Your father
has traveled halfway across the globe this week to the city of Hong Kong. Hong
Kong is a major city, and quite diverse in certain areas. However, in other
areas someone who looks like me stands out quite a bit. There is something
slightly unsettling to feeling like a stranger in a strange land.
Most people seek out to surround
themselves with others who look, speak, dress, and behave like they do. You will find that there is a great deal of
comfort in familiar places you return to time and time again, as they say,
there is no place like home.
Currently in the world there are
events transpiring that have displaced millions of people in the Middle East.
There is a Muslim group, ISIS, in Syria and Iraq that has for the past two
years been slaughtering those who do not believe as they do, other Muslims
included, and committing all kinds of horrendous crimes and acts of brutality.
Their spread has gone mostly unchecked by western nations who are weary of
foreign wars, where there are few distinct allies to be found. We have been of
little assistance to the people being persecuted on the ground.
Most of the refugees have been
fleeing to Europe. Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece, Hungary, and many other
countries have become destinations. Hundreds of thousands of people so
desperate to live, to save their loved ones, they pack up what they can of
their lives and make a treacherous journey with no certain future awaiting
them. I cannot imagine the courage, and desperation that takes. I hope I never
feel the true sting of that in my life and you in yours. A few weeks ago there
was a picture of a lifeless boy, lying facedown in the surf. He was four years
old and drowned like so many others when the boat he and his family were on
capsized in the crossing. His family shared pictures of him, before, full of
life. I like so many others saw you both in his pictures. His sweet spirit and
that innocence of new life, the type of innocence as a father I seek to protect
and prolong, to delay the realities of this world for one precious length of
time.
At the end of a movie called
“The Green Mile” the main character says something that has always stuck with
me “I'm tired, boss. Tired of bein' on the road, lonely as a sparrow in the
rain. Tired of not ever having me a buddy to be with, or tell me where we's
coming from or going to, or why. Mostly I'm tired of people being ugly to each
other. I'm tired of all the pain I feel and hear in the world everyday. There's
too much of it.”
The world sees terror, hatred,
acts of violence and barbarity so often it has become numb. Children murdered
in their schools, buildings blown up by terrorists, people persecuted and
mutilated because of what god they choose to worship, or sometimes just how
they choose to worship the same god. Our indignity lasts fleeting moments,
perhaps long enough for a tweet or post on Facebook, and then we move along
with our lives. I am as guilty as any. We see it all and we revert into ourselves,
we push away the unfamiliar and we blame those that belong to it, we generalize
and stigmatize to help ourselves reason with what goes on.
I am writing this week to extol
you not to fear the world and the people in it. America is a great country
because of our Constitution, because the men who wrote it and the women who influenced
and guided their thoughts knew the value of freedom and humanity. They
understood that no one can be placed above because of his birthright, origin,
religion, or creed- eventually color was added to that understanding. I have
been many places in the world and though our culture influences us, it is
ultimately our humanity that defines us.
Our current political discourse
also is hot on the topic of immigration. Sometimes I feel that most people
haven’t read about the history of their own country when I see the way they
rail against immigrants. Native
Americans were certainly the first people here; most anthropologists think they
came across a land bridge from Asia, so therefore they are immigrants. Then came the Europeans, the Spanish to our
current southern borders, the French to Canada and Louisiana and the English to
the Eastern seaboard. None “belonged
here” more than the others, none were entitled to anything, they fought over
it, committed crimes over it, bargained over it, and a few hundred years later
we have America. When I say none belong
here it is only due to my belief that all belong here, all who value freedom
and humanity that is.
I was born in the west, and I
have traveled the globe. My birthright is the vast expanses and horizons of the
west, the forests and deserts that, though charted, still are wild. I have seen
the masses of humanity, and yet also the desolation of places uninhabited.
Don’t let people say there is no more space, that the last group in is to blame
for the current state of affairs. This world is vast, bigger than any map or
photo could ever convey.
In Arizona and other border
states we currently blame immigration from our southern neighbors for much of
what ails us. I think those casting blame should see that the Spanish pre date
the Anglo American settlers by a few hundred years. I also think we should be
ashamed that people who desire freedom and to see their families prosper are
not welcomed into a country that was built by similar people over our entire history.
We can be so blind in viewing the world through a narrow lens. We can do
ourselves such a disservice by not empathizing with strangers.
I think of those immigrants in
the Middle East and in Mexico, Central and South America. I think of the fathers
and mothers sick with worry that harm will come to their children, that they
will fail in their calling to see their families prosper. I think of how
painful the unfamiliar journey to a country that seems so unwelcoming must be,
when deep down they desperately desire the acceptance any of us would. I think
of them and I pity them, and I pity those who are against them. A country has
never failed because of immigration, they have only failed when they did not
allow those who came to assimilate and become a part of them, treated with
respect and dignity, and given the same freedoms and rights as those who came
before them. The very motto of our country is “E Pluribus Unum”, out of many,
One.
Do not let fear dictate your
courage. What is right and good remains so even though sometimes it is not
rewarded. Do not let prejudice seep into your heart, do not let it blind you as
it sometimes blinds me. Guard against the pride of your current circumstances
bias the way you see others as you move through life. Realize that as a
Christian God calls you to love even your enemies, so if we should love even our enemies how difficult should it to love strangers in need?
Cora, you have been such a great big sister to your brother lately. You
play with him and watch out for him all the time. Sometimes he hits you and
acts out but you never seem to hit him back. He was sick last week and you were
just so sweet, keeping him warm and cuddling him. I love it when I hear him say
your name, calling to you and searching to find you. I love seeing my two
blonde babies love each other. You make
me proud every day, I love you always.
