TPD WON’T HELP YOU
The current wave of anti-immigration sentiment espoused by the President, his banning entry of people into U.S. from six Muslim nations, his express intent to build the Great Wall between the U. S. and Mexico, the proposed wide scale deportation of undocumented residents, and the separation of children from their parents is wreaking havoc on our nation’s self-esteem and on our reputation around the world as a leader of the free world. More and more, with each passing day, people are fearful of unwarranted actions from their own government, there is an increasing atmosphere of fear, mistrust, and uncertainty.
Russia must be gleefully happy about the turmoil going on in this country under President Trump’s leadership. Having already meddled in our national elections, Russia is bound and determined to show the world that America is not what it claims to be leader of the free world. For starts, President Putin can point to the fact that the U.S. already imprisons more people in the world than any other nation, including Russia.
With Russia in the mix, these times bring to memory 1958 when the U.S. and Soviet Russia struggled for preeminence in the Third World countries through proxies in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. The United States organized NATO. Russia organized the Warsaw Pact. Each formed alliances for military and geopolitical influence and dominance.
They divided Europe into two competing visions of the world, with the Western world viewing communist countries in the Eastern Bloc as behind an Iron Curtain. Physically, the Iron Curtain took the form of border defenses between the countries of Europe in the middle of the continent. The most notable border was marked by the Berlin Wall.
The official purpose of this wall was to keep Western “fascists” from entering East Germany and undermining the socialist state, but it primarily served the objective of stemming mass defections from East to West.
In Southeast Asia, during the Cold War, an impactful 1958 political novel, The Ugly American, said a mysterious change seems to come over Americans when they go to a foreign land. They isolate themselves socially. They live pretentiously. They are loud and ostentatious.
The point of this trip down memory lane is to use this history as a measure in sizing up current events.
Under the leadership of President Trump, a mysterious change seems to come over many Americans when they deal with immigrants. The Great Wall Trump brags about is to keep foreigners out.
What is wrong with this picture?
America is a land made up of foreigners. Are we to repudiate by our actions the message to the world on our Statue of Liberty, which reads:
“… Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she with silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-toss to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Dr. King said no: “I choose to give my life for those who have been left out… This is the way I’m going. If it means suffering a little bit, I’m going that way… If it means dying for them, I’m going that way.”
Survival is the primary impetus for unauthorized immigration flows into the United States. The Church teaches, “The more prosperous nations are obliged, to the extent they are able, to welcome the foreigner in search of the security and the means of livelihood which he cannot find in his country of origin. Public authorities should see to it that the natural right is respected that places a guest under the protection of those who receive him.”
In January 2003, the U.S. Catholic Bishops released a pastoral letter on migration entitled, “Strangers No Longer: Together on the Journey of Hope.” In their letter, the Bishops stressed that, “[w] hen persons cannot find employment in their country of origin to support themselves and their families, they have a right to find work elsewhere in order to survive. Sovereign nations should provide ways to accommodate this right.” The Bishops made clear that the “[m] ore powerful economic nations…have a stronger obligation to accommodate migration flows.”
In the midst of what the President Trump wants, the Tulsa Police Department (TPD) has announced to all undocumented residents in Tulsa, “Tulsa wants you.” It will not seek to arrest or detain undocumented residents, says Officer Jessie Guardiola, head of the Tulsa Policed Department’s Hispanic Outreach.
While this news won’t quell all the unrest and uncertainty, perhaps TPD, as a local government agency will help stem the tide against our Statue of Liberty.
