how dare we?

Yesterday was another day to Stand On Every Corner, and, for the first time in a new location, I stood alone.

I’ve done it alone at the other location, and I don’t mind it. I have a nice little playlist on Spotify (#Resistance) and I sort of get lost in my thoughts, waving when people yell or honk. Today I got a lot more “Build the wall!” Which is a bummer. Because this could be me. It could be you.

I wish I could understand how people could be behind the current immigration practices, and I’ve been struggling all night to think of something to say about this.

Luckily, one of the blogs I follow, Note to My White Self, penned a post that does a good job distilling the immigration debate and what’s so absurd and simple about it. The purpose of a wall to simply make it easier to both ignore and inflict pain on the Other, in this case, immigrants.

My fellow Americans, I can say with almost guaranteed certainty that we did nothing to earn our citizenship.

Noth-ing.

It is the grace of our Creator that put us right here, and if They didn’t and I was being threatened in my home like the migrants on our Southern border, of course I would try to get safe. Get my daughter safe. If your child was threatened, you would move heaven and Earth to keep them safe – that’s parenting.

How fucking dare we? Especially when, and here’s the real kicker, oft forgotten: the United States played a huge ass part in the government unrest of Central America. Maybe we thought we were doing the right thing at the time, I don’t know. But the ripple effect of our past policies led to this; how dare we play ignorant to this?