sign, dance to the music and wave to the people driving by. Many honk in solidarity or encourage us by sticking their arms outside the window and giving us thumbs up, a peace sign, or a power fist. (Of course, we sometimes get some other gestures…but not that many.) It’s a friendly, low-key vibe to remind people that we will protect voting rights and we will elect people who support commonly-held American beliefs such as funding schools instead of prisons, a fair tax system, affordable housing, the need to provide our children with food and with medical care, etc.

But according to the email yesterday, which was sent by Cary Indivisible (https://www.facebook.com/CaryIndivisible/, we will have a special focus for this Friday’s rally on August 28. That focus is ICE Out of Cary. In particular, we are speaking out about ICE’s unjust detention and inhuman treatment of two law-abiding immigrants who were stable residents of Cary.

The first is Gabriel Johnson. He is a 55-year-old pastor who came to the US from Liberia 40 years ago when he was a teenager. He has lived here legally, earning a degree from NC Central, working, paying taxes, and raising a family. In 2004, he got a no removal protection from the courts, who said he should never be sent back to Liberia. But on July 15, ICE appeared at his home and arrested him, eventually sending him to Stewart Detention Center in Georgia, a facility that had previously been shut down for extensive mistreatment of prisoners. His family say he told them that he had not consistently gotten food, water, and his prescribed medicine. On July 30, while in custody, he suffered a stroke and left him partially paralyzed. The family has had limited contact with him and aren’t sure what is really going on. But ICE has said once he is medically able to travel, he will be deported.

The second is a woman originally from India named Venkata Vasamsetty. She is a 59-year-old mother, grandmother, and Wake County Public School teacher who works with the most challenged students in the system. She has had a green card for years and has legally maintained permanent resident status since 2013. She had been highlighted in the system when she went back to India to help her ailing parents for several months, and then caught COVID herself, which delayed her return to the US. In May 2026, an immigation judge dismissed the removal proceedings against her. On August 11, she went to the Charlotte ICE office for what was supposed a standard check-in, as she has been doing for years. But on that day, ICE arrested her, and she, too, has been sent to Stewart Detention Center. She is a type 2 diabetic who requires insulin, which she says the prison has not been providing regularly. She also struggles to maintain a diet consistent with her diabetes.

I’m proud to say our Cary legislators, both state and federal, are trying to intervene with ICE to have these people released. My State Senator for Cary, Jay Chaudhuri (https://www.ncsenate.org/jay-chaudhuri), has been posting about her on his NC Senate site. You can read his take at: https://www.facebook.com/JayForNC/posts/last-week-i-received-a-call-no-family-should-ever-have-to-makevenkata-vasamsetty/1598344458534028//

In particular, NC Senator Chaudhuri is encouraging people to add their names to a petition for ICE to return Venkata Vasamsetty to Cary at: https://www.change.org/p/free-venkata-judge-terminated-her-case-ice-detained-her-anyway

The US Representative for Cary, Deborah Ross, has also been in action. Congresswoman Ross posted this video of support for her release: https://www.facebook.com/RepDeborahRoss/videos/venkata-vasamsetty-has-been-illegally-detained-by-ice-she-is-being-denied-food-a/1441234748062362/

Congresswoman Ross and Congresswoman Valerie Foushee, who represents nearby Durham and Western Wake County, actually did a 4 hour Congressional Oversight visit to the facility. I believe they did get to meet and talk with both Mr. Johnson and Ms. Vasamsetty. She blasted the facility for its immoral and inhumane treatment of our Cary neighbors, for which the prison receives over $150 per prisoner per day. She claimed their detention was illegal and a total waste of taxpayer money. https://www.facebook.com/100064391100209/videos/1617960906555709?__so__=permalink

Unlike our Republican Senators who continually turn a blind eye to ICE’s outrageous behavior, our local Democratic legislators are DOING THEIR JOBS and fighting for two residents who are being unjustly treated by ICE. But they need our help. The more they can show community support for the cause, they more pressure they can put on ICE officials. The massive crowds following the tragic deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti did cause the Administration to change some policies and some BAD personnel running ICE. That is only one example of people coming together and mobilizing their anger for positive change that makes things better.

Now, I don’t think anybody is expecting a massive turnout here in Cary. But we do wish for a larger turnout than our usual small band of regular participants.

So if you can join us, please do. It is from 4:00 to 5:30 PM THIS Friday, August 28, in downtown Cary by the intersection of Academy Street, Dry Avenue, and Kildaire Farm Road. You can register at https://www.mobilize.us/indivisiblecary/event/1016032/ … or just show up. I’ll be there!

If you can’t make it, consider signing the Change.org listed above (promoted by NC Senator Chaudhuri).

Keep writing to our legislators. Those who are advocating for the release of Johnson and Vasamsetti need to know we agree with and support their efforts. Those who have been silent need to know that we are concerned about this mistreatment of people from our community and we want them to do something about it.

In the next few days, I’ll be writing more about the travesty of these detentions of law-abiding residents and the dirty truth about these detention centers. I’ll suggest some other things we might do in addressing the larger picture.

Reading about these particular cases makes me really sad. The bigger picture of ICE and for-profit prisons makes me mad. But having an opportunity to do something positive with my anger makes me glad. So, see, in the end, I do get back to bliss.