My friends said they were coming to my office. I didn’t know why. I worried. They walked in with happy tears. Her sister and niece had been given permission to come from South America.

These friends are my family here. They’ve made Maine home in a way that I pray we Mainers reciprocate. I have eaten their aunt’s tres leches cake and their food truck’s bacon crema on arepas. They taught me to make arepas — softly shaping cornmeal in my palms.

They bring beauty and love to the community. Everyone knows them. Without them, things are like a black-and-white TV — old and stale. They value our country more than many citizens do because they know it’s a privilege to live in a safe place, be able to make a living, build a business and feed their families.

We cannot take our country for granted. Freedom calls us to speak up for justice. We citizens are called, now, to use our privilege to risk protecting those who are being targeted for being Black, brown, trans. Honest, hard-working families. Sweet, smart children. New Mainers who breathe life and love (and yes, tax money) into our beautiful state.

Be who this country has called us to be. Follow what is written on Lady Liberty’s plaque: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free …”

Resist. Protect our neighbors. Make calls. Join Presente Maine! or the ACLU. Don’t let our communities be ransacked. The color and song will be ripped away.

Rachel Weinstein
Cape Elizabeth