if you have been awake at all lately, the news is plastered with gobs of stories about immigration-- states banning immigration, accusations flying wild, people hating people, man against man, woman against woman. it's disheartening to say the least. whether or not i know what is right or wrong, i do know this: we are all human and we all live in the same world. will we ever learn to share? pat always jokes with me about what a bad kid i was because i was actually spanked and he wasn't. i deserved it, i tell him. i was mean. i broke my brother's intricate lego cities out of sheer spite. i didn't like to share. i bit other kids. yea, i deserved the spanking. it'll probably all come full circle one day, don't you worry...
as i have lived these 26 years, however, i've opened my eyes to see that we're not so different, you and i. i think someone famous once said that. where will the line in the sand be drawn? when will the hate stop? who decided who belongs and who does not? this is not our world. this is not even our country. we all came as immigrants, and killed off the native americans to get to where we are today. was that right? no. are people actually scared that may happen again? maybe. like i said, i just don't get it. i just don't get the fact of people taking ownership over something that is not even theirs-- including america. i don't get choosing the worthiness of other people to live or die, to have or have not, when we ourselves are not in any hierarchy to make such decisions in the lives of others by any sense of the word.
the arguments about paying taxes and immigrants taking our "hard working" money, doesn't cut it with me either. if you haven't noticed, americans take
full advantage of the system worse than
any other population group, and most of us don't pay taxes either. it's true. look around. so what is the difference?? honestly, i believe it is fear. i believe it is racism, ethnicism, classism at its absolute
worst. example: today i am on the phone with a state worker that couldn't understand me calling someone a "spaniard," meaning ethnically
from spain. you know, the country? we went round and round about how spaniard does not mean
from mexico, and yes, they can
speak english. wow, lady. you work for the state, and you're that ignorant in diversity?? who has dropped the ball here? why are professionals not being taught diversity? maybe they are, but looking around, my office is all white people. boring.
and counter-productive. teach diversity all you want, but then go into a white work place, and you still are not going to really get it. honestly. and it's not completely your fault. it is your fault, and mine, however, if we do not choose to educate ourselves. who are the people immigrating? who are they as
humans,
not a political battle? who are their families that desperately need a better life? if you and your family needed a better life, how would you feel if another country shut you out?? who are
you, as a person? who am i?
and who are we to choose?
