From the ACLU of Arizona:

From a woman in Portland who I will interview soon for my book:

Second tomato of the season (I ate the first one before I could get a camera)

My research on couples whose relationships are stymied by immigration policy has led me to the group American Families United. The volunteer group wants three specific changes to immigration law, each of which is addressed by the most recent draft comprehensive reform bill in the House and theoretically supported by Sentate Democrats. I’ll get to those in a minute.

But first, in another convergence, President Barack Obama gave a speech yesterday on immigration reform that was uninspired, but did employ some new language that hints at the logic behind my book.

With Obama speeches, I usually listen while doing something else, waiting for him to draw me in. But Thursday’s speech at American University never drew me in … it was all cliche and cheese. But two points did stand out for me.

First, Obama acknowledged that families are indeed frequently separated by immigration policy, even when they haven’t broken any laws. While this point seems to be an aside for the administration, it is something that most Americans don’t understand: just because you marry American does not automatically grant you citizenship.

“Indeed, after years of patchwork fixes and ill-conceived revisions, the legal immigration system is as broken as the borders. Backlogs and bureaucracy means the process can take years. While an applicant waits for approval, he or she is often forbidden from visiting the United States — which means even husbands and wives may be forced to spend many years apart. High fees and the need for lawyers may exclude worthy applicants.”

Then Obama addressed the family plight of people here illegally, arguing that deporting 11 million people was not rational:

“Such an effort would be logistically impossible and wildly expensive. Moreover, it would tear at the very fabric of this nation — because immigrants who are here illegally are now intricately woven into that fabric. Many have children who are American citizens. Some are children themselves, brought here by their parents at a very young age, growing up as American kids, only to discover their illegal status when they apply for college or a job.”

That line about immigrants here illegally being woven into the fabric of the nation is a powerful line, and one that I will explore in my book. The relationships I’m discovering link American citizens to people that are here illegally in very deep ways.

And this group American Families United has been dealing with those relationships since the last (failed) round of immigration reform in 2006. I spoke briefly with Paul Donnelly, the press contact for the group and a former staffer for the U.S. Commission for Immigration Reform in the late 1990s and he said there is a goldmine of family separation stories out there.

The group has three concrete goals: to stop the deportation of the stepchildren of Americans, to reform waivers given when a person here illegally marries an American citizen so that they are less arbitrary and to plug a loophole whereby temporary workers can bring their families to the U.S. but once they apply for citizenship, their families are not permitted to remain in the country because of quotas. (I think I’ve got that right, but I need to research it a bit more).

Most of those provisions are in the Comprehensive Immigration Reform ASAP Act, the most recent immigration bill before Congress. It’s sponsored by Rep. Solomon Ortiz of Texas and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and contains many of the provisions outlined by Senate Democrats in April. But conventional wisdom, repeated again and again in recent press clippings, is that there will be no immigration reform before November, and maybe none before 2011.

I’m okay with that because it gives me more time to get the book done, but many people are not okay with that. Some immigration advocacy groups are now calling for piecemeal immigration reform, starting with the DREAM Act, which lets undocumented students attend college in the United States without punishment, and eventually normalize their status. The administration is aware of this call for non-comprehensive reform, but Obama director of intergovernmental affairs, Cecilia Muñoz, the highest ranking Latina White House official, made the point that they need the same votes for the DREAM Act as for the whole package.

What is the risk in reframing the entire border debate in terms of family values? Health and safety, security of children, family reunification both here and in source countries … these are all huge issues that, in my experience, resonate with people more readily than workforce numbers, border militarization and crime and punishment.

A few months ago, Boise Weekly readers might recall, I was served with a fence violation for erecting a trellis in my front yard. The fence violation spiraled into a full-fledged historic preservation violation because of the materials used in its construction and because of the major landscaping change which the trellis surrounds: a nearly 2,000 square foot front-yard garden.

The garden is thriving. We have been eating salad every day, carrots are maturing, radishes are almost all eaten up, some peas are crawling up the trellis, though looking a bit yellowed already. Everyday I walk barefoot in the garden and eat turnips right out of the ground, graze on the lettuces. Every day multiple people walk or bike by and stop to chat about the garden. At nearly midnight last night a group of cyclists rode by and shouted, “Nice garden, dude,” as I read on the porch.

So it is with great pleasure that I report to you that the City of Boise has deemed the garden and trellis “appropriate.” That is the term they use. I have a Certificate of Appropriateness pending for my little urban farm.
It’s pending because I need to get my license agreement with ACHD done first. And because they’ve asked us to put some permanent greenery along the street-facing edge of the yard. So I need to find a low-water, low-profile creeping plant that will grow down a nearly vertical slope to the street but not take over the garden, if anyone has any recommendations … something that is not grass.

But the other interesting thing that came out of this process is that the city’s Historic Preservation Department plans to convene a working group at the end of the summer to discuss gardens in Historic Districts. Sarah Shafer, the lead staffer at Historic Preservation told me that the commissioners prefer raised beds but said that the were looking for some more recommendation on how to handle gardens in historic districts.

I argued in my letter to the city that gardens are inherently historical. And if I end up participating in the garden working group, I will argue that raised beds are inherently limiting and a touch elitist. Well, I won’t argue, but I will try to make that point as graciously and eloquently as possible.

I can’t be sure, but I think our giant front-yard garden has inspired some others in the neighborhood to plant it up. There is a yard a few blocks down that has a ton of corn and beets coming in and I noticed some new raised beds in an alley around the corner. Wouldn’t it be amazing if people started finding tomato plant volunteers in their lawns instead of dandelions?

I’d like to share the letter I wrote to the city requesting the Cetificate of Appropriateness … you can read it after the jump. Hell, it’s public record, so anyone can see it anyway. In the letter, I stressed that the city is encouraging urban gardening and other environmentally responsible practices on the one hand but limiting people’s imaginations through zoning on the other. I think they realize that and are looking for a solution.

In the meantime, I’m hoping that whatever neighbor complained about my plot will come forward and talk to me about it. I have no hard feelings, even though the process of being forced to defend my land-use choices has been pretty annoying. I would say now that I still believe the city has a right to regulate things like fences and landscaping to some degree, but that it would have been better for any aggrieved neighbor to have a discussion with me first, and then turn me in if I was an asshole about it. That’s a more local solution.

Here is the letter we sent in to City Hall:

Dear Historic Preservation Staff:

Last fall we took an underutilized and overly sunny section of our side yard and converted it to a garden space. We were inspired to do this after taking a 9-month long organic farming course with Peaceful Belly Farm, one of the city’s most successful urban farms. We were also inspired by the movement toward local and sustainable agriculture that is sweeping the nation and even inching its way into the City of Boise’s own planning documents:

“As the city continues to grow, opportunities for small?scale urban agriculture will be preserved and residential food production encouraged. Providing opportunities for community gardens, small?scale farms, and other food production within the AOCI will help reduce the community’s reliance on outside food sources, support the local economy, promote community interaction, increase access to fresh produce, promote community health, and help Boise City maintain an identity that is distinct from other communities.” —Blueprint Boise Draft

The garden takes up almost 2,000 sq. ft. and is right now teeming with life: large, bushy potato plants are beginning to flower, successions of lettuce mix in vibrant reds and greens populate the row closest to the house, providing daily salads for us and for the two other families that are working in the garden with us. Radishes and turnips are practically popping our of the ground. And 70 feet of peas are reaching out to the trellis that we established.

It is that trellis that has apparently landed us in the position in which we find ourselves today: begging your mark of appropriateness on a project born of love, necessity and stewardship. The original fence violation notice of April 30, based on a complaint, was issued without any conversation with us, the owners. We maintain that the attractive structure that we built of ranch panel and pine post, is not a fence, but rather a trellis. As you can see from the attached photos, the trellis does not affect ingress/egress to the property, does not obscure any views and at three feet high, is easily vaulted by even a small child. Additionally, we have planted cucumbers along the east-west trellis and peas and beans along the north-south trellis, which your inspector may not have known.

I believe the zoning enforcement officer visited prior to the trellis even being complete–at one point the posts were quite tall, but we planned all along to cut them down to proportional size. A short conversation with us would have explained that.

But when I came down to PDS to discuss the matter and get the requisite fence permit, I was informed that rather than a mere permit, I needed a certificate of appropriateness for both the trellis and garden. I am filing the application, but I feel that it is an extraordinary request in this situation and that a brief conversation at the outset could have resolved any issues.

I have reviewed the Design Guidelines for Residential Historic Districts and other documents available on your Web site and find scant direction for a project such as ours. Under the policies for the North End, I note the fencing guidelines discourage certain materials and the construction of fences where none existed. As I stated above, our trellis maintains open access to the property for neighbors (we’ve encouraged our neighbors to enjoy the garden and many do), and while made from unique materials it was well-designed and is quite attractive, as you can see from the attached photos.

As far as the landscaping guidelines, we have converted a useless, water-sucking monoculture of grass into a highly productive garden, growing food crops, fruit trees and flowers. But beyond that, if the preservationist impulse is to preserve the character and livibility of the neighborhood, we have a huge advantage on our side. Our garden has brought neighbors together, and while one person apparently complained about the “fence,” I challenge you to find a single person who dislikes what we’ve built–every single jogger, biker and dog walker that passes by will linger, ask questions about our row cover or drip irrigation and perhaps take a sample radish or turnip to go. It is a huge asset to the neighborhood and, as noted above, creates new opportunities for urban agriculture, as recommended in other city documents.

A note on the house, a classic Boise ranch style house: part of the ranch ethic was a return to indoor/outdoor living and we have greatly enhanced the utility of our front yard, turning it into a meeting place where one can walk out the front door and be immediately transported to another realm, an earlier age where people knew how to grow their own food.

Finally, this garden is not just ours. We teamed up with two other families who completed the gardening course last year and most weekends you will find us all out there, including our kids (ages 2-10), weeding, harvesting, fixing pipe. And we have kept most of our neighbors in the loop as well, asking their advice and seeking their blessing.

As you consider the appropriateness of this venture, I urge you to consider the context I’ve provided in this letter. I look forward to answering all of your questions and even providing a tour of the property if you’d like.

Thank you for your time and for the work you do keeping Boise such a great place to live.

Sincerely,

Nathaniel Hoffman

Looking across the border into Northern Cyprus / Pix of Stuff, Flickr

Writing a book is like learning to write all over again.

That’s the topic sentence of this blog post. In addition to writing a book this summer, I will begin teaching topic sentences and other lies you learned in school starting next week at Brown Mackie College in Boise.

These two new exploits—book writing and college teaching—are taking on an unexpected convergence in that my recent review of basic English composition pedagogy is bringing back all the fundamentals, like topic sentences, outlines, audience, tense.

These are all things that, in my practice of journalism, were mostly predetermined or maybe just blown off. I’ve said it before, but anyone who follows a certain formula and harbors a healthy interest in the world around them can be a journalist (I think I’ll tell my students that on the first day of class). It’s not rocket science. It’s not even vet tech or paralegal. And since the basic structure and facts of a 500-1,000 word news article can be held in one’s head, there is not too much thought that goes into the actual writing.

That’s not to say I have been an unthinking journalist, but the thinking is front loaded. We pick our topic, pick our sources, question them, choose the most interesting/relevant/controversial/novel facts, slip into the royal we and present the facts in a neatly-wrapped logical package. It’s easy.

But writing a book is proving to be a much less formulaic challenge. I’ve picked the topic: love stories of American citizens and their undocumented partners. And I’m working on the sourcing—there are tens of thousands of these stories from which to choose.

But I can’t hold the entire book in my head at once. It’s too complicated and my head is too small. So I need to get back to outlining and planning and maybe even taking notes on flashcards with numbered bibliographic citations embedded on them.

I also need to pay special attention to my audience. This is going to be a journalistic book, so there is some overlap, but I’m not writing to Boise sixth graders anymore, or more accurately, to Boise’s aging hipsters. The audience is national and ranges from congressmen and supreme court justices to Oprah to day laborers. That’s a challenging audience.

I am also struggling with the voice. I have let myself creep steadily into my journalism in the last few years and think I do it subtly enough (this post excluded) to be effective and interesting. But the first immigration book I picked up in researching the genre, Border Crosser, by Johnny Rico is written in a hyperbolic and annoying first person that does not inspire confidence in the facts. Johnny Rico is not even his given name.
So I plan to write about my failed attempts to cross illegally from southern to northern Cyprus in 1998, but I won’t hit ya’all over the head with it.

I will let the stories of border crossed lovers speak for themselves.

Then there is the question of topic sentences, which I think I already blew in this post. According to our text, Steps in Composition, Eighth Edition, topic sentences set up the main idea of each paragraph. I have just written a slew of one sentence paragraphs which obviously are not all topical. I’m more used to working with a “nut graf”—the third or fourth paragraph, which summarizes the essay at hand and keeps people reading. And for the book I need more of a thesis statement, I think.

I am teaching the five-paragraph essay this semester, in which an introductory graf sets the theme, three paragraphs featuring topic sentences back up the argument and a final concluding paragraph sums it all up. That is after I teach sentence and paragraph writing and some basic grammar. All of this will make me a better writer as well; as the dean who hired me said this morning, “you’ve got to know the rules in order to break them.”

Future Farmers of Backyards

Well, I have a secret. The main reason I live in Idaho, the one thing I dream of every night, my goal for the rest of my career and into my pending retirement, is to strive for a simpler, more paleolithic existence. More caveman.

I say that sitting in my wooden house blanketed in fiberglass insulation typing on my PowerBook G4 and fully aware that I have pathetic facial hair and, while not perfect, a decent posture.

But I yearn to cut myself off from cheap plastics, processed foods, things that society tells us we need (insurance, investments, gasoline). And I yearn for DK Donuts and Hagen Daz and an iphone.

This is paleomedia: absolute relativity, the obliteration of contradiction. Online Luddite. Stem and seed eater who has a burger and fries for dessert. Total paleomedia is what you will find here.

At this point in my life I am failed big game hunter and lame fisherman. I am growing some lettuces and onions in my backyard, but the plot is rife with weeds and I let my chickens chew up the Asian greens. My pile of sheep and elk hides is starting to decay. It is time to get serious in my cave.

Join me in this journey, dear readers. I will need help. So I will turn to books and local experts to make me into the caveman I yearn be. Soon it will be my birthday. In the next year I plan to accomplish the following, and you, especially you boor bastards who don’t live in Idaho, can accomplish the following too and even make snide comments along the way, here, at PaleoMedia.org.

Here is my cave list for the next four seasons:

• Put up enough ginger pickled radishes, eggplant and bean “chopped liver” and stewed tomatoes to last through next winter.
• Tan the hides I’ve collected in the last year and make something useful from them (baby blankets and sheepskin vest to wear to the Legislature?)
• Shoot an elk or a deer with my heretofore ornamental bow.
• Keep my young flock of chickens alive long enough to make the ultimate caveman omlette (stay tuned for this one).
• Teach the 4-year-old to catch, clean and fry a fish, consistently, and maybe from the Boise River.
• Write regularly about these activities for the less fortunate.

Anything I missed? Probably. But it’s time to crack another beer and brainstorm ways to make my own beer by this time next year.