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Strange Bedfellows: A Random Rumination on the Immigration Debate

Strange Bedfellows: A Random Rumination on the Immigration Debate

Last updated on: November 1, 2011 at 3:05 pm by James Ford

Strange Bedfellows: A Random Rumination on the Immigration Debate 2011-11-01T15:05:26-07:00 James Ford

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The recent legislative event in Arizona criminalizing illegal immigration together with a requirement for law enforcement officials to determine who looks like they might be here illegally and to ascertain whether they are, has brought the issues of immigration, legal and illegal to the forefront for many of us.

This week the Board of Trustees for the Unitarian Universalist Association has put on the agenda for our 2010 General Assembly whether to join a call to boycott Arizona and to move our 2012 General Assembly from Phoenix – with all the attendant consequences, including eating cancellation fees that exceed a hundred thousand dollars.

I’m currently weighing the difficulties involved in a call to clergy to attend a massive demonstration scheduled for Phoenix on the day before Memorial Day. Memorial Day I’m scheduled to preach at a combined worship service for our congregation and our Providence neighbors Bell Street Chapel, at Bell Street. So, for me to attend the event, means finding a flight out of Phoenix following the demonstration but at a time that allows me to get a couple of hours sleep before going to Bell Street, and hopefully not disgracing either the congregation I serve or myself, in the preaching… Lots of balls in the air on that one, and I’m not sure I can keep them all in the air…

What has me ruminating this morning, however, has to do with the strange mix one gets into when one gets into a messy political issue like immigration, and how a person of good will and faith can face it all…

Some years ago I preached a sermon in which I opined there should be no borders.

As I sat with it I decided it was a tad too abstract, and also didn’t connect with actual living realities.

While I am wary of the blandishments of the nation state and various relatively loose alliances of nation states, the reality as I see it, is that the only viable alternative is the multinational corporation. And if that is indeed the choice, as I’m pretty sure it is, I’m prepared to wave Old Glory and sing hymns of praise for America the Beautiful…

And so now I find myself concerned with a couple of issues. One is accepting, if grudgingly, the reality of the nation state, and with that of the right of the state to regulate its borders, that is to have some control over who crosses those borders.

My other concern is based in another reality. In North America, the places with the best opportunities for individual advancement are Canada and the US of A. People are yearning to come here to work. And there is work, mostly in areas our nationals are not interested in doing.

And with that another reality: our shared border with a much poorer nation, itself, a gateway to even poorer nations. I gather this border is something over 1,900 miles long. A difficult border to control. People are bound and determined to cross over to America.

Those are, I figure, the basic facts on the ground.

If we were just trying to address this, it would be a monumental problem.

Sadly, everyone and their cousin has decided to get some of the action on this issue.

On the right nativists, neo-nazis and other folk holding dreadful opinions about the “other,” real and imagined are fanning flames of fear and hatred. And even more frightening for me is how just plain ordinary folk can be so hateful in how they look at the undocumented. The term of art is “Illegal” to name an undocumented immigrant. I had a brief encounter with someone, a handsome, well to do younger person, who explained to me “They’re illegal. Period.” He stared at me with such certainty about the solidness of his position. I felt my heart breaking. Such a heartless and facile approach can only coarsen the soul and damn those who would objectify living people so cruelly.

And the left is in similar danger. I recently attended a talk by someone doing what I consider noble work, belonging to a group that identifies the routes people are taking to cross the border in Arizona and put out jugs of water. This is a notoriously dangerous route, only now in use because the easier routes in California and Texas have been better blocked on this side, and on the other side are caught up in drug wars, (An issue we on this side of the border are very reluctant to acknowledge has everything to do with our apparently insatiable desire for drugs. But that’s for another rant…)

Anyway a good person doing good work. And glad to be there to hear her. Until, that is we got an earful of her analysis of how we’re in this fix. Which was pretty much a neo-Marxist view including a barely veiled call for bloody revolution and the establishment of the International… As it reminded me of events from my youth I was partially charmed by the sincerity, if also the naivete, and partially repulsed by the lack of connection to what is actually going on and therefore the complete disconnect from actions that might actually help people who are suffering terribly. Other than the water, of course. And God bless water and those who give it to the thirsty.

This event was sponsored inaugurally by the Friends. Then various signed on as co-sponsors. Including a group from my church, which I’d encouraged. I was wondering what they thought as speakers voiced their labyrinthine views of international conspiracy by folk that included people who wanted to torture and kill the poor. I knew I was embarrassed.

So, what to do?

Would that I knew with certainty.

What I’m pretty clear on is that we cannot let these hijackers own the platform. The hurt of so many is so real, and the need is too great for compassion and some wisdom to allow the hateful and cancerously hateful to be the voice of the immigrant’s need.

We who see the basic connections between us all cannot turn away.

For me the deal is to remember the basic humanity of all involved. To say it.

To know there is much fear, and much to fear. To say it.

And that there are no guarantees in this life, no matter how good our intentions. To say it.

And to call all to compassionate action. And to repeat it.

I really think the deal is to try to continue to witness, and to witness for wisdom, compassion and a justice that heals.

As best I can.

As best we can.

And then to let go of the results…

End of rant…

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