Illegality

For all the talk that always goes on about illegal immigration, it is extremely rare that we ever hear any voices speaking from within that experience. This is largely due to the extreme danger that undocumented immigrants experience when they allow their status as such to become known. This tenuous state of being is highlighted in item #3 of this article, wherein the author describes his childhood as an undocumented immigrant as having “all the secrecy of being a superspy, but none of the attendant casual sex with hilariously-named women”.

The tongue-in-cheek style of this article invites the reader to really relate to this subset of the American experience which is so often discussed but hardly ever understood. By allowing themselves to relate, the reader is opened to empathy. Once empathy with a maligned group has been achieved, judgement and prejudice begin to recede, and true community can be fostered. The immigration may be illegal, but the people who are immigrating are not. People cannot be illegal, and if the issue of illegal immigration is to be solved in a humanitarian way, that philosophy must be at the heart of the effort. For the average person, this article and others like it, which open our awareness to the realities of these undocumented individuals, may be a good starting point. 

5 Weird Realities of Growing Up with 'Illegal' Parents

The Best of Times, etc

Times are bad. Donald Trump’s campaign ad sounds half like a Saturday Night Live sketch and half like it came straight from a dystopian vision of a dark future. It is scary because it is real, and because we should have history to warn us. Even leaving aside the comparisons to Hitler which have been making the rounds on the internet since Trump’s off handed comment about giving Muslims special ID cards, history has already showed us what bad things come of racial/ethnic intolerance and closing borders to arbitrarily defined segments of humanity. Dark periods such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and Japanese internment remain disfiguring blots on the history of a nation that continues to tout itself as accepting and open to the “tired… poor… huddled masses yearning to breathe free” (thank you, Emma Lazarus).

To paraphrase an angry internet rant I read the other day, the Republican debates consist of the sons of immigrants arguing over which of them is going to keep the most immigrants out of our country. This combined with the refusal of many American cities to allow Syrian refugees, the continued persecution of Muslim Americans, and, indeed, the continued persecution of all non-white Americans, really makes a poor showing for the “Mother of Exiles”, the country with the “golden door”. It seems to me that we’re not treating the “wretched refuse of your teeming shore” any better than  wretched refuse ourselves.

And in light of all that, it just really made me smile to read about immigrants being delighted by fireflies and clean streets and not having to bribe people to get your driving license. Living in America, we are too used to all the good here, and see the bad so starkly. It’s not to say that we aren’t doing (or contemplating) bad and scary things, but it was a nice perspective, seeing our country through their eyes.

The Best Things About America