Who are These People and What Are They Doing Here?

My real point is this: Everyone came from someplace else, since time began. People have always migrated. Emigration and immigration are relative terms. We CAN’T stop it anymore than we can stop people from breathing, nor should we. That is the history of the world and it has made all of us who we are. We’ve all benefited from those who came before us and from those who came after us. The rights that new American immigrants are fighting for are the same rights that we might not have today if earlier immigrants hadn’t brought them from other places. And the odds are that the new Americans will fight for benefits and rights that we haven’t thought of yet, but will become accepted mainstream ideas within the next century.

And who knows what the new Americans will contribute in years to come. I had a friend in high school. She was the oldest of 13 children, all American citizens. Her mother was born and raised in Chicago, an American citizen of Mexican ancestry. Mom was in her 50’s by the time I met the family, and she still hadn’t learned English. Oooh, BAD! But they raised 13 GOOD Americans, hard working, well educated, and always contributing to their family and their country. Mom was grateful to be American and so were her children. And they were proudly raised speaking Spanish AND English and eating Mexican food. They were Americans, but they were their own breed of Americans, forging their own path through the culture. Their children will do their own living and changing, but that heritage will always be a part of them.

Most of us wouldn’t be here if we hadn’t been forced to come, whether by governments and laws, poverty and starvation, capture and kidnap or escape, or just having no place else to go. Sometimes it was just wanderlust and curiosity. Frequently it was because someone wanted a better life for their children, a universal desire. That’s the way of the world. It has always been thus, and it will always be thus.

Do you think maybe there’s a chance some day we can accept that fact and find a way to work together for ALL of us to have a better place to live? Governments have never done that, only people have. I hope that someday we can remember who we were, and who we wanted to be. And maybe then we can make it all work for everyone. We’re more related than we like to realize and we can only increase who we each and all are by finally accepting that fact.

P.S. By the way, according to the bottom paragraph of the email I received, it was sent while the writer was at work. I suppose it was break time, or lunch time, and I’m sure they reimbursed their employer for the cost of the internet connection. I mean fair and honest is the American way, right?