Bill Dahl » immigration reform

The 12 Steps of Immigration Anonymous

bill — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 20:01:59 +0000

The immigration reform debate in the U.S. has become so discombobulating I had to check into a treatment center. I hope you might find the following useful, should you decide that you too may be a problem thinker, suffering from the disease of immigrationism.

Immigration Anonymous ( IA ) is a fellowship of U.S. residents who share their experience, strength and hope with one another that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from immigrationism. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop stinking thinking. There are no dues or fees for IA membership; we are self-supporting through our own contributions. IA is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization or institution; does not wish to engage in any controversy, neither endorses nor opposes any causes. Our primary purpose is to think soberly about immigration policy reform and help other problem thinkers to achieve sobriety.

The following are the 12 steps of recovery:

Step One: We admit that we are powerless over illegal immigration and our borders have become unmanageable.

Playing the blame game just maintained my stinkin thinkin. Recovery is a process, not an event. It starts with me and it’s one step at a time, one day at a time. I’ve stopped blaming them. I am the problem thinker who is sick, not those who are crossing our borders. I am comforted by the truth expressed by Henri Nouwen: “Our brokenness is truly ours. Nobody else’s.”

This step required me to begin to get real. The IA program specifically states: “Those who do not recover are people who cannot or will not completely give themselves to this simple program, usually mean and women who are constitutionally in capable of being honest with themselves.”

I had to admit that I suffered from multiple delusions. I realized that my stinking thinking contained “shortsighted and perverse notions of charity.” I figured that we were doing undocumented immigrants a favor by allowing them to be in this country to get along the best they could, as long as they didn’t become a burden and contributed something to our society. Then, I was confronted with the following: “This kind of charity has no real effect in helping the poor: all it does is tacitly condone social injustice and to help keep conditions as they are – to help keep poor people poor.” The poverty of my own thinking became apparent. Maybe that’s what the folks in Alcoholics Anonymous figured out when they wrote in 1939, “Therefore, the main problem of the alcoholic centers in his mind, rather than his body.” Those of us in Immigration Anonymous know this to be the nucleus of our malady. My life became unmanageable because of the powerlessness that my own thinking produced.

Step Two: Came to believe that a power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity.

Don’t expect your elected officials to do anything whatsoever to resolve this issue anytime soon. In case you’re wondering, a “guest worker permit program” will be about as effective as an aspirin for colon cancer. It is during my work in Step Two that I have come to appreciate the reality of the phrase, “Half measures availed us nothing. We stood at the turning point.” I have tried every method I can imagine to restrain, control or abstain from my stinking thinking. Nothing has worked. I had to surrender.

This step really put the disease of immigrationism in perspective for me: “Whatever our protestations, are not most of us concerned with ourselves, our resentments, or our self pity? Selfishness – self-centeredness! That, we think, is the root of our troubles. Driven by a hundred forms of fear, self delusion, self-seeking and self-pity, we have made decisions based upon self interest that have placed us in a position to be hurt. So, our troubles are basically of our own making. Above everything, we must get rid of this selfishness.” Remember, the first thing a nut has to do to begin recovery is to become aware that “I’m nuts!” Thank God I’m not alone! I am so grateful that there are those who have recovered from this insidious disease who can share the path of recovery they’ve followed successfully with me.

I certainly hope the U.S. government refrains from any further reform of immigration policy guided by fear, resentment, delusion, selfishness and self-pity. The IA program has taught me that this is not the way to go in terms of thinking about the resolution of the immigration matter.

Step Three: Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God, as we understand him.

I have come to believe that there is a God and neither I, nor the United States “is it.” To “reduce other people to things, whose value resides only in their usefulness, not in what they are in themselves” is just plain wrong. When we became problem thinkers regarding immigration, “crushed by a self-imposed crisis we could not postpone or evade, we had to fearlessly face the proposition that God is either everything or else He is nothing. God either is, or He isn’t. What will our choice be?”

We need help. The solution must come from a power greater than ourselves, rather than relying upon Tom Ridge, Bernard Kerik, or whoever they finally appointed to replace Ridge, who has not employed an undocumented housekeeper or subcontractor, dined knowingly at an eatery that employed undocumented workers, has stock in Wal-Mart or any association whatsoever with companies that have been/might be alleged to benefit from the economic usefulness of undocumented labor. We are all sinners in need of salvation here. Heaven help us all!

I like what Thomas Merton has to say about God’s will, as it pertains to the current state of the immigration debate in the U.S.: ” If you can never make up your mind what God wills for you, but are always veering from one opinion to another, from one practice to another, from one method to another, it may be an indication that you are trying to get around God’s will and do your own will with a quiet conscience.”

Step Four: Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

I adore what Senator John McCain has to say about this step: “Don’t let fear convince you that you’re too weak to have courage. Fear is the opportunity for courage, not proof of cowardice. Courage is not the absence of fear, but the capacity to act despite our fears. We were meant to love. And we were meant to have the courage for it.”

The one remarkable thing I have learned about taking inventory is that the objective is not necessarily about what’s in stock, it’s also about what’s missing. After completing this step, the glaring absence of love permeated every dimension of my stinking thinking. I can only hope that this revelation will benefit you as well. I pray for the day when Congress will initiate hearings that will focus on our moral responsibility regarding the illegal immigration issue, guided by the truth that we are meant to love, rather than were. Will you join me in this prayer?

In this step, I was required to list the resentments I had regarding illegal immigration on paper. Upon completion, I reviewed my list. “The first thing apparent was that this world and its people were quite wrong. To conclude that others were wrong was as far as most of us ever got.” I had all kinds of these bad thoughts and feelings. They were poisoning my soul. My sponsor in IA has really helped me to understand that the pages of history are replete with one theme: the hopeless flee to a place that is hopeful. The undocumented immigrants in my community are here because of just that. Heck, my grandparents came here for the same reason. When I place myself in their shoes, I know I would be scheming to cross the U.S./Mexico border as well.

Step Five: Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being, the exact nature of our wrongs.

Wow, this one is tough. I was required to read aloud all the resentments, fears, delusions, self-centeredness and self-pity identified in step four to my IA sponsor. I began to cry within the first ten minutes. The shame that the confession of these attitudes, beliefs and illusions I held about undocumented immigrants was overwhelming. Yet, when completed, I felt light, like I could float, that I was somehow cleaner on the inside, and more attractive on the outside. The world and those around me appeared more inviting, less threatening.

My sponsor characterized this feeling as becoming prepared for the second journey: “The second journey begins when we cannot live in the afternoon of life according to the morning program. We are aware that we have only a limited amount of time left to accomplish that which is really important – and that awareness illumines for us what really matters, what really counts.”

It is in this step that my recovery from the stinking thinking about immigration reform in the U.S. really began to take hold. There seemed to be a faint light visible at the end of a very dark tunnel. My IA sponsor captured the essence of what I felt in the following; “When being is divorced from doing, pious thoughts become an adequate substitute for washing dirty feet.”

I prayed for over an hour with my sponsor as we completed this step.

Step Six: “Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.”

I don’t know if I’ve been entirely ready for anything in my life. My sponsor said I need to jump the curve: “Jumping the Curve means leaving one stage of development for another….it involves leaving the comfort and familiarity of the old world of conventional wisdom, processes, traditions, leadership styles and products…..If that were not intimidating enough, those who do jump will find that the next curve does not even exist yet. In fact, it is being created by the leaders who are in the very process of guiding their organizations through “midair” the gap between today’s fading epoch and the demands of the new era that is still unsettled and in evolution.”

My IA sponsor said ready refers to a sincere willingness to repent, to change, to trust God to transform you into something better. I was as ready as I could be, so I completed this step.

Step Seven: Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

“Humbly?” Like me, most of my colleagues in IA are self-obsessed, small-minded, self-righteous, have all the answers types. My IA sponsor said “There is little hope for us until we become tough-minded enough to break loose from the shackles of prejudice, half-truths, and downright ignorance.” We prayed together.

Step Eight: Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.

My sponsor said, “regeneration carries a price which those who think of it idly will balk at.” He went on to say that I was now preparing for action, rather than honest introspection. I had to admit that my illness had hurt others. My family who heard my self-righteous prejudice flung through the rooms of our home, co-workers, friends, my community, my country and my own soul. My sponsor reminded me to put myself on the list. I began to realize the wisdom in “To the degree that I harm my brother, no matter what he is doing to me, to that extent I am harming myself.” I became willing and was prepared to move forward.

Step Nine: Make direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

My sponsor said the essence of this step is captured in the following, “If we are sorry for what we have done, and have the honest desire to let God take us to better things, we believe we will be forgiven and will have learned our lesson. If we are not sorry, and our conduct continues to harm others, we are quite sure to drink, sink. We are not theorizing. These are facts out of our experience.” (emphasis edit mine). I found that there was something supernatural that occurred when I met folks face-to-face and confessed my role in the harms that I had caused them. Some forgave me. Others didn’t. It’s the sincerity of my amends that mattered coupled with the deep desire to refrain from offending anyone in the same way again.

Step Ten: Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.

It is in this step that I began to learn that “Forgiveness is not an occasional act. It is a permanent attitude. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love.” This was to be a lifelong process that required daily monitoring and self surrender to God.

Step Eleven: Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our constant contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for the knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

My sponsor shared the fact that “His appearance in our midst has made it undeniably clear that changing the human heart and changing human society are not separate tasks, but are as interconnected as two beams on the cross.” My heart had to change before I could expect society to change. My life makes a difference.

Step Twelve: Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other alcoholics problem thinkers, and to practice these principles in all our affairs. (emphasis edit mine).

Giving it away without expecting anything in return is the secret to recovery. Forget the profit motives, turf issues, misguided patriotism, sovereignty issues, protecting what you have etc. Recovery is counterintuitive. Writing my experience with these twelve steps is only one way that I am attempting to carry the message.

Summary:

I hope you found something that I’ve shared within these pages that will motivate you to find the courage to take these steps. I will conclude with a quote from my IA sponsor: “Whenever the gospel is used to reduce the dignity of anyone created in God’s image, it is not, of course, the true gospel. People who use God’s name to justify prejudice, contempt, and hostility are not doing God’s work. They’re working for the Poser. This is not to say they are not sincere about God and the gospel. It is only to say they are sincerely wrong.”

Immigration reform is the civil rights movement of the 21st century. Once again, the United States is confronted with the issue of integration. As one author states, “What has failed at every level, from the society of nations, to the national society, to the local community, to the family is integration: We have failed to remember “our community as members of the same body.” We have committed what to the republican founders of our nation was the cardinal sin: we have put our own good, as individuals, as groups, as a nation, ahead of the common good.

It’s time to sober up America. Keep coming back! It works!

Voice from the crowd: “If you work it!”

Bibliography:

2 Alcoholics Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. New York, New York © Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. 1939,1955, 1976 p.58

5 Alcoholics Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. New York, New York © Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. 1939,1955, 1976 p.23

6 Alcoholics Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. New York, New York © Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. 1939,1955, 1976 p.59

7 Alcoholics Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. New York, New York © Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. 1939,1955, 1976 p.59

8 Alcoholics Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. New York, New York © Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. 1939,1955, 1976 p.62.

9 Alcoholics Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. New York, New York © Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. 1939,1955, 1976 p.59.

11 Alcoholics Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. New York, New York © Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. 1939,1955, 1976 p. 53.

13 Alcoholics Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. New York, New York © Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. 1939,1955, 1976 p. 59.

15 Alcoholics Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. New York, New York © Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. 1939,1955, 1976 p. 65-66

16 Alcoholics Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. New York, New York © Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. 1939,1955, 1976 p. 59.

19 Alcoholics Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. New York, New York © Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. 1939,1955, 1976 p. 59

20 Alcoholics Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. New York, New York © Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. 1939,1955, 1976 p. 59

22 Alcoholics Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. New York, New York © Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. 1939,1955, 1976 p. 59

25 Alcoholics Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. New York, New York © Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. 1939,1955, 1976 p. 59

26 Alcoholics Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. New York, New York © Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. 1939,1955, 1976 p. 70

27 Alcoholics Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. New York, New York © Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. 1939,1955, 1976 p. 59

29 Alcoholics Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. New York, New York © Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. 1939,1955, 1976 p. 59

31 Alcoholics Anonymous, Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. New York, New York © Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. 1939,1955, 1976 p. 59

33 Bellah, Robert et al, Habits of the Heart – Individualism and Commitment in American Life, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA © 1985, 1986 by The Regents of the University of California, P. 285

Immipartheid

bill — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 19:50:11 +0000

The Disease Without a Name

“Words are the bugles of social change,” [i] wrote London Business School professor Charles Handy.

Whatever symptoms you might experience, there’s a word somebody has created to capture the essence of what seems to be ailing you. If a friend says they have symptoms like fever, the chills, nausea, diarrhea, upset stomach and headache for example, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind? “You’ve come down with the flu!”

It seems as if the ability to name a disease is dependent upon identifying a certain set of symptoms that alert ourselves and our physicians to the distinct possibility that we are unhealthy. When the sheer numbers of people afflicted become large enough, somebody, somewhere seems to step up and begin looking for a cure. Epidemics have a tendency to get people’s attention. Where do these breakthroughs come from?

Take the New York born (October 28, 1914) son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, for example. The first in his family to go to college, he enrolled at the medical school of New York University, researching influenza. The existence of the flu virus had recently been documented by others. This young student was eager to determine if the virus could be deprived of its ability to infect, while preserving the basis for immunity to the illness. He succeeded in this effort, continuing his research endeavors over the next decade. On April 12, 1955, the discovery of the polio vaccine was announced to the world. Dr. Jonas Salk became a household name. Salk never patented the vaccine nor had any desire to profit from its deployment.

Throughout history, cultures develop symptoms that evidence broader, societal ills. Yes, countries can become afflicted with maladies just like individuals unfortunate enough to contract the flu or polio. Who typically alerts the broader public to these sorts of social ills and the need for their eradication? Madleine L’Engle suggests, The first people that a dictator puts in jail are the writers and the teachers because these are the people who have vocabulary. Artists are dangerous people because they are called to work with human clay, with the heart and the soul.”[ii]

On June 24, 1901 a boy was born in a town in eastern Poland. He arrived in the United States on April 18, 1941 as a Jewish, immigrant-refugee. Raphael Lemkin has been characterized as one who belonged to a virtual community of frustrated, grief-stricken witnesses.[iii]

Lemkin’s distress was attributable to the evil he observed evolving in Europe. He focused on developing a readily recognizable term that captured the essence of the malady. He studied semantic theory and linguistics. He discarded terms like barbarism and mass murder. In November 1944, Columbia University Press released his book entitled Axis Rule in Occupied Europe. The word that he created to populate the discourse about the reality of Hitler’s horrors was unleashed. ‘Genocide,‘ the crime without a name had been born. Shortly after his death on August 28, 1959, approximately 70 countries had ratified a treaty criminalizing genocide. His funeral was attended by seven people.

Daniel Malaan became Prime Minister of South Africa in May 1948. He mis-diagnosed the ills of South Africa and was a central architect in the deployment of the prescribed treatment: apartheid. According to the dictionary, apartheid is defined as, the policy or practice of political, legal, economic, or social discrimination, as against the members of a minority group. The apartheid prescription developed by South Africa included the molecular components for the preservation of white supremacy, separation of the races and a retribalization of Africans. By 1991, a period of forty-three years, the final vestiges of apartheid legislation were repealed and free elections were held in 1994. Making a poor diagnosis and prescribing the wrong treatment can eviscerate the soul of a nation.

Today in the United States, we are not immune to the insidious maladies that come to infect the souls of our people and the heart of our nation. The symptoms are evident, the malady is pervasive, and the integrity of our country is at stake. There are a myriad of diagnostic opinions, yet no congressional consensus and federal approval for the components of the cure. This disease has no name.

Epidemiology

There will be no magic pill we can swallow, no miraculous antibiotic we can inject, no patch we can affix to our epidermis, no secret lotion we can apply. When the heart of a nation becomes afflicted with cardiovascular infarction, we’ve all come down with the malady, whether we recognize it individually or not. Today, the U.S. has become infected with the disease of immipartheid. To prepare yourself to ingest what I’m about to say, gird yourself with the counter-intuitive curiosity of Salk, the compassionate persistence of Lemkin, and the distinct potential for living the consequences from disastrous errors in judgment embraced by the nation of South Africa. Let me explain.

Apartheid has been diagnosed as possessing the following elements:

A policy of racial segregation involving political, legal, and economic discrimination against nonwhites.
A principle or practice of separating or setting apart groups of people.
The legal circumstance of being separated from others; segregation.

According to the U.S. census[iv] in 1860, the population of the U.S. was 31,443,321. Of that total, 3,953,760 were identified as non-white slaves. In 2007, the estimates range from 10 to 30 million undocumented, resident immigrants living in the U.S., the vast majority of which are non-white and of Hispanic descent. The percentages of non-white slaves in this nation 150 years ago and undocumented immigrant residing among us today are comparable. The parallels continue.

The non-white South Africans subjected to apartheid, former non-white slaves in the U.S. and present day undocumented immigrants residing in the U.S., have the following in common:

Voting rights were restricted or non-existent.
Access to public services such as education and medical care were restricted and often of inferior quality vs. those afforded their white counterparts.
Forms of identification emerged that designated the person as a member of a segregated class. ( consular cards, discussion about the implementation of a national ID card).
Movement within the country was restricted. (try getting on an airplane today without a valid ID).
Permits authorizing one to labor in certain occupations and/or certain geographic areas emerged. Oftentimes, these permits did not include the spouse or other members of one’s own family.
The legal ownership of land was tightly regulated, precluding segregated persons from participation.

The parallels are clear: A disenfranchised class of people, numbering in the millions, was formed and sustained in South Africa. Of course, in the case of U.S. slaves and non-whites in South Africa, the creation and maintenance of this social structure of legalized oppression was intentional. Allow me to politely characterize the genesis of the situation of resident, undocumented immigrants in the U.S. today as inadvertent. Yet, the reality of the situation we find ourselves in here in the U.S. is clearly a mutant form of apartheid. We’ve contracted immipartheid; a condition that possesses a distinctly similar syndrome of outcomes for the afflicted as apartheid.

You may contract disease either inadvertently or intentionally. The intentionality of willingly, or deliberately infecting another person with an infectious disease, shocks the global human conscience (take for example, knowingly transferring an HIV infection to another person). In fact, in some cultures, this act is criminal. No matter how one contracts an infection, you must desire to return to a state of health. It requires treatment. The unwillingness to admit that one is ill, or agree upon the proper course of treatment, serves only to advance the seriousness of one’s condition. This is the state of the patient today in U.S. society: unwilling to admit we are soul-sick, and loath to muster the courage to immerse ourselves in the essential therapeutic milieu, we maintain the immipartheid infection, spreading it to others, allowing it to grow in complexity, advance in seriousness, posing an ever greater threat to the present health and welfare of our entire nation, our prospects for a full recovery, and a healthy, vibrant future.

This is not the first time in U.S. history we have succumbed to the insufferable angst of determining what to do with ourselves in a predicament like this. In the collected essays of America’s revered James Baldwin, Baldwin recorded and characterized the plight the American Negro (to use his words), as he wrestled with the issues of democracy, race and the American identity. The parallels to our current quandary are obvious:

“This is why his history and his progress, his relationship to all other Americans, has been kept in the social arena. He is a social and not a personal or a human problem; to think of him is to think of statistics, slums, rapes, injustices, remote violence; it is to be confronted with an endless cataloguing of losses, gains, skirmishes; it is to feel virtuous, outraged, helpless, as though his continuing status among us were somehow analogous to disease – cancer, perhaps, or even tuberculosis – which must be checked even though it cannot be cured. In this arena, the black man acquires quite another aspect from that which he has in life. We do not know what to do with him in life….Our dehumanization of the Negro then is indivisible from our dehumanization of ourselves: the loss of our own identity is the price we pay for the annulment of his.”[v]

The immunity we thought we had developed to being susceptible to this form of societal malady appears to have broken through again – or did we ever really have immunity?

Triggering the Immune Response

Most diseases are contracted inadvertently. When you become ill, you don’t go around looking for the source of the bug do you? Yet, in the case of immipartheid, we, once again, focus our attention on identifying a scapegoat; someone to blame. No issue (other than abortion) seems to lance the American under-belly like the issue of U.S. immigration reform. The venom and puss that ooze out of this polarized tirade about the appropriate treatment for our malady are toxic, shameful, and a stench to those around us. Our vitriolic stubbornness and closed-mindedness serve only to forestall the development and implementation of the required consensus for initiating the treatment regimen. Our outbursts ricochet around the planet, causing the global community to pause and reassess their view of the American identity. In the United States today, we need a new dose of reality, as characterized by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright:

“I regret that we have fostered a political culture that rewards the extremes, a culture in which dogmatic belief is deemed a virtue and open-mindedness a weakness, and sarcasm and slanderous attacks frequently drown out intelligent discussion. Haven’t we had enough of this? We need a dose of unity.”[vi]

In his inauguration speech on January 10, 2001 President George W. Bush proclaimed to the Nation: America, at its best, is compassionate. In the quiet of American conscience, we know that deep, persistent poverty is unworthy of our nation’s promise. And whatever our views of its cause, we can agree that children at risk are not at fault. Abandonment and abuse are not acts of God, they are failures of love.[vii]

Perhaps Albright’s prescription for a dose of unity and Bush’s measure of love are just what the doctor ordered. It just might be the place to start. Yet, these elements seem foreign to the vast majority of the diagnoses being bantered about today.

Triggering the essential immune system response is fundamental to developing a vaccine to effectively address the immipartheid outbreak. However, it’s counter-intuitive. Salk essentially killed the poliovirus, yet kept it intact just enough to activate the necessary immune response. An immune response is basically the way our body recognizes and defends itself against bacteria, viruses, and substances that appear foreign and harmful to the body. Essentially, the vaccine is literally sourced from the virus that is ailing you. However, you need to be able to accurately establish the identity of the virus or you run the disastrous risks of creating the horrific consequences of a misdiagnosis as Malaan and his cohorts did in South Africa.

The testing of the hypotheses based upon shouting slogans, slurring others, scalping scapegoats, and fear-mongering are in: they do not trigger the desired immune response. It’s time to develop and test new hypotheses, using true and time-tested methods. Perhaps it’s time to reach deeply into our souls and emerge with the perseverance of Lemkin.

Maybe, a simple word might galvanize unity, guided by a love for the past, present and future of this nation-patient.

Heralding Healing:

Like any other malady, the contraction of the disease of immipartheid has been a process. One theologian suggests; “The use of others begins slowly and then, over time, becomes the habit that not only dehumanizes the other, it dehumanizes ourselves as well.”[viii] Resolving the U.S. immipartheid epidemic contains the genetic code essential to begin restoring a fundamental dimension of our national integrity. The matter of the destructive duplicity exposed by the infection of immipartheid provides us with the opportunity to begin prioritizing our actions above hollow, time-honored, well-worn slogans. There is pertinent wisdom in the following: “We can’t change what we are known for unless we change how we live.”[ix]

What does that look like? Maybe it contains an element of a new tone that guides our political deliberations today, as the essence of the following has characterized our more lucid moments for national public policy development, since the birth of this nation:

“A new political message is therefore called for. It must begin with the age-old assumption that we are only as strong as our weakest link. It asserts that the judgment of a society will depend not on how it treats its most powerful, privileged, and wealthy, but rather on how it treats its most vulnerable.”[x]

Perhaps, the genetic code of the immipartheid virus contains important strains of a moral configuration that we are just now beginning to explore and unravel. My sense is that this is the arena where we must now re-focus our efforts. Maybe it’s the simple, time-tested, fundamental truths that we must learn to return to, in times as rapidly changing and complex as ours. Allow the simplicity of the following to speak to your senses.

“We gain something profound when we stand up for our beliefs, just as part of us dies when we know something is wrong, yet do nothing. We would call this radical dignity – if we remain silent in the face of cruelty, injustice and oppression, we sacrifice part of our soul.”[xi]

My prayer is that the soul of the body politic and the citizenry of the U.S. will begin to appreciate the term immipartheid for what it really is. I hope that this appreciation may birth a new posture that requires a reorientation in our attitudes, discussion and actions that respect the lessons of our Nation’s history. Just as we have identified anti-semitism and other racially-based slurs as a scourge, my hope is that we will apply this same fervor to the elimination of anti-immitism. The history of this nation reveals that we are capable of rising up and exterminating the social diseases we have somehow contracted. Our zeal to heal the infirmities of the world is presently hampered by our untreated condition here at home. Listen to the following:

“America is unlikely to play a different role in the world until it is a different America — until it finds ways once again realize the values of equality, liberty, democracy, and, one day, perhaps even of community in our own land. Efforts to alter the excesses of America’s international stance and to persuade the United States to respond more humanely to global problems are both essential and laudable. If we Americans truly hope to help others around the world, however, we have much hard work to do, first and foremost, here at home (emphasis is mine).”[xii]

Let’s not overlook the riveting insights of Baldwin, the counter-intuitive curiosity of Salk, the passionate persistence of Lemkin, as we prepare to assume a new posture, kneeling before the words, the language, of those who have gone before us. May we be reminded that we are the one’s called to work with human clay, with the heart and the soul.[xiii] Hearts that beat. Souls that hope. People just like us.

“When our language changes, behavior will not be far behind.”[xiv] I certainly hope so.

It’s the immoral part of our dilemma we cannot hide.

Somebody call 911.

About The Author:

Bill is a freelance writer. Bill is published in numerous professional publications, magazines, websites, journals, newspapers and newsletters. You can enjoy Bill’s writing on his website at http://billdahl.net/ For reprint permission, Contact Bill at wsdahl(at)bendbroadband(dot)com. All Rights Reserved.

NOTES

[iv] : http://www.census.gov/population/documentation/twps0056/tab01.xls

[v] Baldwin, James James Balwin – Collected Essays – Edited by Toni Morrison – Published by The Library of America, Copyright © 1998 by Literary Classics of the United States, Inc. NY,NY excerpt from Notes of a Native Son pp. 19.

[vii] http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/inaugural-address.html

[ix] Kinnaman, David and Lyons, Gabe UNChristian – What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity and Why It Matters, Baker Books – Grand Rapids, Michigan, Copyright © 2007 by David Kinnaman and The Fermi Project, p. P. 231.

[xi] Rogat Loeb, Paul The Impossible Will Take A While – A Citizen’s Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear, Basic Books – A Member of the Perseus Books Group NY,NY Copyright © 2004 by Paul Rogat Loeb, p. 12

Victimmigration

bill — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 19:39:24 +0000

“What’s that?”

Each time I drive to or from San Diego, CA on Interstate 5 with a first time visitor to the area, they always exclaim, “What’s that?” They are pointing out the window to an upcoming sign posted distinctly at the side of the freeway. These bright yellow signs contain the contrasting dark image of an adult, holding hands with two children, one on each side. They are running.

“What’s that?” is indicative of the level of awareness and involvement of the Christian community regarding our existing immigration policy that systematically oppresses God’s children. The purpose of this expose is to change the posture of the Christian community in the U.S. from a position of “What’s that?” to “That’s what!”

The Call:

As I read my Bible, I am continually reassured by the penchant of our God to see what is going on down here, and His ability to direct His attention to the voices that seem to be drowned out by the chatter of man.

In Exodus Chapter 3, God appears to Moses out of a heartfelt concern for the plight of His people. ”I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. 8So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey – the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 9And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.[i]

Public policy that oppressed a certain segment of God’s children had become acceptable practice by the people of Egypt. It is interesting to note how often the Bible illustrates that which becomes ‘acceptable public policy’ in the eyes of man, is actually a distinct abomination in the sight of our God.

Today in the United States, we are modern day witnesses and participants in supporting a public policy that currently oppresses millions of God’s children. Pundits have even boldly advanced the following argument, as written in Exodus: 8Then a new king, who did not know about Joseph, came to power in Egypt. 9″Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become much too numerous for us. 10Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.” [ii] In other words, rather than viewing the oppression of His people as something the Christian must act against, many of us have become caught up in the “threat argument” that these aliens pose to us, tacitly supporting the oppression of existing public policy, contrary to the heart of God. Other Christians simply stand around with their hands in their pockets, whistling in an attempt to ignore the situation.

Something must change. Scripture clearly indicates that God is not going to change His heart with regard to the oppression of His people. Public policy won’t change until the Christian community comes together to provide the voice for the muffled cries of His children. These cries are currently drowned out by the media manufactured, secular agenda of mainstream priorities in the U.S. that invade our ears, eyes and minds on a daily basis.

Unfortunately, as it was for Moses, such is our lot today. It is through our obedient compliance to His Word that things will change. Yet, we must be the ones’ to heed His call. It is a call to become involved in the fray where victims of oppression are created by public policy that creates and condones “man’s inhumanity to man,” as characterized in the following by Francis Schaeffer:

“If it is true that evil is evil, that God hates it to the point of the cross, and that there is a moral law fixed in what God is in Himself, then Christians should be the first into the field against what is wrong—including man’s inhumanity to man.”[iii]

The Mexodus:

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Hispanics have outnumbered African Americans residing in the U.S. since of July 1, 2002.[iv] This is a 58% increase in the figure reported for the 1990 census. Less than 60% of all Mexican-Americans hold a U.S. passport.[v] Hispanic families are reported to average more than three children per family while the remainder of U.S. families average under two. According to one author, “Anyway you look at it, the future of the United States is a Hispanic one. The Latino wave is unstoppable.”[vi]

Every 100 minutes, an illegal immigrant from Mexico or Latin America successfully crosses the border into United States. The issue of oppression is rampant within The Mexodus: The plight of millions of Mexican citizens fleeing to the United States motivated solely by the hope of a better life. This reality is created by the improbability and hopelessness of providing their families with a better future, escaping the certainty of subsistence level poverty in their country of origin. This is our modern day Exodus I am referring to as The Mexodus.

Through June 30, 2004, there have been a reported 880,000 arrests of illegal immigrants attempting to cross the U.S./Mexican border (versus 932,000 “total illegal entrants” at all 317 U.S. entry points and borders in fiscal 2003.[vii] (Period October 1, 2002 to September 30, 2003). The “estimate” is that 2 – 3 times as many persons successfully cross the border than are caught. Depending upon whose numbers you choose to select, there are an estimated 9-15 million undocumented Mexican citizens presently residing in the United States.[viii]

Chillegals:

One critically important dimension of the Mexodus issue is the well-being of the children of illegal Mexican immigrants living in the U.S.. I will refer these innocent children here as ‘Chillegals.’ Most of these children began their journey to our country as infants, wrapped in blankets, and coddled in the arms of their parents as they made their way across the border. As infants and children, they did not give their consent to the decision of their parents. In fact, they were victimized by their parents. Victimization is defined as “adversity resulting from being made a victim.”

Most Christians would agree that prostitution, the use of illegal drugs and illicit gambling are crimes. Although “crimes” in the legal sense of the word and proscribed by Scripture, our society has labeled these acts as “victimless crimes” because “nobody other than those consenting to the act are harmed.” I think we can all agree that this “victimless” stuff is nonsense can’t we? When it comes to victimless crimes, we know that prostitution, drug abuse and gambling cause harm to others, well beyond those involved “in the act.” All “victimless crimes” contain the element of “one consenting adult engaging in illicit behavior.”

Victimmigration:

As it relates to the plight of the millions of Chillegals residing in the U.S., these infants and children never had the capacity to consent or dissent to the actions taken by their parents. Yet, we hold them responsible and oppress them, based upon the immoral treatment afforded them under current public policy. This is Victimmigration: The ongoing oppression of infants and children of illegal Mexican immigrants in the U.S.

We oppress them in the following ways:

No social security cards
No drivers licenses
No air travel
Limit the opportunities for qualified candidates to pursue higher education.
No opportunity to work legally
We prevent them from participating in and contributing to our society…the only home they have ever known.
We perpetuate oppression: A vicious, immoral, unnecessary cycle.
We encourage the proliferation of poverty-ravaged subcultures within the U.S.

The Christian Call To Arms:

The Call To Arms for the Christian Community in the United States is to reach out and embrace these infants and children who have become non-consenting victims of U.S. Victimmigration policy. Their innocent voices cannot be heard by bureaucrats and the politicians in power in Washington D.C. Francis Schaeffer encourages us to speak up and act on behalf of the oppressed, as summarized in the following:

“The Christian should be in the front line, fighting the results of man’s cruelty, for we know it is not what God has made. We are able to be angry at the results of man’s cruelty without being angry at God or being angry at what is normal.”[ix]

Consider the following inspiration from our Holy Bible:

Numbers 15: 15The community is to have the same rules for you and for the alien living among you; this is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. You and the alien shall be the same before the LORD: 16The same laws and regulations will apply both to you and to the alien living among you.’ ” [x]

Jeremiah 7: ” 5If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, 6if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, 7then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers for ever and ever. 8But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless. [xi]

Ezekiel 47: 21″You are to distribute this land among yourselves according to the tribes of Israel. 22You are to allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the aliens who have settled among you and who have children. You are to consider them as native-born Israelites; along with you they are to be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. 23In whatever tribe the alien settles, there you are to give him his inheritance,” declares the Sovereign LORD. [xii]

Zechariah 7: 8And the word of the LORD came again to Zechariah: 9″This is what the LORD Almighty says: `Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. 10Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.’ 11″But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and stopped up their ears. 12They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the LORD Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the LORD Almighty was very angry. 13″ `When I called, they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,’ says the LORD Almighty. 14`I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations, where they were strangers. The land was left so desolate behind them that no one could come or go. This is how they made the pleasant land desolate.’ “[xiii]

Conclusion:

It is my prayer that your soul shall hear the voice of our Lord Jesus as He speaks in Luke Chapter 4:

18″The Spirit of the Lord is on me,

because he has anointed me

to preach good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners

and recovery of sight for the blind,

to release the oppressed,

19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”[xiv]

Our choice is no different today than the one that confronted Moses a few thousand years ago. Will we continue to attempt to reply to Him, as Moses did, saying, 13″O Lord, please send someone else to do it?”[xv] Can we hear him responding to our apathy and feeble attempts to avoid acting upon His commands as He shouts: 11″Who gave man his mouth? Who makes him deaf or mute? Who gives him sight or makes him blind? Is it not I, the LORD? 12Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.” [xvi]

Our Call to Arms as Christian’s regarding the Victimmigration issue in the United States, is clearly captured in the following words from Jesus Christ that continue to ricochet through the corridors of time:

Mark 10: 13People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. 14When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 15I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” 16And He took the children in his arms, put His hands on them and blessed them. [xvii]

As you lift your arms to worship and embrace Jesus, be reminded to bow down and embrace the cause of His Children who have become victims of immoral, modern day public policy in the United States…the children of Victimmigration. This is the Christian Call to Arms.

He won’t “send somebody else” to accomplish His work on this Earth. He’s counting on you. So are His children.

Bow down. Embrace this cause today. Allow your “What’s that?” to become a “That’s what I am called to do as a disciple of Jesus Christ?”

NOTES:

[iv] U.S. Bureau of the Census. June 18, 2003.

[v] The Latino Electorate- 2002 National Survey of Latinos, Pew Hispanic Center/Kaiser Family Foundation, October 2002.

[vii] Performance and Annual Report – Fiscal Year 2003 – U.S. Customs and Border Protection – U.S. Department of Homeland Security,

[viii] Performance and Annual Report – Fiscal Year 2003 – U.S. Customs and Border Protection – U.S. Department of Homeland Security, p. 68… NOTE: As indicated in a memorandum from the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection in 2003,[viii] the overall accuracy of the numbers reported by Border Patrol and Customs/Immigration Enforcement remain in doubt. The Commissioner states: “Customs had four outstanding material weaknesses at the beginning of FY 2003. Although we are well on our way to resolving a number of these weaknesses, until they are closed the existing deficiencies in the quality and adequacy of data provided by Customs financial accounting and reporting systems prevent me from providing reasonable assurance as of September 30, 2003, that Customs overall controls and financial management systems were in conformance with standards prescribed by the Comptroller General of the United States.”

MexGen – Profiling The Paradox

bill — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 19:24:07 +0000

MexGen:

Profiling the Paradox

By Bill Dahl

Dehydration is a Process

Water is something we all take for granted. It’s all over the place. Approximately two thirds of the Earth’s surface is covered with water. If you fail to consume water within a 48-hour period, your body begins to deteriorate. You can die from thirst. Drought threatens human survival.

Water flows downhill. We rely upon the fact that winter snows in the mountains will become spring flows of life sustaining water. It takes time to transform a snowflake in the mountains into a drop of water in your kitchen. If this process is interrupted, we’re all in deep, deep trouble. Wells and reservoirs run dry if the sources and flow of life giving water are not nurtured.

There is no segment in American society where the threat of drought is more apparent than within the Hispanic community. The essential flow of emerging, capable and educated leaders to the reservoirs and wells that sustain the mainstream Hispanic community is being obstructed and diverted. This disruption in the flow of vital Hispanic generational leadership ( hereinafter “MexGen”) is intentional, unconscionable and will serve to impair the effectiveness of the Hispanic contribution to American society for decades to come, if this situation continues unabated.

James P. Smith, Chairman for labor markets and demographic studies at Rand Corp. recently led a panel for the National Academy of Sciences on the economic and tax effects of immigration. He writes, “The successes of previous immigrant generations happened in large part because schools worked for both immigrant children and their native-born classmates. If schools don’t similarly work for today’s immigrants — and there are ample reasons for concern — the success of future generations will be imperiled.”[i] This poignant perspective provides the basis of this article: Profiling the Paradox of MexGen.

Like my mom always told me, “If you’re thirsty, you’re already dehydrated. Dehydration is a process, not an event” Let me explain.

Parched Throats:

MexGen is under siege in mainstream U.S.A. Media reporting would lead us to believe that the combatants in the U.S. culture wars are the left and the right. This may be valid, but the casualties are piling up and they are distinctly MexGen!

The Hispanic population in the U.S. is estimated to be around 40 million people, according to the 2000 U.S. Census. Numerous studies have talked about the difficulty of determining the extent to which the undocumented immigrant is, or is not, included in this total. The 2000 U.S. Census figures have been characterized as “are widely recognized as incomplete.”[ii] Recently, Bear-Stearns suggested, “this figure may be as high as 20 million people.”[iii] For the sake of counting those who have probably not been counted in the 2000 Census, let’s say the Latino population in the U.S. in 2005 is approximately 50 million people, or 17% of the total U.S. population. The majority of U.S. Latinos come from Mexico. More than 35% of all Hispanics are under 18 years of age[iv] (although this number may be distinctly higher if figures for undocumented immigrant students were available). Thus, MexGen is in school, preparing to become the next generation of leaders for an increasingly important segment of American society.

There are twenty some Latino Congressmen, no senators, no Supreme Court justices and one governor. As Jorge Ramos writes, “We are numerous but we lack political representation commensurate with our numbers.”[v]

Becoming thirstier?

Generational Brain Drain

A study completed by the Rand Corporation revealed that, “Our results show that many immigrants and their offspring, especially Hispanics, are losing ground in educational attainment to other immigrant groups and to natives. Immigrants from most places of origin enroll in California’s primary, middle, and high schools at the same rates as natives and are as likely as natives to graduate from high school. This is not true of Mexican and Central American immigrant children, however. Their enrollment rates begin to drop off in middle school and fall progressively further behind during the high school years. By age 20, only 45 percent of Hispanic immigrants have graduated from high school, compared to 90 percent of non-Hispanic immigrants and 88 percent of natives. It appears that instead of dropping out of the school system in the traditional sense, many Hispanic immigrant adolescents never attend school at all—they have come north to find work, not to attend school.”[vi]

In March 2005, the L.A. Times reported the current state of graduation rates in the LAUSD. “The results of a “Harvard University study released this month showed that just 39% of Latinos and 47% of African American students in the district who should have graduated in 2002 managed to do so. Overall, the district’s graduation rate was 45.3%, the report found.”[vii] Only 15% of Latinos and 21% of African Americans who began their freshman year in 1999 graduated with enough of the courses to attend a four-year California university in 2003.[viii]

The results of a study by Pew Hispanic Center released in May 2005 states that “The concentration of Latinos in relatively low-skill occupations contributed to reduced earnings for them for the second year in a row. No other major group of workers has suffered a two-year decline in wages. The vast majority of new jobs for Hispanic workers were in relatively low-skill occupations calling for little other than a high school education. In contrast, non-Hispanic workers secured large increases in employment in higher-skill occupations requiring at least some college education. This polarization contributed to a growing gap in earnings between Hispanic and non-Hispanic workers. The fall in wages for Latinos was greatest among immigrants who arrived in the United States in the past five years. Thus, the new immigrants who are enjoying significant growth in employment are doing so at the expense of lower wages. This trend is, no doubt, exacerbated by their concentration in occupations calling for minimal skills and education. Despite strong demand for immigrant workers, their growing supply and concentration in certain occupations suggests that the newest arrivals are competing with each other in the labor market to their own detriment.”[ix]

If, in reading the above, you get the distinct feeling that “brain drain” has a trickle-down effect on the impact the 18 and under Hispanic generation (MexGen) may or may not be able to make in American society, you’re right. You don’t have to possess a PhD in generational sociology to figure this one out.

I agree with the author Dr. Charles Handy when he writes, “We grow more food than we need but cannot feed the starving. We can unravel the mysteries of the galaxies but not of our own families. To call it a paradox, however, is only to label it, not to deal with it. We have to find ways to make sense of the paradoxes, to use them to shape a better destiny.”[x]

It’s time to travel the route of the current trickle and determine what is causing this brain drain. I firmly believe that we must stop the daunting prospects of the forecast for a Hispanic generational leadership drought at the source. It’s time to heed the words of Rand’s James P. Smith when he writes, “Special efforts should be undertaken to encourage high school graduation and college attendance within the Hispanic community and to discover ways to enhance the educational achievement of Hispanics.”

What must be done now, to “shape a better destiny?”

The MexGen Profile

Yvette and Maria (not their real names although this is a real story) live in the same community in Santa Ana, CA with their families. Their families don’t own homes. They rent apartments. The Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government published a report in August 2004 entitled “An Update on Urban Hardship.” Santa Ana, CA was ranked as the #1 big city in America where it is toughest to make ends meet.[xi] Yvette has 7 sisters and one brother. Maria has two brothers and three sisters. They’re both 17, attractive, bright, hard working and fun loving. They work part-time jobs in a fast-food restaurant together. They help others in their community doing volunteer work.

They have received the entirety of their public education in the Santa Ana School District. Later this month, they will both graduate from a local high school with honors. This is an amazing feat when you appreciate the fact that almost 6 out of 10 adults in Santa Ana, CA over the age of 25 have less than a high school education.[xii] Both Yvette and Maria will graduate in the top 4% of their graduating class (in the top 20 students out of a graduating class of nearly 400). Both have earned college credits while in high school. They have each received numerous academic awards. Neither has ever received any sort of formal disciplinary action inside or outside of school. They are, in every sense of the term, model citizens.

Maria has worked very hard to earn acceptance to UC-Davis where she will begin her college studies in the fall of 2005. She intends to become a veterinarian. She’s ecstatic. Yvette has been accepted to UC-Irvine. She loves math and intends to apply her aptitude in a career that requires the same. These two young women represent the best of the best that MexGen has to offer. All together, each of these young women have pledged allegiance to the flag of the United States of America over 2,000 times.

That’s where the similarities end.

Taking Our Foot Off the Hose

A journey to the bottleneck of the trickle is not unlike any other, one step at a time. However, before we dash off, we should probably take a look at our present posture. If you’re wondering why MexGen is not blossoming in the U.S. at a pace that other groups of NextGen young adults are, we should probably begin the inquiry by examining the hose in our hand. If there is a trickle coming out and the water valve is wide-open, let’s examine the most immediate cause: Perhaps, we’re standing on the hose.

Maria was born in the U.S. Yvette was born in Mexico and was carried across the border in the arms of her mother when she was five years old. She had no idea where she was going. She didn’t possess the ability to argue, understand, discuss or stay behind in Mexico. Like any child, she followed the lead of her parents.

Yes, she has a phony social security card that allows her to work part-time at a fast food restaurant. She drives the family car without a license. She has no medical or auto insurance. Her three younger sisters were all born in the U.S.

She bought into what every generation in America has been told, “work hard in school, excel, get good grades, stay out of trouble, become involved in serving your community and everything will work out just fine for you.” At present, she does not qualify for federal financial aid for college due to her undocumented status. There’s no way her family can afford even in-state tuition at UC-Irvine.

Yvette is now considering postponing her entrance into college. Her father does not work due to the debilitating effects of a stroke. Her mom sews in a sweatshop. Mom and dad are not bilingual. The family is seriously considering moving to Washington State where it is cheaper to live. Her older, undocumented brother lives and works there now. Whether they move to Washington or stay in Santa Ana, Yvette feels that she needs to be there for her three younger sisters who are excelling in school, and bolster the family’s income by continuing to work at minimum wage.

The flow of hope in her life has become a trickle. Who’s standing on the hose?

Summary:

With tears in her eyes, a trembling voice, and a facial expression reflecting deep, disillusioned, torment, Yvette says, “Even though I have done everything I can to demonstrate that I am a person of character, ready and willing to contribute to the future of America, I now feel like I’m on the outside looking in. How can this be happening? It’s not fair.” It is a life-changing experience to sit with a victim whose soul has been raped of hope. As I sat there, I realized that I was being provided with a glimpse of the soul of MexGen.

As we have throughout the history of the United States, we are presently confronted with a tremendous opportunity captured in the question, “What must be done now, to shape a better destiny?” It’s time to confront the truth. As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “To be honest is to confront the truth. However unpleasant and inconvenient the truth may be, I believe we must expose and face it if we are to achieve a better quality of American life.”[xiii] The soul of this nation is at stake here. Every demographic projection out there indicates that the Hispanic community will become the majority in this nation over the next 50 plus years. As author Leo R. Chavez points out, “Until the larger society imagines undocumented immigrants as part of the community, they will continue to live as outsiders inside American society.”[xiv]

The words of Dr. King uttered some 40 years ago are particularly appropriate in 2005: “There is a certain bitter irony in the picture of his country championing freedom in foreign lands and failing to ensure that freedom to twenty million of its own.”[xv] It is time to confront the truth that current misguided patriotic fervor has infected our discussion of U.S. immigration policy reform to the detriment of this nation’s soul, and our future. The character of the future of this nation is being formed today. It’s time to make amends. It’s time to take the first step in the right direction. Come on Congress! Pass some legislation that provides a path to citizenship for the millions of Yvette’s in MexGen.

We hold the hose of hope in our own hands. My prayer is that we will take our foot off the hose and water the MexGen garden of this nation. We must trust that God shall create a bountiful harvest, which will contribute to the nourishment of the soul of this country for generations to come. Do we trust Him America?

It’s about us America, not them.

NOTES:

[i] http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/sunday/commentary/la-op-borderschizo1may01,1,3039177.story

[ii]http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cache:iH7cshuGZU0J:www.steinreport.com/BearStearnsStudy.pdf+%22bear+stearns%22+%22immigration%22&hl=en&start=3

or http://www.steinreport.com/BearStearnsStudy.pdf.

[iii] www.bearstearns.com/bscportal/pdfs/underground.pdf.

[iv] U.S. Bureau of the Census, Census 2000, Washington D.C.

[v] Ramos, Jorge The Latino Wave, HarperCollinsPublishers, NY,NY Copyright © 2004 by Jorge Ramos p.240

[vi] Rand Corp.- Kevin F. McCarthy and Georges Vernez, Immigration in a Changing Economy: California’s Experience. Source:http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR854.1/MR854.1.chap9.pdf.

[vii] http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dropout26mar26,1,4643939.story

[viii] http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-courses26apr26,1,7990870.story

[ix] http://pewhispanic.org/reports/report.php?ReportID=45

[x] Handy, Charles The Age of Paradox, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA Copyright © 1994 by Harvard Business School Press, pp. x-xi

[xi] Montiel, Nathan & Wright – An Update on Urban Hardship, Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government – Public Policy Research Arm of SUNY. August 2004. http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cache:eVPVaFU9tDAJ:www.rockinst.org/publications/urban_studies/UrbanHardshipUpdate.pdf+%22hardship+index%22&hl=en&start=1

[xii] Montiel, Nathan & Wright – An Update on Urban Hardship, Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government – Public Policy Research Arm of SUNY. August 2004. http://64.233.179.104/search?q=cache:eVPVaFU9tDAJ:www.rockinst.org/publications/urban_studies/UrbanHardshipUpdate.pdf+%22hardship+index%22&hl=en&start=1

[xiii] Scott-King, Coretta The Words of Martin Luther King Jr. NewMarket Press, NY,NY Copyright © 1964by the Nobel Foundation and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. p.89

[xiv] Chavez, Leo R. Shadowed Lives – Undocumented Immigrants in American Society, Copyright © 1992, 1998 by Thomson Learning, Inc. p. 188

[xv] Hoskins, Loette I Have a Dream – The Quotations of Martin Luther King, Jr. Gossett & Dunlap Publishers, Copyright © 1968 by Droke House Publishers, Inc. p.3

The Kerik Conundrum

bill — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 19:14:48 +0000

The Kerik Conundrum

Bernard Kerik’s decision to withdraw his name as President Bush’s nominee to replace Tom Ridge as Director of Homeland Security, brings up several questions that deserve further consideration:

1. Perhaps we should apply the same standard to Kerik ( and all the rest of us ) who employ the services of an undocumented immigrant in our daily lives. Maybe Mr. Kerik should be detained until a deportation hearing can be convened to determine where Mr. Kerik should be deported? Such is the fate of undocumented immigrants. The standard should be reciprocal, shouldn’t it?

2. Employing the services of an undocumented immigrant without performing the essential “background investigation” and paying the essential withholding taxes, is irresponsible and corrupt ( particularly when this heinous act was committed by one of the most visible faces in our nation’s law enforcement community, and one who is touted as leading the charge on the U.S. “war on terror.”). Kerik profited by this act, just like Martha Stewart did. Shouldn’t a grand jury be convened to make an example out of Mr. Kerik in this case, just as we did with Martha?

3. Kerik described the undocumented immigrant that he employed as “someone employed by me in my house, a very nice woman, a very good woman, someone who loves my children and they love her.” This is clearly not the characterization of the “terrorists” that the proponents of immigration reform tell us they are saving us from. Where did Kerik find this woman? Do you think that there are more like her “out there among us,” or that this is just a fluke?

4. Now what? I want to know what Kerik decided to do with this woman. Did he fire her? Has he retained legal counsel to represent the woman to begin the process of obtaining citizenship? What is this woman’s story? It’s probably a lot more interesting that what I’ve read about Bernard Kerik. The character of Kerik is at stake here. How he handles this situation will tell us a lot about that character of our country.

In summary, the standards that we apply to the benefactors of undocumented immigrant labor must be held to a standard that is commensurate with the treatment and fate of the undocumented immigrant laborer, in the event of “official” recognition.

Our Kerik Conundrum options are self-evident:

a. String him up and make a national example out of him, just like we did with Martha.

b. Track down, detain and deport the woman and make a national example out of her.

c. Pass federal legislation that provides “amnesty” to the rich in this country who benefit from upon the services of undocumented immigrant labor. We have plenty of time to have the IRS print the new forms and distribute them before the April 15th 2005 income tax filing deadline. We could use the proceeds to make our border with Mexico more secure, so terrorists like this woman cannot infiltrate our country!

d. Have the FBI conduct a nationwide “round-up” of all the U.S. citizens and businesses who, like Kerik, presently employ these subversives. After all, aren’t they really supporting potential terrorist infiltrators?

e. Have Kerik be the first to register under the “Undocumented Immigrant Laborer Offender Program.” This national database will be used to track immigration law offenders like Mr. Kerik, provide treatment and counseling, serve to warn neighbors upon their re-entry back into the community, and serve as a deterrent to recidivism.

Maybe after you have considered all of the above, you get this sick feeling in your gut that “f,” None Of The Above, is where you end up in all this. If that’s the case, perhaps we must face the fact that this particular situation possesses all of the contradictions and double-standards that epitomize the untreated cancer that continues to ravage the soul of this nation.

I want to be the business agent for this woman! Can you imagine how many American families are looking for “someone employed by me in my house, a very nice woman, a very good woman, someone who loves my children and they love her?” Perhaps we need more people like this in our communities. Maybe they’re already “among us.” Let’s find em!

Wake up America! Let’s do the right thing here. Amnesty for Kerik and citizenship for the housekeeper!

Immythgration

bill — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 19:09:25 +0000

Immythgration

Myths Mashed in the Midst of the U.S. Immigration Policy Reform Debate

The First Batch:

Everybody has at least one opportunity in life to sample the first batch of cookies your little sister, brother, nephew, niece or neighbor kid cooks up. I can distinctly remember the day my little sister proudly presented me with three cookies that she had created. They were awful! I mean terrible. I could have choked to death if she hadn’t brought me a glass of milk with those darn things.

However, my reaction was probably like yours. I didn’t make a face, scream “YUCK!” or spit the mouthful out in my hand. I smiled politely, made “Yummy” sounds, chewed, swallowed and devoured all three of those damn things. Why? Because I didn’t want the little cook to feel bad.

Little cooks seem to grow up into adult chefs charged with cooking up socio-economic policy in this country. As it relates to the current U.S. immigration policy reform debate, the fare being served up from the state and federal test kitchens all over this country continues to be filled with artificial ingredients that make the entrée distasteful. Let me explain.

Following Instructions:

Why do we have recipes? My grandma had her recipes memorized, until my dad asked her to write them down on paper. My mom had recipe books all over the kitchen. My wife has hers filed away in the cupboard above the refrigerator…she gets most of her recipes on-line today.

We have recipes so someone other than the original person who created the dish is able to replicate the form, flavor and taste. My wife can follow the recipe that my grandma had for chocolate chip cookies with walnuts and produce the same, exact cookie. If my wife alters that recipe in any way, I can tell…immediately. Every once in a while, my wife will alter my mom or grandma’s recipes when she is out of a particular ingredient, decides to alter the proportions of required ingredients, or succumbs to the overwhelming urge to be creative.

Original recipe means original recipe. The only way to replicate original is to follow the original instructions. It is a myth to think that one can alter the original recipe in any way and produce a tasteful, current day replica. The recipe for cooking up present day original recipe U.S. immigration policy is no different. However, what we are presently sampling in this debate is fast-food fare that is filled with myths that alter the flavor of the enduring truths that have formed and sustained the soul of this nation.

Myth # 1 – Everything has changed since 9/11: Bull! My grandma didn’t change her recipe for chocolate chip cookies when Pearl Harbor, World War II, The Korean War, Vietnam, or Woodstock occurred. (She didn’t alter it when we landed a man on the moon). All this nonsense about everything changing since 9/11 is only political fodder to legitimize the fear and outrage agenda of those who want to capture an opportunity in our nation’s history to further preserve what they already have. This is done by redirecting their self-righteous revenge, veiled beneath a misguided sense of patriotic fervor. It is then served up as a new form of truth. This is not truth. It is myth, fabricated for the purposes of changing the original recipe. It is a lie. A quote from Princeton University’s Professor of Philosophy Emeritus Henry G. Frankfurt, captures the essence of this matter in the following: “The liar is inescapably concerned with truth-values. In order to invent a lie at all, he must think he knows what is true. And in order to invent an effective lie, he must design his falsehood under the guidance of that truth.”[i]

The truth about this myth is that there were the same number of undocumented Latino immigrants piloting those hijacked airplanes on 9/11 as the number of weapons of mass destruction the U.S. military uncovered after invading Iraq…Nada. Zero.

The truth of the matter is that when one begins to alter the original recipe of truth, the results are distasteful for all concerned.

Missing Ingredients:

I can remember the day I was helping my grandma bake cookies. They didn’t have timers in those days so grandma always kept a keen eye on the kitchen clock. This particular day, grandma got distracted and forgot when we had placed the batch in the oven. She grabbed her mitten and pulled the tray out of the oven. “Not yet Billy. They’re half baked,” she said.

Myth # 2 – Control the Border and Solve the Problem. Proponents of immigration reform who focus solely on controlling the border with Mexico as the solution to this matter, are serving up solutions that are at best, half-baked. These people would lead us to believe that we should devour their half-baked fare because “it looks like a cookie.” The point is that we need to put this sort of thinking back in the oven to allow the other ingredients in the recipe to fully integrate with each other. There’s nothing worse than a half-baked cookie, no matter how hungry you are for a solution. You don’t take a batch of chocolate chip-walnut cookies out of the oven just because the chocolate chips on the exterior of the cookies look good. Proper baking is an essential ingredient to every successful recipe.

One day, my wife decided to use pecans instead of walnuts in a batch of grandma’s cookies. Her thought was that I would never know the difference. Wrong!

Myth # 3 – Guest Worker Programs Are a Proper Substitute for a Path to Citizenship. Yeah, right! This is akin to substituting pecans for walnuts. The assumption is that undocumented immigrants come to the U.S. solely for the purpose of getting a job. Furthermore, if we provide a way for them to register, we will be better able to control the flow and keep track of their whereabouts. The fact of history is that the hopeless migrate to that land that is hopeful. Undocumented immigrants desire far more than just a job. They want to be participants in this society and enhance the hope for a brighter future for their families. By the way, the federal government wants you to believe that a guest worker program (pecan) is a proper substitute for a path to citizenship (walnut). However, when this fare gets served up in this country, we’re all going to recognize the fact that there’s something essential missing here.

Proper Proportions:

One day, Grandma made a mistake. After the first batch had cooled and she had poured two glasses of milk for us, we smiled at one another and grandma nodded, giving me the green light to grab the first warm cookie. She did the same. It took grandma all of ten seconds to figure out that there was something wrong. The vanilla was stale. She looked at me and said, “Well Billy, it’s back to square one.” With that, she tossed the first batch of cookies on the sheet and the entire bowl of cookie dough in the garbage. The vanilla we had used had been in grandma’s cupboard far too long. She gave me the empty chip package and a few bucks to go to the store and get a new bottle.

Myth # 4 – They will go back – I am amused at the recipes for U.S. immigration reform that suggest the undocumented immigrants presently in the U.S. will simply return to their country of origin, as long as we create policy here that maintains their existence as less flavorful than it can be. There is absolutely no factual basis for such a claim. There’s no way that you can pluck the vanilla out that is already baked in the recipe. The vast majority of undocumented immigrants who reside in the U.S. are here to stay. Face it. Perhaps we should focus on the truth that our responsibility is to create a more fruitful nation by virtue of their addition to our national recipe. Their addition should be viewed as refreshing, essential ingredient rather than an element that makes the whole batch bad. That’s how the U.S. treated my grandma when she came here via Ellis Island. Maybe we should stick with the original recipe?

Myth # 5 – Ignore Them and They’ll Go Away – Grandma taught me that if you make a less than satisfactory batch of cookies, the best thing to do is start over rather than cook up the whole batch and hope enough people stomach the bad batch to make your effort worthwhile. Recipes for U.S. immigration policy reform must be mindful of the same. Bad, piecemeal policy does not contribute to a palatable solution for all concerned. Besides, it damages the reputation of the cook. Ignoring the need for a comprehensive solution is the only recipe for a tasteful, enduring solution.

Myth # 6 – Round em up and send em back – This is a position taken by the neo-con Center for Immigration Studies in a May 2005 report.[ii] Imagine me and my grandma attempting to extract the vanilla in the dough and bring it back to the store for a refund. It’s ridiculous. There’s no way you can do this. Particularly when you’re talking about human beings and a moral approach to this matter. The recipe for the soul of this nation is comprised of a multiplicity of ingredients that have been passed down from generation to generation. There are shameful periods of history in this country when we have attempted to discard certain ingredients; the Japanese-American internment camps in WWII, segregation, the right to vote and dissent during Vietnam and Watergate. Let’s not repeat the same, historical, shameful mistakes of this country that many would like to forget. Let’s step up to our responsibility that we have left this essential ingredient in the cupboard far too long. It’s not the vanilla’s fault.

The Presentation:

Grandma was always proud when she would bring out her neatly arranged platter of cookies after we had finished our family’s Sunday supper together. She always whispered to me, “No matter how you package it, it’s what’s inside that counts Billy.”

Myth # 7– Package it Properly and It Will Sell – Come on America! Haven’t we tired of this myth yet? Let’s make sure that the fare we serve up in the U.S. immigration policy reform effort is one that is based upon tasteful substance, rather than a palatable appearance.

Summary

My grandma’s cookies warmed more hearts and put more smiles on faces in this nation than anything I can think of. Other than our family members, she usually brought them to folks who had been hit by some sort of trauma in life. Oftentimes, the people who enjoyed her fare didn’t even know her. Grandma didn’t know them either.

Grandma cooked up stuff because it was the right thing to do. Every batch was made with the same portions of loving care. Let’s follow grandma’s recipe shall we?

NOTES:

[ii] http://www.cis.org/articles/2005/back605.html

Immi-doption or Immi-bortion

bill — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 19:00:04 +0000

Immi-doption or Immi-bortion

Within the Womb of The U.S. Immigration Policy Reform Debate

We’re pregnant America!

“Adoption NOT Abortion” screamed the intensely illuminated red billboard against the black darkness of a Colorado night. Who says you can’t be startled out of a profound state of travel exhaustion while seated in the back of an empty shuttle bus on the way to your hotel?

The shock of it all sent my mind whirling through the relationship between the arguments supporting the right to life v. right to choose debate, and the current national dialogue concerning U.S. immigration policy reform. Yeah, I know. I don’t understand why my brain works like that either. Here’s what I’ve come up with:

Divine creation: Illegal immigrants and any human fetus are Divinely created. The left might disagree with the right on this.

Equal value: Both the fetus and the illegal immigrant are of equal value in the eyes of our Creator. I guess the left and the right may have some trouble with this one.

Legality: Illegal acts create human fetuses and illegal immigrants alike. Some fetuses are created by a criminal act (rape, incest and statutory rape). Undocumented immigrants residing in the U.S. have either crossed our borders illegally, or have illegally extended their stay here beyond the date of their visa expiration. There appears to be a unanimous consensus on this point.

Right to Choose: The question about whether a human being has the right to choose to abort a Divinely created human being, no matter how it was created (legally, or otherwise) is a central issue. The political right would say that there is no choice…the fetus must be treated as a Divinely created child of God. The left takes the position that the womb within which the fetus resides is the party empowered to choose. As it relates to the choice of dealing with the illegal immigrant, it appears the left and right have reversed their respective right to choose positions on this one.

Consent: Pregnancy can occur with, or without consent. Consensual or otherwise, the political right says: “There is no choice. We must embrace the Divinely created.” Those on the left maintain that the owner of the womb possesses the choice. We can all agree illegal immigration is not consensual between the parties. Yet, once again, it appears the left and right have swapped positions again on the consent issue when you substitute an illegal immigrant for a fetus.

The “choice” becomes one of abortion (exterminating the Divinely created), or embracing the pregnant reality with the only choice of compassion that our Creator expects (adoption). Whether the pregnancy is accidental, unplanned, unwanted, inconvenient, costly or burdensome is immaterial to the position supported by the political right. Whether one has been impregnated by a lover, acquaintance or a stranger is also irrelevant for those on the right.

Here’s how it all shakes out in a tabular presentation:

Abortion Immigration

Issue	Left	Right	Left	Right
Divine Creation	Not Necessarily	Yes	Yes	Not Necessarily
Equal Value	Not Necessarily	Yes	Yes	Not Necessarily
Legality	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Right to Choose	Yes	No	No	Yes
Consent	Yes	No	No	Yes
Abortion	Yes	No	No	Yes
Adoption	Choice	Yes No Choice	Yes	No

It is a tragedy that the principles that under gird the position of the right and the left on the abortion v. adoption issue are somehow reversed when those same principles are illuminated against the backdrop of the ongoing U.S. immigration policy reform dialogue. We seem to have “flip-flopped.” The present state of the immigration policy reform debate is focused on birth control; preventing any unwanted future pregnancies from occurring. For some reason, the elements that comprise the present policy pill have lost their effectiveness (It really hasn’t worked for years. Don’t tell anybody. Neither party in the U.S. Congress is courageous or dumb enough to take the responsibility for this failure. At this time, I’m not sure we’re currently willing to risk the cost of creating a legitimate solution either). The condom policies we have relied upon for protection are porous.

Birth control issues aside, how long will we continue to be in a state of denial, flip-flopping over the right to life issue for those illegal immigrants residing within our nation’s bulging belly?

We’re pregnant America! It’s too late for chastity belt considerations. The outcome of the present immigration policy reform debate in The U.S. is an opportunity to demonstrate the character of this nation to the world family. Is it the children of the present reality or the parent-nation who must reform? Will we embrace them through adoption or abort them?

How shall we choose?

Hispurgatory

bill — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 18:30:30 +0000

From a purely historical standpoint, the plight of undocumented Hispanic immigrants residing in the U.S. can be accurately characterized by the term Hispurgatory: A moment in U.S. history when the resident, undocumented Latino immigrant population is caught in a state of legal limbo. Their standard of living is typically well below the official poverty level. Their daily existence is one of endurance and survival. They are motivated by the hope that their service to this country as upstanding, creative, contributing, law abiding residents will be rewarded someday with legitimate, official acceptance by the government of the Promised Land.

For these Latinos, the hope for citizenship in the U.S. is heaven. Visions of better jobs, education, healthcare, housing, protections against discrimination, racism, the ability to be all one can be, to contribute to the United States economy and culture on an equal footing…these are the elements of their hope. The country they departed was, at least, economically oppressive. If the prospects for a better life for their families in their country of origin was without hope, then, that is hell. Hope led them here. Hope keeps them here. They hope that we will awaken from our self-righteous indignation and accept them formally into this, the Promised Land. Until then, they remain among us, their lives suspended precariously between heaven and hell, in a state of Hispurgatory.

Getting In

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always wanted to speak to somebody who has actually lived in either heaven or hell. I haven’t met either yet (although I’ve met people in both categories that, in my opinion, belong in one or the other). However, I have met a vast number of people who presently reside in Hispurgatory. Let me tell you about one.

Juan (not his real name) lives in Santa Ana, CA. He came to the U.S. when he was 8 years old along with his 3 year old sister in 1991. He can remember the squalor they lived in the Saravia Michoacan region of Mexico, some two hours inland from Guadalajara. The family inhabited a one-room shack. The windows were just uncovered holes in the wall. The room had a dirt floor. There was no plumbing. Juan’s mom stayed home to care for the 5 children. Dad worked from sun up to sundown. The family would wait for dad to get home at night so they could eat dinner together. Most nights, dinner consisted of one tortilla each. Juan recalls the nights, too numerous to count, that his father gave his tortilla to his baby sister who crawled onto dad’s lap at suppertime.

Juan’s mother and father have been married for 30 years. His father entered the U.S. 28 years ago, living with his older brother in Santa Ana, working as a landscaper. Dad sent money to the family in Mexico every month from the U.S. Mom would visit dad in the U.S. once a year or so and shortly thereafter, would give birth to a new child in Mexico.

The first time Juan met his father in-person, he was 8 years old. Mom and dad decided that they wanted their children to have a better future by obtaining an education in the U.S. Dad had returned to Mexico with U.S. birth certificates from Juan’s uncle’s two children that matched the ages for Juan and his 3 year old sister. Juan distinctly recalls the horrific screams and crying from his other brothers and sisters when they realized they would have to remain with mom in Mexico, rather than accompanying dad, Juan and his baby sister back to the U.S. Dad and mom promised the family that they would all be together in the U.S. within two years. It took four. The coyotes had raised their prices to U.S. $1,500.00 per person and it took the family two extra years to save the ransom.

Today, Juan is 22 years old. He remembers holding his father’s hand as they walked through U.S. customs in Tijuana when he was 8. He recalls his mother carrying his three-year old sister in her arms in front of him. This sister is 17 now. Nobody ever asked Juan or his sister to consent to this action. They were too young to argue with mom or dad. Juan lives with his parents and three sisters in an apartment in Santa Ana. Their rent is $950 per month. Mom continues to care for the children. His dad still works in landscaping where he brings home $320 per week (weather permitting…do the math). They have moved only once within Santa Ana since arriving in the U.S. The motivation to move occurred when Juan’s brother was shot four times while standing on the balcony of their apartment, in a random, drive-by shooting. Juan’s father missed filing for citizenship prior to the 1986 cut-off. Dad has a work-permit today, sponsored by his employer. They don’t have any medical insurance. Juan’s 5-year old sister has suffered from heart problems requiring 2 major surgeries. She needs another one but they just don’t have the money.

The Awakening – Liberty and Justice For All

Juan completed all his education in the Santa Ana school district. He is the first person in his family ever to graduate from high school. During high school, Juan received numerous academic awards as the top student in his class in Spanish, Planning and Compter Graphic Design and an award for perfect high school attendance. (Noteworthy as the drop-out rate for Latinos in Santa Ana high schools is about 50%). He graduated from high school with honors. He graduated early.

He has never been arrested and doesn’t have a fake Driver’s license, social security card or birth certificate. He takes the bus everywhere he needs to go. He has never driven a car. He has made money distributing flyers, doing odd jobs and babysitting for neighbors and doing some filing a few hours a week at a law office.

It was reciting the pledge of allegiance one morning for the umpteenth time in high school that Juan realized that something was wrong. “When I said, ‘with liberty and justice for all,’ it dawned on me; all my efforts in school might be for nothing if something doesn’t happen to change my situation. I became confused, angry and depressed. Liberty and justice were for some.” Shortly after this awakening, Juan was unable to join his classmates on a field trip to Ensenada. He couldn’t join a friend and his family on a vacation trip to another state by airplane. He couldn’t take the test to get a permit to drive. He couldn’t get a real job like many of his high school classmates. He was in Hispurgatory.

This spring, Juan will receive his Bachelor’s degree from a four-year university in southern California. Most of the financial support he received for college was donated by a local church, as he does not qualify for federally funded student financial aid programs. Once again, he is graduating with honors. Juan wants to be an elementary school teacher. He completed his student teaching with first graders in a local elementary school. “It’s what I was created to do,” he says. He recently tried to sign-up to take the California teachers exam. They wouldn’t let him. He doesn’t have a social security number.

Now What?

“I want my younger sisters to continue to see me as a role-model.” Juan’s 17 year-old sister has a 3.8 GPA and is ready to graduate from high school. She faces the same challenges as Juan. “I need to be here for her; to encourage her to press on in the face of the hopelessness and confusion of it all. My biggest fears are that I won’t be able to teach here in the U.S., I won’t get the opportunity for citizenship here and that I will be deported. The U.S. Government should allow people like me and my sister to become citizens. We’ve earned. They should allow us to serve in the U.S. military too. I wish Latino celebrities like Jennifer Lopez, Arte Moreno (owner of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim major league baseball team), Ricki Martin, Dahlia and Alex Rodriguez (New York Yankees) would get together and advocate for the resolution of all this. I would, if I were in their position. This is my country.”

Juan is considering the continuing his education, obtaining his Master’s degree. He doesn’t know who would help him out financially. His life, his future are suspended in a state of legal limbo. This is Hispurgatory.

So What?

There are millions of Juan’s in the United States today. As I read my Bible, it is the plight of the Juan’s of the world where the rubber of good news of the Gospel must meet the road. As theologian Thomas Merton wrote, “We must never overlook the fact that the message of the Bible is above all a message preached to the poor, the burdened, the oppressed, the underprivileged.“(1)

For those living in Hispurgatory in the United States today, they are people occupying space where there seems to be no room. As Merton says: “Into this world, this demented inn, in which there is absolutely no room for Him at all, Christ has come uninvited. But because He cannot be at home in it, because He is out of place in it, and yet He must be in it. His place is with those others for whom there is no room. His place is with those who do not belong, who are rejected by power because they are regarded as weak, those who are discredited, who are denied the status of persons, tortured, or exterminated. With those for whom there is no room, Christ is present in this world.” (3)

Yes, we do have a moral crisis in the United States today. Part of this crisis is caused and perpetuated by those who claim the name of Christ, sit on the sidelines, and shout at the Juan’s in this country. “The moral crisis that we are facing in this country is crying out for spiritual leadership. It offers evangelicals the opportunity to put our faith to work-to roll up our sleeves and become players instead of sitting on the sidelines.” (3)

“It is time that we demand more of ourselves as Christians. We are the hands and feet of Jesus Christ, and if the world is going to see, feel, and touch him, it will have to be through us.”(4) It’s time that the Christian community repents, takes the leadership role and opens the door to the cell of those imprisoned within Hispurgatory in the United States.

Let them in America! It’s God’s grace we are shutting out.

Bibliography & Notes

Hispanimation

bill — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 18:13:37 +0000

U.S. Immigration Policy Issues Remain Up In The Air

‘Hispanimation‘

Movies are a welcome escape for me. When the lights come down and the big screen lights up in front of me, I am transported to an artificial place that provides a respite from the reality of it all. Have you ever noticed the one thing that is certain from one movie theater to the next? No matter where the movie has taken you, when they turn on the lights, everybody’s still in the same seat they were in when the lights went off. This state of suspended animation keeps us in our places and keeps us quiet. It’s unreal!

For the Eduardo and Lola Lopez family, as well as millions of other undocumented Hispanics residing in the U.S., their position in our society remains in a state of Hispanimation: Each night Eduardo dutifully turns out the lights after tucking in his family of six daughters and one son for the night. As he lies down next to Lola, Eduardo drifts off to sleep and dreams of the day when this country will awaken to our responsibility to bestow the dignity, liberty and equality his family has earned by residing in Santa Ana, CA over the past twelve years. As the morning dawns, Eduardo’s dreams are interrupted again. He rises from his bed to see four daughters sleeping in one bunk bed and two daughters and his son sharing the other. Lola rolls onto her side on the mattress they share on the floor. Eduardo closes his eyes for a moment to wipe away the tears with the back of his right hand. Nothing’s changed. Everybody is in the same position they were in when the lights went off. It’s real!

A New Vocabulary

One thing’s for certain: This is the reality of living the continuing nightmare for millions of undocumented Hispanic immigrants in the U.S. Needless to say, the public policy pundits become quite animated over this issue. The “revision” of U.S. immigration policy by the Bush administration has effectively kept everybody in the same seat. I am convinced that politicians use terms that most people cannot understand for the purposes of a) pretending to understand things they really don’t have a clue about b) if I can’t spell a word you are using to describe a situation, I am going to believe you know better than I what the heck is going on. Politicians are empowered by this. Joe and Sally Citizen become bystanders. c) This creates a scenario whereby people like me become unwittingly excluded from the dialogue altogether, thereby elevating the possibility that we will leave it up to public policy professionals to figure it out for us.

My point is our focus on doing the right thing is obfuscated by the vocabulary that populates U.S. public policy debates regarding immigration reform. Consider a few of the following terms presently in use; “geopolitical tilt, national security considerations, political capital, constituency, multi-national economic integration, systematic policy integration considerations, socio-economic equanimity analysis, supply-side labor dynamics, equanimity, international cooperation, multi-national strategic geo-political encumbrances and, of course, a coalition of the willing.” Do you really know what these terms mean? If so, in regard to the implications for resolving the present deficiencies in U.S. immigration policy, can you tell me how we can balance our national security concerns with the geo-political economic instability we might create for the Mexican government? Of course you can’t! Guess what? Nobody can. This debate just keeps going round and round and everybody stays in the same seat. It’s all part of Hispanimation: the dialogue is entertaining and maintains your position as an uninvolved bystander; a spectator…just like at the movies.

The problem with all this is that Eduardo, Lola and their family are not characters in a movie. They can’t afford to even go to a movie. We need a new vocabulary to inject into this debate that we common folks can understand. Can you spell Eduardo? Can you pronounce Lola? Can you imagine waking up every morning as determined, heartbroken and hopeful that somehow, someway you can earn enough money today to feed your family tonight? Now imagine that you cannot talk about your plight for fear of being detained and deported back to a country that your children cannot even remember departing? You see, what we are talking about here are human beings whose present status and future as legitimate, honorable citizens of this nation remains suspended in mid air. It’s time to remove our heads from the cloud cover provided by the useless vocabulary of the public policy pundits, and substitute some meaningful language that captures the essence of the issues, and allows us to identify who’s who in the debate. Stay with me. I’m about to turn the lights on. Let me spell it out for you.

‘Hispurgatory‘

From a purely historical standpoint, the plight of undocumented Hispanic immigrants residing in the U.S. can be accurately characterized with the term Hispurgatory: A moment in U.S. history when approximately 10% of the “undocumented” U.S. population is caught in a state of legal limbo. Their standard of living is typically well below the official poverty level. Their daily existence is one of endurance and survival. They are motivated by the hope that their service to this country as upstanding, creative, contributing, law abiding residents will be rewarded someday by legitimate, official acceptance by the government of the Promised Land. The country they departed was, at least, economically oppressive. If the prospects for a better life for their families in their country of origin was without hope, then, that is hell. They were led by hope to our borders. Our gates are open and unlocked. Hope led them here. Hope keeps them here. They hope that we will awaken from our self-righteous indignation and accept them formally into this Promised Land. Until then, they remain among us in Hispurgatory.

In August 2004, for Eduardo and Lola, their city, Santa Ana, CA has just been ranked the #1 Toughest City in the U.S. to make ends meet. They can’t afford to move. If they did, or miss their rent payment, there are people lined up to inhabit the squalor they call home. They remain in the same seat.

Eduardo is forty eight-years old. After sundown, you can find him scavenging dumpsters behind his apartment looking for cans, bottles and cardboard that he can take to a local recycler. He had a stroke last year brought on by untreated diabetes that raged out of control. He has numbness on his left side preventing him from the ordinary course mobility and stamina most of us take for granted. He cannot afford ongoing medical care. It’s not unusual for him to be without insulin at certain times of the month. He goes without insulin so his family can eat. These are some of the cruel realities of Hispanimation.

The ignorance of Joe and Sally citizen about this issue actually contributes to Hispanimation: keeping everybody in the same seat. What we need are some terms that can be used to identify both the issues in the debate, and those who espouse them. Until U.S. citizens learn to speak the language of authentic immigration reform, the family of Eduardo and Lola Lopez will not have a voice that the U.S. Senate and Congress can hear and understand.

The ‘Intimmigration’Proponents

On one side of the debate are the proponents of intimmigration. Their arguments are filled with themes of legality, protectionism, blaming the individual, fear, misplaced patriotic fervor, self-righteousness, economic considerations and national security concerns. Their focus is to intimidate their agenda upon others through fear laced arguments and innuendo. The following are some terms that characterize the essence of their position and will assist you in identifying who they are by what they say. They are typically the loudest voices, yet are careful to veil their arguments behind more moderate intonation in the mainstream media. These are the voices and viewpoints of Intimmigration that you hear most often, if you listen for them.

Latillegals – “These people are criminals by virtue of their unauthorized border crossing. It’s illegal. The entire immigration policy debate begins and ends with this one fact. Period!”

Hispanicriminals – “These illegals are robbing us blind! Most are disproportionately represented in gangs, drugs and alcohol abuse. They even drive illegally without any insurance coverage. We must do everything in our power to protect ourselves from these people.”

Latimmorals – “Entering this country illegally is immoral. These people are going to infect American society with the influences that contribute to the ongoing moral decay of this nation.”

Hispanationalsecurity – “The potential for terrorists to be among their lot is an absolute certainty. It’s just a matter of time before they attack us. I’m scared to death of these people.”

Latinomas – “Round em up and send em back where they came from! Every last one of em. You know, the internment camps during World War II did provide the country with a sense of comfort by virtue of the fact that we had our arms around the situation. No more!”

Hispaniconomic – “They’re taking our jobs, overwhelming the jails, prisons, healthcare, affordable housing and social welfare institutions that our tax dollars are supporting. This is an outrage! No wonder this country’s economic recovery is retarded.”

Latinomo – “Build the damn wall! From the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. It’s the only way we’re gonna stop the ongoing incursion by these insurgents!”

Hispanitsyourowndamnfault - “Their lot is what they deserve.”

Latinotonmywatch – “Establish a road to residency for these people? It’s not gonna happen on my watch! There isn’t a politician in the country who’s dumb enough to advocate for this. What’s this world coming to anyhow?”

Hispaniconstituency – “Just imagine if we give these people the right to vote. That will be the day when we can all pack up and move to Canada. All hell’s gonna break loose. Our nation will be overrun with foreigners.”

Latillerates – “These people are stupid and lazy. They’re sure to drag our economy down and further the decline of the U.S. in the world from a competitive standpoint. There has always been an underclass in this country that has served a purpose for the majority. They should just accept their position in our society and be grateful we don’t round em up and send em back where they came from.”

The ‘Latinocomprende’

On the other side of the debate are the ‘Latinocomprende’s.’ These are the folks who feign ignorance, a lack of understanding, indifference, ambivalence and apathy. They are also known as the Ambivalatinos.. The following are some of comments you will hear from them and the corresponding new vocabulary that might assist you in identifying who they are by what they say.

Latinapathy – “Who cares! There are vastly more important issues to address in this country. These people can wait.”

Latinoblivious – “Huh? What are you talking about?”

Latinotnow – “Every issue has it’s time and place to be resolved. Let’s get the Iraq situation behind us before we tackle issues like this?

Latinollusion – “I really can’t relate to what you’re talking about. Those people don’t live in my neighborhood.”

Latinonsense – “These people are better off now than ever before. It’s all a bunch of nonsense.”

Latinocommotion – “These people are harmless. Just leave the situation the way it is and everything will work itself out.”

Latinonlooker – “Wow! It’s really tragic. I gotta go. See ya!

Latinotmyproblem – “That’s interesting. Who’s gonna make the playoffs at the end of the season?”

Latinada - “I don’t see any solution to all this. Somebody should figure this out. When they do, they’ll let us know.”

Hispanicignorance – “Golly, I never realized this was occurring in our country.”

Conclusion:

If your sensibilities have been offended by the characterizations in this article, they should be. The vocabulary and voice of oppression and racism are abhorrent. I am able to write an article like this because I’ve heard people speak this way.

Something must change. If you have read this far in this article, I only hope that you recognize what it is that must change. It is you, it is me, it is us. We must change. Until we recognize the essence of the vocabulary that inhabits the dialogue of this debate, we cannot hope to contribute our voices to the chorus that must arise to have the hopes of the families like the Eduardo and Lola Lopez family realized. U.S. immigration policy won’t change until the Joe and Sally Citizens of our nation raise their voices on behalf of the millions of undocumented immigrants residing in our country whose lives remain suspended in a state of Hispanimation.

We are the one’s who are responsible for ridding this country of what one author has characterized as “man’s inhumanity to man.”[i] It is up to us to restore the contradiction that Hispanimation shouts to the world and solidify the reputation of our country as “the land of the free, the home of the brave, with liberty and justice for all.

I conclude with the words of former President Theodore Roosevelt:

“Until we put honor and duty first, and are willing to risk something in order to achieve righteousness both for ourselves and for others, we shall accomplish nothing; and we shall earn and deserve the contempt of the strong nations of mankind.”[ii]

The Eduardo and Lola Lopez family are deeply grateful to you. Speak up. They can’t.

[ii] Allies to Punish Turks Who Murder, New York Times, May 24 1915, p. 1

Christianimation

bill — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 00:08:18 +0000

Millions of Lives Remain Suspended in Mid-Air as the Christian Community Remains on the Sidelines

‘Christianimation‘

Movies are a welcome escape for me. When the lights come down and the big screen lights up in front of me, I am transported to an artificial place that provides a respite from the reality of it all. Have you ever noticed the one thing that is certain from one movie to the next? No matter where the movie has taken you, when they turn on the lights, everybody’s still in the same seat they were in when the lights went off. This state of suspended animation keeps us in our places and keeps us quiet. It’s unreal!

For the Eduardo and Lola Lopez family, as well as millions of other undocumented Hispanics residing in the U.S., their position in our society remains in a state of Hispanimation: Each night Eduardo dutifully turns out the lights after tucking in his family of six daughters and one son for the night. As he lies down next to Lola, Eduardo drifts off to sleep and dreams of the day when this country will awaken to our responsibility to bestow the dignity, liberty and equality his family has earned by residing in Santa Ana, CA over the past twelve years. As the morning dawns, Eduardo’s dreams are interrupted again. He rises from his bed to see four daughters sleeping in one bunk bed, while two daughters and his son share the other. Lola rolls onto her side on the mattress they share on the floor. Eduardo closes his eyes for a moment to wipe away the tears with the back of his right hand. Nothing’s changed. Everybody is in the same position they were in when the lights went off. It’s real!

The mainstream Christian witness in the U.S. has become vastly too comfortable sitting in their seats, watching the social policy debates rage across our television screens, newspapers and radios. As a group, the U.S. Christian community has delegated their voice to pulpits, special interest groups and media outlets who supposedly represent our interests. We have succumbed to a state of Christianimation: We have become comfortable as armchair spectators in U.S. public policy debates rather than the passionate activists on behalf of the oppressed, impoverished and marginalized in our world, as fully-devoted servants of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Although many social justice issues may garner our intellectual and heartfelt interest, we remain seated, watching the entertainment roll by. We are in a state of Christianimation.

On December 1, 1955 an African American woman named Rosa Parks refused to stand, give up her seat and move to the back of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama. She was arrested and jailed. However, “God comes into the picture even when the church won’t take a stand.”[i] This one act by a marginalized woman provided the catalyst for the Christian community in Montgomery to rise from the seat of tolerating the intolerable, to following a vision only our God could design.

God has a vision for the mainstream Christian community in the U.S. One author characterizes it as follows: “Let me be very clear about God’s vision: It is probably not what you expect. It typically is counterintuitive because God refuses to be limited be his creation. It is not based on human consensus; his vision will stir intense emotion and debate, causing some people to seek other places through which they can serve him more comfortably while energizing others. His vision comes at a high cost because it demands significant personal change, fulfilled only with great effort, produces results in the long term, and necessitates teams of people working together rather than individuals doing their thing in isolation. And his vision is not based on incremental improvement of other’s ideas; his organizing concept for you is fresh and customized to your situation. Humankind cannot fathom the depths of God; neither can his vision be minimized by our limitations.”[ii]

A New Vocabulary

Rosa Parks injected a new word into the vocabulary of the embryonic stage of the U.S. civil rights movement: “No, I won’t. I’m taking a stand.” Needless to say, the public policy pundits become quite animated over the issue of illegal immigration. The “revision” of U.S. immigration policy by the present administration has effectively kept everybody in the same seat. I am convinced that politicians use terms that most people cannot understand for the purposes of: a) pretending to understand things they really don’t have a clue about b) if we can’t spell a word they’re using to describe a situation, we are going to believe they know better than we do, in terms of what the heck is going on. Politicians are empowered by this. Joe and Sally Christian become bystanders. c) This creates a scenario whereby most Christians become unwittingly excluded from the dialogue altogether, thereby elevating the possibility that we will leave it up to public policy professionals to figure it out for us.

My point is our focus on doing the right thing is obfuscated by the vocabulary that populates U.S. public policy debates regarding immigration, and other social policy issues. Consider a few of the following terms presently in use; “geopolitical tilt, national security considerations, political capital, constituency, multi-national economic integration, systematic policy integration considerations, socio-economic equanimity analysis, supply-side labor dynamics, equanimity, international cooperation, multi-national strategic geo-political encumbrances and, of course, a coalition of the willing.” Do you really know what these terms mean? If so, in regard to the implications for resolving the present deficiencies in U.S. immigration policy, can you tell me how we can balance our national security concerns with the geo-political economic instability we might create for the Mexican government? Of course you can’t! Guess what? Nobody can. This debate just keeps going round and round and everybody stays in the same seat. It’s all part of Christianimation: the dialogue is entertaining and maintains your position as an uninvolved bystander; a spectator…just like at the movies.

The problem with all this is that Eduardo, Lola and their family are not characters in a movie. They can’t afford to go to a movie. We need a new vocabulary to inject into this debate that the everyday Christian can understand. Can you spell Eduardo? Can you pronounce Lola? Can you imagine waking up every morning as determined, heartbroken and hopeful that somehow, someway you can earn enough money today to feed your family tonight? Now imagine that you cannot talk about your plight for fear of being detained and deported back to a country that your children cannot even remember departing? You see, what we are talking about here are human beings, children of God, whose present status and future as legitimate, honorable citizens of this nation remains suspended in mid air.

It’s time to remove our heads from the cloud cover provided by the useless vocabulary of the public policy pundits. We need to develop and inject some meaningful language that captures the essence of the issues and allows you to identify who’s who in the debate. You can become a Christian who has regained his/her Spirit filled passion to act and advocate on behalf of the poor, the oppressed and the marginalized in this society, and our world. You can become a Christian who enters ‘recovery’ from the disease of Christianimation. Stay with me. I’m about to turn the lights on. Let me spell it out for you.

**‘Hispurgatory ‘**

From a purely historical standpoint, the plight of undocumented Hispanic immigrants residing in the U.S. can be accurately characterized with the term Hispurgatory: A moment in U.S. history when approximately 5% of the U.S. population is caught in a state of legal limbo. Their standard of living is typically well below the official poverty level. Their daily existence is one of endurance and survival. They are motivated by the hope that their service to this country as upstanding, creative, contributing, law abiding residents will be rewarded someday by legitimate, official acceptance by the government of the Promised Land. The country they departed was, at least, economically oppressive. If the prospects for a better life for their families in their country of origin was without hope, then, that is hell. They were led by hope to our borders. We left the gates open and unlocked. Hope led them here. Hope keeps them here. They hope that we will awaken from our self-righteous indignation and accept them formally into this Promised Land. Until then, they remain among us in Hispurgatory.

For Eduardo and Lola, their city, Santa Ana, CA has just been ranked the #1 Toughest City in the U.S. to make ends meet.[iii] They can’t afford to move. If they did, or miss their rent payment, there are people lined up to inhabit the squalor they call home. They remain in the same seat.

However, undocumented Hispanic immigrants in the U.S. cannot raise their voices for fear of arrest and deportation. Who shall speak up for them? As one author points out: “There is no theme more deep in American consciousness than that of the transplanted person who comes to participate in the American experiment and who succeeds in the land of the free.”[iv]

The New Testament has some advice for those suffering from Christianimation. In the first chapter of Acts, Jesus has ascended into heaven. His disciples stood motionless. “10They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11″Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky?”[v]

This advice is as pertinent for His disciples today as it was when it was spoken: “Stop gawking at the sky and get on with what I have asked you to do.” We must change our posture.

KABOOM!

Advocating and serving the poor, the oppressed and the marginalized in our society and our world is the overlooked opportunity for mainstream Christianity in the U.S. to rise from the lethargy of Christianimation. We must repent and renew our dedication to move outward from ourselves as the only vessels available to carry the love of Christ to a lost world. As one author says: “Obviously, we cannot be a demonstration to the past; and it can be only partially through our writings and our works that we leave a demonstration to the future, though there should be an accumulative demonstration, rolling up like a snowball through the centuries. But, primarily, every Christian is to be a demonstration at his own point of history and to his own generation.”[vi]

We were made to be accountable to our Creator. He’s asking; “How’s it goin? How ya doin? How’s everybody? What’s goin on? Wassup?” He’s not interested in responses that are full of superficial, impersonal niceties like; “Uh, we dunno, awful, fine I guess, Uh Oh, mediocre, okay, wonderful, awesome and fantastic?” Our God is interested in results. Consider the following from C.S. Lewis:

“Fine feelings, new insights, greater interest in ‘religion’ mean nothing unless they make our actual behaviour better; just as in illness, ‘feeling better’ is not much good if the thermometer shows that your temperature is still going up. In that sense the outer world is quite right to judge Christianity by its results. Christ told us to judge by results…Our careless lives set the outer world talking; and we give them grounds for talking in a way that throws doubt on the truth of Christianity.”[vii]

How do you behave when you know somebody is monitoring your progress by virtue of the results you produce? You cannot graduate from high school or college without accumulating satisfactory grades and credits. You cannot have standings or winners and losers in sport unless somebody keeps score! Christians in the U.S. have wandered from the biblical truth that our results matter and, as Francis Schaeffer says, our Christian behavior is under constant scrutiny:

“It is the idea of the theater; we are on a stage being observed. He (Apostle Paul) says here that the supernatural universe is not far off, and that while the real battle is in the heavenlies, our part is not unimportant at all, because it is being observed by the unseen world. It is like a one-way mirror. We are under observation.” [viii]

In my community, a mega-church has an outreach ministry in a poverty ravaged, gang infested, predominantly Hispanic neighborhood. This church has a reported weekend attendance of around 10,000. On Tuesday’s, Hispanic children between the ages 8 and 12 begin placing their coats on the sidewalk in the “pick-up” area of their neighborhood around 3:00PM in the afternoon. They are reserving their place in line to be placed with a volunteer driver who arrives at 6:00PM to take them to a weekly Kid’s Club activity. On most days, there are more kids walking home with their coats at 6:20PM than there are in the cars with volunteer Christian drivers.

In speaking with one of the volunteer drivers, tears trickle from beneath his sunglasses as he asks: “Don’t they know Jesus is weeping about this? Where is everybody? What are those kids thinking as they grab their coats, hang their heads and return home? Are we really doing something constructive for Christ here or are we shooting Him in the heart? Don’t our people understand that He is watching all this?”

As stated in the quote in the first paragraph of this section, how can the Christian community in American society today respond to the statement that our progress can be characterized as an accumulative demonstration, rolling up like a snowball through the centuries? As individual disciples of Christ, have we lost sight of the importance of the biblical truth that “faith without works is dead?” Have we succumbed to the illusion that the grace, mercy, forgiveness and the love of Christ that provides us with a free pass to eternity in heaven is all that really matters? KABOOM!

This article is designed to provide you with the essential KABOOM! required to turn your attention to the voice of Jesus whispering: “You matter. Your life matters. I have more in store for you as My disciple than you have been led to believe. Follow Me. Allow Me to reveal dimensions of Myself to you that will reinvigorate your thirst for Me, transform you and the world around you. I am the God of More, much More. I need you to serve Me in ways I can teach you, if you’re willing. Come to Me my child. Join Me to personally and more deeply participate in the progress of My kingdom. The harvest is plenty but the workers are few. It is time to awaken and rediscover your willingness to rekindle your love for Me. Together we can participate in the joyous triumph of creating an accumulative demonstration, rolling up like a snowball through the centuries.”

Eduardo is forty eight-years old. After sundown, you can find him scavenging dumpsters behind his apartment looking for cans, bottles and cardboard that he can take to a local recycler. He had a stroke last year brought on by untreated diabetes that raged out of control. He has numbness on his left side preventing him from the ordinary course mobility and stamina most of us take for granted. He cannot afford ongoing medical care. It’s not unusual for him to be without insulin at certain times of the month. He goes without insulin so his family can eat. KABOOM! There are likely hundreds of families like the Lopez family within any urban community who would truly appreciate a helping hand.

For Eduardo and Lola Lopez, the immigration policy paradox has implications within their own family. Three of their daughters were whisked across the border with them twelve years ago. Since that time, they added three sisters, born in the U.S.. Thus, you have three sisters that are legally considered Chillegals (children of undocumented, illegal immigrants) and three are U.S. citizens. All six children come from the same two parents, yet their legal status and prospects for contributing to mainstream American society are distinctly different. Their oldest daughter recently graduated from high school in the top 3% of her class. By virtue of her Chillegal status, she cannot get a legitimate job to help pay her way through college, cannot participate in paid internship programs in her field of study, is unable to join her classmates traveling by air to conferences, cannot get a drivers license to get to campus, and does not qualify for any sort of student loans. Imagine your six children walking to school together. Three of them are carefree. The other three keep looking over their shoulders wondering if Immigration and Naturalization Service field agents are in the neighborhood. KABOOM! This is not the level playing field described in Scripture. It is an opportunity for the Christian community to become actively involved in ridding this society of biblically proscribed oppression.

As stated in Scripture: Zechariah 7: 8And the word of the LORD came again to Zechariah: 9″This is what the LORD Almighty says: `Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. 10Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the alien or the poor. In your hearts do not think evil of each other.’ 11

The ‘Intimmigration’Proponents

As it relates to U.S. immigration policy, on one side of the debate are the proponents of intimmigration. Their arguments are filled with themes of legality, protectionism, blaming the individual, fear, misplaced patriotic fervor, self-righteousness, economic considerations and national security concerns. The following are some terms that characterize the essence of their position and will assist you in identifying who they are by what they say. They are typically the loudest voices, yet are careful to veil their arguments behind more moderate intonation in the mainstream media. These are the voices and viewpoints that you hear most often, if you listen for them. As you read the following, try to identify the voice of Jesus as He speaks about the alien, the poor and needy, and the oppressed in the New Testament. If you’re like me, I don’t believe you will be able to recognize His voice.

Latillegals – “These people are criminals by virtue of their unauthorized border crossing. It’s illegal. The entire immigration policy debate begins and ends with this one fact. Period!”

Latimmorals – “Entering this country illegally is immoral. These people are going to infect American society with the influences that contribute to the ongoing moral decay of this nation.”

Latinomo – “Build the damn wall! From the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. It’s the only way we’re gonna stop the ongoing incursion by these insurgents!”

Hispanitsyourowndamnfault - “Their lot is what they deserve.”

Conclusion:

Something must change. If you have read this far in this article, I only hope that you recognize what it is that must change. It is you, it is me, it is us. We must change. Until we recognize the essence of the vocabulary that inhabits the dialogue of the debates on public policy issues in the U.S. that involve the poor and needy, and contrast those voices with the truth revealed in Scripture, we shall remain victims of Christianimation. We cannot hope to contribute our voices and actions to the chorus and efforts that must be heard and seen to have the hopes of the families like the Eduardo and Lola Lopez family realized. U.S. immigration policy won’t change until the Joe and Sally Christians of our nation raise their voices on behalf of the millions of undocumented immigrants residing in our country whose lives remain suspended in a state of Hispanimation. We have the keys to release the oppressed from Hispurgatory. Yet, we must rise from the posture of complacency to free God’s children from their cells.

We need a new posture within the Christian community in the U.S. Our future depends upon it, as one author says: “The future depends on God and on His people who will hear Him, believe Him, and obey Him.”[ix]

The purpose of this article is to expose the disease of Christianimation that has infected the Christian community in the U.S. Our advocacy on behalf of, and service to, the poor and needy within our respective communities represents the litmus test for our obedience to the cause of Christ. It is an important ingredient in our inoculation for this disease.

Furthermore, I have attempted to clarify the voices that populate the dialogue of the U.S. immigration policy debate. Do these voices sound like the voice of Jesus Christ? I think not. We are the one’s who are responsible for ridding this country of what one author has characterized as “man’s inhumanity to man.”[x] It is up to us to expunge the contradiction that Christianimation in the U.S. shouts to the world, and solidify the reputation of our faith and our country as “the land of the free, the home of the brave, with liberty and justice for all.

I conclude with the words of former President Theodore Roosevelt:

The Eduardo and Lola Lopez family are deeply grateful to you. Speak up. Get involved. They can’t. Become a Christian who is ‘in recovery’ from Christianimation.

KABOOM! He’s counting on you. The Good News is that the Christian life is not about just changing, but changing for the better. Progress begins with Him and includes you.

Isn’t it about time you re-dedicated your life to this truth?

NOTES:

[iii] Montiel, Lisa – Nathan, Richard – Wright, David An Update on Urban Hardship, August 2004 (c) 2004 by The Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, State University of New York p. 4 www.rockinst.org

[xi] Allies to Punish Turks Who Murder, New York Times, May 24 1915, p. 1