Immigration!

The question has been stated over and over again about the actions of a president versus the actions of the house and senate.  Legal or Illegal?

I don’t like that question.  It’s not the right question.  It’s not a fair question.  Yet millions view it as such.  And there are no changing the minds of the unwilling to hear.

Here is the question that I think we should ask…Moral or immoral?

You see, shortly after the Mayflower first landed on Plymouth Rock, the new residents of the new land began to feel entitled.  in their view this was a virgin land, though not really.  It already had inhabitants, a culture, a system of laws and a sense that human life and nature were able to coexist.  But it was not within their understanding.  Because, as they saw it, "they" were civilized.  But not long into the colonization of the new world things began to unravel.  As the white man encroached upon the native occupant stress began to build on both sides and before long there was death.

The new immigrants were not abiding by the established laws.  They were setting up their own culture, their own laws, and they segregated themselves from the established population.

Is any of this sounding familiar?

A friend of my wife, who recently finished his Mormon mission, became incensed at the idea that my wife wanted to show compassion to the illegals that are currently living outside of Americas Laws.  He had no compassion in his words and yet he was supposed to be the epitome of Christ’s teachings. 

Something is seriously wrong.  Why?  Perhaps it is all in the intent.

Can anyone think of a time when our government did the right thing, because it was the right thing  and not because it was expedient?  Abolishing slavery?  No.  Removing the Native Americans to wastelands?  No.  Letting women vote?  No.  Awarding civil rights to Black Americans?  No.  Equal rights to Gays?  No.

Not one of those decisions was because it was the right thing to do.  It was not done because it was fair and just.  It was done through much fighting and resistance.  It was done because it quelled the resistant ones, not because it brought us together as a nation.  Even today you can see the results of a victory hard fought and won.  The unrest and anger in each of those instances is still alive.  And it exists still because there is a belief that the changes are not genuine.

The way to change all of that is through compassion.  We have to change our attitudes to reflect genuine, heartfelt love for those who have been wronged by our own government.

It is time to care;  genuinely care for others as equally as we care for ourselves.  It is also time to remember the all too trite sentiment that we were all, once, unwelcome, illegal Immigrants.