Originally published in the spring 2018 Torch 

"If you want to be heard, you have to say something.”

Diane’s words are cutting in their sharp simplicity. She speaks like a woman who’s always known the power of her own voice, but she’s only just begun to use it.

Prior to November 2016, Diane’s political activism began and ended with the ballot box. She was an educator and a concerned citizen, not yet fully aware of her capacity to change the world around her.  But watching as Donald Trump took state after state on election night, awoke something in Diane. She was faced with the sobering reality that a man who promised to build a wall and ban Muslims had successfully weaponized fear in his ploy for the presidency.

“It’s like if you suffer a tragedy and you can’t sleep and then you’re finally able to go to sleep, but you wake up in the middle of the night only to find out that your nightmare was real.”

“It was heartbreaking,” said Diane of Donald Trump’s upsetting victory. “It’s like if you suffer a tragedy and you can’t sleep and then you’re finally able to go to sleep, but you wake up in the middle of the night only to find out that your nightmare was real.”

The truth of Diane’s nightmare propelled her into action.

Shortly after Trump took office, she demonstrated with her young grandchildren at the Women’s March on Civic Plaza and she rallied in support of her Muslim neighbors at the Albuquerque International Airport after Trump signed the Muslim ban.

Then in March, she learned of the ACLU’s new grassroots project, People Power, and volunteered to host a kick-off event at her house. The evening brought together over two dozen community members to fight Trump’s deportation machine and to create a blueprint for making Albuquerque an immigrant-friendly city, or, a “freedom city.” She began forging connections with a whole new group of like-minded people.

“There’s been a bright spot in all of this,” said Diane. “The community of people who care, who are active, and who are fighting all of this are amazing and I never would have known them or seen them in action if Trump wasn’t elected.”

Even though Diane says “getting up in the morning and seeing what fresh hell is coming out of the White House,” keeps her going, she’s just as inspired to push back against harmful policies at the local level.

During the 2018 Legislative Session, Diane was at the Roundhouse in Santa Fe knocking on legislators’ doors and speaking out against hyper-punitive, ineffective crime bills that would have further eroded trust in law enforcement and put more people behind bars, while failing to make our communities safe.

She stood in committee meeting after committee meeting and told legislator’s how her own family had been torn apart by our overly punitive justice system. At times her knees shook and her heart thumped, but Diane spoke of her son’s struggle with addiction and involvement with the criminal justice system despite her nerves.  She had a message to share.

“If you hit people with support and with treatment, in the long run it would save us so much money,” said Diane

“If you hit people with support and with treatment, in the long run it would save us so much money,” said Diane. “It would also save young people’s lives because when you spend that developmental time locked up, it’s hard to come back from that.”

Today, you’re just as likely to see Diane flagging down political candidates on the streets to denounce Trump’s border wall, as you are to see her on the front cover of the Albuquerque Journal protesting racism and bigotry. She knows that voting is an important and powerful civic duty, but she doesn’t check her voice at the ballot box.

“My experiences over the last 15 months or so have made me feel more hopeful that we do have a voice, even as individuals, and I didn’t always realize that,” says Diane. “I think the most important thing is to believe or to have faith that being involved even at a minimal level is really important.”

Originally published in the spring 2018 Torch 

Relying on the generosity of strangers for your next meal is a grueling way to live. Some days you might get your fill to eat and others you might not get so much as a bite. Then there’s the weather to contend with. Standing in the cold for hours on end on a stormy day, will leave you wind-burned and raw. Blistering hot days risk exhaustion and sunstroke. But perhaps even worse than worrying about food or combatting the elements, is dealing with the constant threat of harassment by law enforcement, which antipanhandling laws across the country all but guarantee.

A recent agreement reached by the ACLU and the City of Albuquerque, offers some relief and hope for Albuquerque residents who depend on panhandling to get by, but who live in fear of being cited, cuffed, and even jailed. 

In a joint stipulation approved by the U.S. District Court in early February, the City of Albuquerque agreed not to enforce an ordinance that went into effect on December 6, 2017, that restricts speech on medians, freeway entrances, exit ramps, and other areas within the City while litigation about the ordinance is ongoing.

The ACLU of New Mexico and Goodwin Procter LLP filed a lawsuit against the City of Albuquerque in federal court on January 11, 2018, alleging that the ordinance is an unconstitutional attempt to eliminate panhandling by criminalizing speech in public areas where solicitation is common.

“This ordinance has always been about pushing homeless people and poor people out of public view,” said ACLU of New Mexico Staff Attorney, Maria Sanchez

“This ordinance has always been about pushing homeless people and poor people out of public view,” said ACLU of New Mexico Staff Attorney, Maria Sanchez. “We’re relieved that with this agreement in place Albuquerque’s most vulnerable residents will be able to exercise their constitutional rights to solicit the donations they depend on to get by from day to day.”

The joint stipulation prohibits law enforcement from arresting, charging, or prosecuting anyone pursuant to the ordinance. It further prohibits law enforcement from ordering anyone to leave any public place or refrain from panhandling, political advocacy, or similar activities or using the ordinance as a threat in an effort to convince an individual to leave a public place.  The City agreed to publicize the terms of the stipulation to its employees, departments, and officers and to ensure they abide by its terms.

“I’m very happy that the City is not enforcing this ordinance until its legality is decided in federal court,” said Mary O’Grady, one of the named plaintiffs in the ACLU lawsuit. “My hopes are high that it will be struck down, as it clearly restricts the speech of the people of Albuquerque unconstitutionally.”

Mary regularly hands out food and water to panhandlers in New Mexico and was homeless as a teenager in Austin, Texas. Under the ordinance she could be cited and arrested for helping people who are just struggling to survive, as she once did.

“It’s a step in the right direction for us,” said John Martin, another named plaintiff in the lawsuit.  “Anything that helps us in the meantime is a positive. It’s one less thing the cops can put us in jail for.”