Are we all immigrants?

 

Photo By Joseph Lockley Unsplash

You are welcome here.

Caring about the fate of the stranger is a Christian value. Did you know that?

I have heard it said we are the uninvited. We are the unwelcome. We should take our misfortune elsewhere. But I hear your mother's voice, over the tide, and she whispers in my ear, “Oh, but if they say, my darling. Even half of what you have. If only they saw. They would say kinder things, surely.”
- Khaled Hosseini, “Sea Prayer” (2018)

They are like my grandparents, looking for a better life. That's why they came here.

Arrogance to Suppression

When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President. I'm beginning to believe it.

Clarence Darrow

Have you noticed the arrogance of the Trump administration? It seems there is no validity to the opinions of those who actually have the experience and expertise to deal with the situations and kinds of problems we are dealing with today. I think it's because Trump can never be wrong. His fragile mental state can't handle criticism or correction. And if he thinks he's always right, he is delusional.

Unfortunately, if his goal is disruption and chaos, it's working.

I Read the News Today

I get a newsletter from the Bulwark. this is what greeted me this morning. "In the news since Friday: Donald Trump is openly floating the possibility of running for a third term. Elon Musk is distributing corrupt prizes for voting in Wisconsin Supreme Court elections. And we’ve learned one of the Venezuelans the administration imprisoned in El Salvador is a legal migrant who was detained purely because an ICE officer thought his tattoos of the words “Mom” and “Dad” looked like gang signs."

"You can’t take a single weekend off with these clowns. Happy Monday."

Buying the Vote

The Wisconsin AG tried to block the attempt to buy votes in Wisconsin. His bid was turned down by the State Supreme Court. According to the AP, the state Supreme Court, which is currently controlled 4-3 by liberal justices, declined to take the case as an original action. The court gave no rationale for its decision.

No Due Process

How many gang members were rounded up and deported? That's unclear. ICE admits that many of the deportees did not have criminal records, but explained they might do something bad later on. ABC news reports, "The admission that many of the men lacked criminal records – and were deported on the assumption that they might be terrorists – comes as top Trump administration officials insist that the men were violent criminals, with President Donald Trump labeling them monsters."

The Constitution Is Inconvenient

And what about the third term? Think about this, most of us thought he would never try to forcefully overthrow the results of an election. A lot of people thought he didn't have a chance to get re- elected. Many think he is bound by the rulings of the courts, or that congress would hold onto its constitutional powers. The party in power wants to dismantle the federal courts and Republicans in congress are encouraging the dismantling of the courts, and the Trump administration is ignoring courts rulings with no consequences.

What To Do

Speak Out!

Being silent means we're willing to let this stand. I take encouragement from many sources, and that includes the Bible. If you're wondering, this comes from the part of the Bible that White Christian Nationalist ignore. This is two of the 4,000 passages that deal with dignity and justice. It's a part of the Bible that the slave holders edited out to prevent slaves from reading passages they deemed dangerous. And yeah, that's part of our history too.

Proverbs 31 verse 8 and verse 9

Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute.
Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.

Must We Fear the Other?

Let's Get Real

My Grandparents Were Immigrants

They faced the uncertanty of starting over in a strange land,. They did not face the possibility of being dissappeared.

As the American survivors of last week’s bloody kidnapping in Matamoros receive medical treatment, and the bodies of those killed are repatriated, Mexico’s broader epidemic of disappearances remains largely unsolved: More than 100,000 Mexicans and migrants have disappeared, with no explanation of their fate for families. -cnn

Congress, if it wanted to, could fix our part of this problem by passing new immigration laws. When congressmen call on the president to do something, it is a disingenuous call. They hold the power to come up with a fair and just solution. Those who complain the loudest are just looking for political gain, not solutions to the problem. 

If we really are one nation under God, why do we refuse to offer sanctuary to those being oppressed and facing death?

Disturbing Statistics / Reasons for Hope

Looking for something to cover? 

Suffering from, nothing ever happens around here? What happens over there, affects us here. You will never run out of news to cover or topics to talk about. Statistics from sources like Pew, the United Nations and others offer a wealth of information and starting points.

89.4M

The worldwide number of people displaced because of conflict, violence or disasters in 2020, a record high.

According to Pew Research:

Europe and Asia have the most international migrants. 

While the International Organization for Migration, a United Nations affiliated group, recorded more than 1,200 deaths of migrants in the Western Hemisphere in 2021, it tracked 728 migrant deaths along the U.S.-Mexico border, calling it the "the deadliest land crossing in the world."

25%

A quarter of U.S. parents say there have been times in the past year when they could not afford to buy food their family needed or to pay their rent or mortgage. Among low-income parents, these shares rise to 52%. (Pew)

NASA says, Scientific evidence for warming of the climate system is unequivocal." Ice cores drawn from Greenland, Antarctica, and tropical mountain glaciers show that Earth's climate responds to changes in greenhouse gas levels.

Pew found, Income inequality in the U.S has increased since 1980 and is greater than in peer countries. Income inequality may be measured in a number of ways, but no matter the measure, economic inequality in the U.S. is seen to be on the rise.

52% The share of Black Americans who say that racism in U.S. laws is a bigger problem for Black people in the country than racism by individuals; 23% of U.S. adults overall say this. (Pew) Americans give public health officials mixed ratings for the job they’ve done communicating with the public about the COVID-19 pandemic. Many U.S. adults feel public health officials were unprepared for the outbreak, but many also say officials’ ability to respond was hurt by interference from elected officials. (Pew) Need some help finding topics? It's only a click away if you know where to look. All of these stats and the issues they represent are an opportunity to bring people together. The solutions require input and thoughts from a broad spectrum of ideologies. We have the opportunity to bring people together.