Asked a question about how the immigration battlefield – and it is that, for sure – is different today than it was 40 years ago when Salvadorans and Guatemalans were fleeing U.S. backed violence in their countries and asylum grants amounted to a very low percentage, I think the difference is the viciousness towards those refugees and immigrants today.
We didn’t have enormous detention centers with moldy food and the total lack of medical care. But the real question is how sympathies towards immigrants have changed. It’s not in the numbers because in the 80s there were hundreds of thousands fleeing north. Immigrants have become the scapegoats for their usefulness as a focus of displaced anger stoked by the rich and powerful to deflect the economic situation that should anger us.
Targeting as economic disparity began to grow began with the “welfare queens” of Ronald Reagan, and as economic disparity has widened, other groups are targeted. Telling Americans that immigrants are taking their jobs as veggie and fruit pickers or even roofers is beyond ridiculous but it works. Add to that a touch of racism and distortion, and, voila! You have it. We need to recognize the real culprits for they make us all victims of their greed.
Prayer for the Day
Frustrated and often angry, we come to you, O Holy One,
Seeking mercy when we do not extend it to others;
Confused and often bewildered, we seek answers
But often we are not sure of what questions to ask.
Forgive us the anger we often hide inside ourselves;
And open us to a new way of being in and caring for world.
In the name of the One who helps us to see the world,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we cannot have both.
Louis Brandeis, Supreme Court Justice, lawyer for the poor (1856-1941)
Experience demands that man is the only animal which devours his own kind, for I can apply no milder term to the general prey of the rich on the poor.
Thomas Jefferson, revolutionary, President (1743-1826)
If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?
I John 3: 17