First of all, I want to thank our local school board for passing and adopting the “Safe Haven” policy for the safety and well-being of all our children, but most of all for keeping the fabric of our community intact.
The concept of “immigration or immigrants” is as American as “apple pie or baseball.” Legal or illegal immigration has been part of our history since our beginning, ever since the very first steps that the pilgrims took when they landed in Plymouth Rock back in 1620.
As much as some folks want to consider themselves patriotic (nationalists), or want to keep a monotonous society, the reality of the United States of America is that we are a nation of immigrants, a nation that has merged every religion, nationality, and ethnicity to be a great nation. It’s a nation that flourished out of poverty, hunger, persecution, and gave birth to the “American Dream,” a dream that can easily turn into a nightmare when our vision and politics lack humanity and compassion.
At this very moment, many of our hard-working immigrant families are living with the same uncertainty that millions of Jews faced in Germany under Hitler. Many families are scared of leaving their homes to go to work or school, and this fear will have a “trickle up” effect (or “fountain” effect) on the economy.
As an agricultural community, these are things to consider: the reality of losing thousands of farm workers; real estate values dropping; the wine, strawberry, and construction industries will collapse; and the loss of white-collar jobs. So yes, we will all be hurt if one sector of our community is harmed.
It’s easy to blame homeless people for loitering and to get angry at them for making our cities “look” bad, but it’s hard to see and accept the reasons why society has driven them to such a condition, like PTSD, lack of health care and compassion, etc. Same thing with illegal immigration: Most of the time we tend to fail in seeing or accepting how our foreign affairs, international policies, and military invasions (interventions) have affected world politics, currencies, and economies. Let’s reflect on NAFTA, the Panama Canal, or the Monroe Doctrine.
I salute and applaud the leadership demonstrated by our school board, and at the same time I also challenge our city’s elected officials and county supervisors to take such a stand for the well-being of our local economy, peace of mind, dignity, and respect of all of our children.
I also want to acknowledge the thousands of U.S. citizens that continue to stand in the trenches of social justice, peace, love, humanity, and faith. I want to thank the religious groups and different denominations for standing up against fear and making their places of worship into “safe havens” and sanctuaries. I want to thank the volunteers that feed the hungry, the doctors and nurses that provide health care at no cost, all of the “freedom fighters,” and I especially want to thank all of our youth that continue to have hope for a better future.
Once again I want to thank the leadership of the school board with this quote from Pastor Martin Niemöller:
“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Socialist.
“Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Trade Unionist.
“Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
“Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”
Pedro Reyes is a Santa Maria resident. Send your thoughts to letters@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jan 19-26, 2017.
