I've been thinking about workers, capitalism, immigration rights, latinos (which is what we mean when we talk about problems of immigration--we don't worry about any other people group, I suppose), and human rights. We attended Amnesty International's national conference today, which was in downtown Portland, because we wanted to ally ourselves with a group that's recognizing the injustices being done in this world, and looking for solutions. Paul was at a workshop about the kidnap and killing of women and children in Juarez, Mexico, and some were talking about that "we know who is doing it--we just need to lock them up." Is that really the solution, though? Can we just divide the world up into bad guys and good guys?
Pretty close to the beginning of this blog I wrote about the epiphany I had while watching Roots. That it's not just the oppressed that suffers when there is oppression--the oppressors are also hurt. I don't know what the answers are to immigration, but I do know that we are all hurt by the treatment of Latinos in this country. People are not expendable. We don't come out ahead by treating people as if they are. We are all hurt when there are people who work for 2 dollars an hour and live with the fear of being deported at any time. It's when we don't see the connection between us and the rest of the world that we are all hurt by the disconnect. When we buy "cheap" at Walmart or anywhere else, we are hurting "them" and we are hurting "us." What is cheap? Cheap means someone else works hard and doesn't get their labor appreciated. We don't have the right to have our produce for such an inexpensive price, which costs immigrant workers so much.
I had heard some of the uprising of the latino community over the immigration bill that was put forth in congress at the time, making it illegal to even aid an undocumented immigrant. But when I heard the voices on the radio, the gatherings of the teenagers whose parents would be the ones affected by this, the teens who would pay the price for this, it did my heart good. Because we can try to do for them, we can try to make the world a just place for them, but we can only go so far with it. They need to rise up and take it for themselves. With my support (and others), but they need to do it themselves. Later, Zachary and I attended a rally in support of those who have been marginalized for so long. There will be a rally on Monday as well, which I may attend.
On Monday, May 1, many latino workers will walk off their jobs. This is in order to demand from Congress that their human rights be recognized. I happened to be looking at the website of the CSA we belonged to while in California's central valley, T and D Willey Farms, and found the following:
It appears likely that those who work on our farm will participate in a nationwide one-day work stoppage by all immigrants on Monday, May 1. If our employees withdraw from the economy this day, it will result in a one day delay in the delivery of ALL CSA BOXES for the week of May 1. We do not oppose this action and hope this inconvenience will encourage us all to demand Congress to regularize the status of immigrants upon whom we depend to feed us everyday.
Yay for the Willeys! This could mean economic setback for them, and yet they support it because it is right.
In Orthodoxy, we have the image that in every person we can see the icon of Christ, if we look hard enough. Each person is made in the image of God. Can we really look at the image of our God and treat God in such a disrespectful manner? Can we really steal the best farm land from Mexico and then tell them they are breaking our law to live here? Are we hurt in this equation too? And are we working for a solution, in the words of Jesus, to make the high places low, and the low places high? Are we working to make a just society for all?
No answers here, just lots and lots of unfocused questions.
2 comments:
While it is easy to focus on the Latino population there are by some lights as many as 40,000 illegal aliens from Ireland. The number increases dramatically when you include persons of Irish Ancestry who live under British Rule (either in the North of Ireland or on the British Mainland).
So we're not talking only about Latinos - but they do make it easy to sell news stories.
There are so many Asian immigrants (legal and illegal) in your part of the world that the Chinese president visited up there!
Huw Raphael--that's kind of my point. When I said it's Latinos we worry about when we talk about illegal immigrants, I meant that we are focusing unduly on Latinos. Chinese have in the past been exploited as well, but they seem to have integrated in this day and age and it's the Latinos who are exploited and looked upon unkindly these days.
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