I didn't think I was political
I’m imperfect. I have lots of chips and dings, scratches and dents. I’m imperfect, but I’m real. I don’t really involve myself in political issues. I tend to keep volatile feelings to myself. Just for one week, though, hear me out as to what I’m feeling. It’s close to my fast beating heart.
Many issues are boiling in my mind this week.
They are issues that I try to keep just below the surface. They come up for air every once in awhile when the strength to hold them inside dissipates. We are a land of laws, which can oft times be twisted to fit a mold. I love the land I was born in. It is a land of freedom and wishes. It is a land where you can take off in your car one day and just drive - drive to whatever messy desires are burning for you to succeed at. Many a dream has started with the decision to pack up your belongings and take off into the wild unknown.
Years ago, folks from Italy, Ireland, Germany - take your pick of countries - took off with a desire in their heart to start afresh in the United States. Most of these immigrants sailed on a boat to our shores, their names were written down in a book, and off they went to seek a better life. This is how America became the melting pot that it is. It’s a mix, a mélange, a crazy and beautiful combination of hopes and dreams stirred into one country. We are built on this heady mix of aspirations that have pushed the next generations to succeed. Somewhere along the line, we have turned into something almost unrecognizable. We are now a land that closes its borders to all but the rich. We have closed off the flow of dreams, and now focus relentlessly on making sure no one but us elite Americans live and aspire here.
They say that love is blind. I’m living proof of that. I married for love to a man from south of the border that had nothing but his love to offer me. We live a life that has to turn its eyes from those who seek to glare at it. We live proudly and have raised our children to take pride in the spirit of both of our histories. This has produced a thickened skin in all of us. Many times people will ask me, where did you get your children? After the blood recedes from my eyes, I tell them the old-fashioned way. Thoughtless questions are tucked into the recesses of my brain and are tamped down. People are sometime thoughtless – asking questions that should never be asked in polite company.
My boiling point, though, has been reached this week. The insults and discussions that are taking place on TV, the radio, or whatever format you choose – have gotten downright ugly. Normally, I listen, take it in, and decide for myself whether it’s worth listening to or not. This time, there is no choice. Leaders in a state to our west have passed a law that directly affects my family. Granted, it would affect my family should we choose to travel through said state. Once a law is passed in one state, though, another could be soon to follow. Why, you ask, does this affect my family? If my children, all born in either Millersburg or Canton, come into any contact with the law they could be asked to show papers of citizenship. Not just their driver’s license or insurance papers, but papers saying that they are citizens. Does anyone really carry their passport with them in the car? This contact could be as simple as asking an officer for directions.
They would be asked this simply because of the color of their hair and skin color – one look and you know they are of Mexican descent.
Why would this be so hard, people ask me, to simply provide your information? It’s not hard – it’s the reason WHY they would be stopping them.
The scary part is that anyone with dark hair or skin could be asked. That’s called racial profiling. It’s wrong. A necessary evil? Sometimes, maybe. Lest we forget, though, that during WW2, Hitler took people in just because of their appearance and the color of their skin. They wore the Star of David on their sleeves to signify they were Jews.
I don’t throw Hitler’s name around lightly.
Is this what we want? Do we want people to be interrogated simply because of the way they look? Being here illegally in this country is wrong – simply said. My argument is not with that. If you get stopped for running a red light and have no papers, then you’re caught. But stopping people on the basis of their looks? Doubly wrong.
We have lost focus as a country. Our vision has become so narrow minded and follow-the-leader-ish that some people argue about this just because everyone else does. It’s a kind of hysteria that builds as it rolls along. People are swept away by it because it’s like a tsunami carrying every thundering fear along with it.
I urge you, instead of just going with the flow, to take the time to find out what it’s really about before you jump on the bandwagon of popularity. Find out who it might touch. And it could touch many – not just those here illegally. I read an excellent article in the Plain Dealer that probably said it better than I could. Here is the link:
http://www.cleveland.com/schultz/index.ssf/2010/05/the_grand_canyon_state_is_now.html
"We hate some persons because we do not know them; and will not know them because we hate them." - Charles Caleb Colton