…the poor become poorer…

As one might expect, the global economic crisis has been devasting to millions of poor people around the world.  Please find a church program or non-profit organization supporting international aid to get connected with.  The situation is desperate.  Read a bit about it here.

Remembering Jackie

On this day in 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first black player to play in a Major League Baseball game.  In honor of this, every player on every team wore his number, #42, today.

When Jackie was signed by the Dodgers in 1946, the owner of the Dodgers, Branch Rickey, told Jackie that if he were signed, he would need to be prepared to endure harassment, threats, and unmatched pressure to perform well.  And experience these, he did.  Yet he went on to be voted Rookie of the Year, was selected as the Most Valuable Player in 1950, helped lead his team to a championship in 1955, and was later inducted into the Hall of Fame. 

His demeanor belied his fear.  Jackie later said that while it might not have been evident to those watching, the harassments and threats that he faced got to him.  ”The toll these incidents took were greater than I realized.  I was overestimating my stamina and underestimating the beating I was taken.  I couldn’t sleep or eat.”  Speaking about an incident in which an opposing team’s manager organized his team to chant the n-word and in which his teammate did nothing, Jackie said, “I felt tortured and I tried to just play ball and ingore the results.  But it was really getting to me…For one wild rage-crazed moment, I thought, ‘To hell with Mr. Rickey’s noble experiment…To hell with the image of the patient black freak I was supposed to create.  I could throw down my bat, stride over to the Phillies dugout, grab one of those white sons of b——, and smash his teeth in with my despised black fist.  Then I could walk away from it all.’ ”  Tormented yet successful, Jackie played on.

As one story goes, a local white supremicist group in Cincinatti threatened to assassinte Robinson when the Dodgers came to town.  One of Jackie’s teammates, Pee Wee Reese, said, “I think we will all wear 42 and then they will have a shooting gallery.”  Well, Jackie, today everyone wears #42 in solidarity…but also in honor of you.  Because of your bravery, every player can wear your number today, a number that brings not guns and fear and racism and harassment, but tears, applause, and gratitude.  And while there is still much work to be done in this country with regard to racism and hate and violence, your commitment to justice and equality and the desire to do what you love has inspired millions and brought us further along on the road to justice, peace, and opportunity for all.

(All quotes are from A People’s History of Sports in the United States by Dave Zirin.)

Habla Espanol?

What does it look like to go out of your way for another?  What does it look like to do something for someone else?

I recently spoke to a small group of women about my work with Justice For Our Neighbors.  It was me and 7 women — all of them at least 60 years old and most of them probably older than that.

After sharing about JFON and why we work with immigrants, the floor was opened up for questions and answers.  One woman who is 81 raised her hand.  She said that when she goes out in public and go to stores or wanders around her elderly care facility, she hears a lot of folks speaking Spanish.  At first, she said, it really bothered her because, as she said “this is America and our language is English.”  But, she went on, as she thought about it, she decided that she could do something to help them out.  She looked up at me and said, “So I started learning Spanish.”

An 81 year old woman decided to begin learning Spanish so that she can help bridge the communication barrier between herself and those around her whose English is not good.  If that’s not going out of one’s way for the sake of another human, I’m not sure what is.

Well Said, Bishop Wester

In this letter, Bishop Wester’s statement points to some of the larger issues surrounding the immigration debate.  Very, very well said.

The Other Half of the Story

“Preacherman, dont tell me,
Heaven is under the earth.
I know you dont know
What life is really worth.
Its not all that glitters is gold;
Half the story has never been told”

I don’t know for sure what Bob Marley meant in “Get Up, Stand Up” when he said that “half the story” has never been told, but the older I get and the more I read and dialogue and learn, the more I realize that only a portion of the story is ever told.  We do this all the time, whether it’s personal stories, family stories, or the story of the United States.

On a personal level, when we tell a story about an event that happens, there is no way to tell “the whole story” and every little detail becaue (1) we cannot remember everything, (2) there are things about us (our interests, personality, temperament, and experiences) that inform what we will remember, and (3) we tell (or don’t tell) stories or parts of  stories for different reasons.  Maybe there are some stories or parts of stories that we don’t want to remember because they are too painful. Maybe we don’t want to be defined by certain events or details.  Maybe because of age and experience and wisdom, we either forget things or simply move past them as life moves on.  We tell stories as interested, biased, and finite humans, so it is understandable that perhaps only parts of stories are ever told.

But there are some parts to stories that I think we would be better of knowing, but it requires being willing to hear parts of the story that we might not want to hear or that might be hard to hear.  I have noticed when it comes to immigration that many Americans whose ancestors are from Europe know little about who came over to the US, why they came, when they came, or what life was like when they came.  And when these stories are told, they are heroic stories of immigrants who crossed land and see to make a better life for their children.  They are stories of husbands and wives, fathers and mothers pulling themselves up by their boot straps and “making it.”  They are stories of hard work, determination, and commitment.  And while these stories are all these things, half the story has never been told.

Why was it that most Europeans could get into America and own land, but Asians, Mexicans/Central Americans, some Irish, and others couldn’t?  Why was it that while European immigrants were able to get land, have jobs, and vote, black Americans who had been brought to this continent years before were (at various times) enslaved, disenfranchised, and discriminated against?  Why was it believed that immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe in the early 20th century were seen as unable to assimilate, uncultured, ignorant, backwards, and undesirable?  Why did many immigrants have the most dangerous and least desired jobs?  Why did most from non-English speaking countries never learn English?

There is a part of the story that is rarely ever told.  It’s a dark side to the American story and the American dream, one filled with racism, hatred, exclusion, and power.  And the reality is that European immigrants were caught up in this, willing and unwillingly, wittingly and unwittingly.  Some Europeans who came over struggled to find jobs, worked in horrible conditions, never learned English, were accused of taking jobs from others.  They were able to get housing when and where people of other races were not able.  They benefited from public policy because it included “whites” and excluded others.  Some of these immigrants who are unarguably seen as “white” today were not seen as “white” when they came over.  Many of these immigrant families were simply caught up in all of this — they risked it all and left everything and everyone in their homeland to cross the sea and come here.  For those who could benefit from the system did, and understandably so.  Because it was a matter of survival.

But I wonder if some would have a different posture toward immigrants today if they knew more about their own family story or about US history.  I wonder if it would be different if they knew why their ancestors came or what life was like for them when they came here.  I wonder if it would matter if we knew more about the US’s involvement in places like Columbia, Haiti, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Jamaica.  I wonder if knowing more about these things would impact the way we see the world and those coming here from other places.

Half the story has never (or at least is rarely ever) been told.  Would we be more compassionate and understanding towards immigrants today if more of the story was told?

The Immigration Conversation, Part 1

“They” and “Them.”  Pronouns.  Four letter words?  Well, not usually…but occasionally. 

“They” and “Them” are most often nothing more than pronouns in everyday speech.  But they often become something akin to four letter words.  Yes, those four letter words.  When?  When they are used to refer to those are are different than “Us,” when they are used when “We” want to be clear that “They” are not “Us.”  Humans of different races or ethnicities become “Them.”  Immigrants become “They.”  These seemingly harmless pronouns can steal and destroy.  They can take a person and reduce them to something less the human, something less than a person with a name, with a story, with a family, with unique experiences.  ”They” carries with it connotations — bad, backwards, different, ignorant, threatening.

I hear this and read this often when someone is speaking or writing about immigration.  ”They” becomes all immigrants and “They” are are stealing jobs.  ”They”  are all immigrants and “They” don’t want to speak English and “They” don’t want to assimilate.  ”They” are the ones who steal from the American people by using “Our” medical and social services.

But let us begin where the Bible begins.  Genesis 1:26-27.

“Then God said, ‘Let us make human beings in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the air, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’  So God created human beings in God’s own image, in the image of God, God created them; male and female God created them.”

Whatever you want to make of this verse, it is clear that humans have all been made with inherent value, worth, and dignity.  No one has the right to take that from another.  So when speaking about others, whether they be immigrants or not, we must begin with the inherent value and dignity and worth of each person.  When we speak of “Them” and “Those People” we can be on the verge of reducing them to labels that ignore their inherent worth and their value as humans, made in the image of God…just like you and me.

Interestingly, the story that follows the above verses is one in which human relationships are broken, where conflict and competition replace connectedness and conciliation.  It is not a story of all humans viewing themselves as a large “Us” but rather a story of “Us” versus “Them.”  Individuals and groups becomes threats to other individuals and groups.  Inclusion is exchanged for exclusion.  

But it ought to be about “Us” trying to learn how to survive as humans on a planet amidst pain, suffering, hope, and opportunity.  And while I do not believe that some utopian, kumbaya-type world is possible, pursuing relationships of peace and love in a broken world through connectedness and compassion is required by all, but particularly by those who claim to follow Christ.  Because we’re all humans, made in the image of God.

So please, watch your mouth lest one of these dirty little words slip off your tongue.  Remember, we are all humans with inherent worth and while some may be different and while some might be in the US from another country, remember, they are humans with a name (just like you), a story (just like you), and a reason for coming here (just like your ancestors).  Embrace the humanity and inherent worth of all.  And please, watch your mouth.

287(g)

It looks as if it’s coming to Manatee County.  What is it?

Florida Immigrant Coalition has recently posted a link to an article about 287(g), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) program that allows local law enforcement to target and arrest “criminal illegal aliens.”  

There are many problems with this program.  

1.  As the article states, the programs largest impact has been on “day-laborers, corn-vendors and people with broken tail-lights.”  Terrorists and criminals are not being rounded up.  Mostly just people who are living here undocumented.

2.  Also as the article states, lack of proper documentation is not a crime (in the strictest sense of criminal law).  It is a civil immigration violation.

3.  This program is costly.  DHS does not pay for it — tax payers do.  And at what benefit?  Real criminals are not being rounded up. 

4.  It has resulted in racial profiling of Hispanics, which has led many (undocumented, residents, and citizens alike) to live in fear of local police who ought to be protecting them from real criminals.