People are just people. This includes immigrants.
Honestly, I just can’t quite get my head around the alleged “migrant crisis.” I don’t really understand what panicking people are talking about. I’m not being facetious. I’m genuinely perplexed.
“Migrants” are just people. I’m not afraid of them. I’m not worried about them doing damage. I’m not worried about them straining our society in any way.
The people who are straining our society are right here — born and bred. There are violent Americans here right now.
The migrants who most people worry about are poor, hardworking and demand little. They are fleeing harsh conditions and seeking a better life. They will pay taxes — if allowed to become citizens — and, on average, be much less trouble and less demanding than the average American citizen.
They will happily take the jobs that few Americans want. They will help the labor shortage in an America with an aging population.
What Part of “People” Do You Not Understand?
Our language deceives us. Sometimes it’s used to intentionally deceive us. Migrants are just people. Transexuals are just people. All kinds of labels are used to deny the humanity of people.
Our differences are minimal and our similarities are enormous. All of us. We pop into existence out of nowhere (I don’t remember anything before my conception and birth — do you?), and then experience a brief period of consciousness and life. All too soon, it’s back to an eternity of non-existence.
How pathetic, how lame, and how disappointing that so many of us spend this brief miracle of life in fear and hatred and anger and hostility. I’m convinced we can do better. I’m convinced we can EASILY do better. The bar is so low, it would be difficult to do worse.
Quiet Invisible Kindness
Kindness is an everyday thing. It rarely makes news. Cruelty and tragedy make news. If it bleeds, it leads.
But in everyday life, kindness is everywhere. You have friends and family and — in most cases — treat each other with kindness. You exchange pleasantries with strangers.
We are not all spending our time denigrating immigrants and other people who we imagine (incorrectly) to be “not like us.” However, abusive people and their cruelty are very visible and aggressive and are often shaping events and making news.
But they are a minority. Even now, there is far more kindness than evil in the world. Far more. But evil has more influence. Evil has control. It is powered by blind fear and anger and a made-up narrative to justify itself.
It’s said that anger can be a useful emotion. That it generates energy and therefore action. But I think it’s useful because it’s a warning. When I’m angry, I see it as a signal that I’m losing control and perspective. That I’m forgetting the miracle of life and existence and failing to appreciate it. That I’m ready to fight hatred with hatred — which is another way to say that I’m on the verge of (at least temporarily) become an evil version of myself.
Just as the cure for fire is water, the cure for cruelty and evil is kindness and love.
Love Is NOT Weak
People think that hatred and violence is strong and that love is weak. That’s false. That’s a dangerous delusion. That’s a self-fulfilling prophesy. That’s why we need to stop predicting the future and start creating it.
We’ve forgotten or perhaps never realized the power of love, of kindness.
Evil is weak. Very, very weak. It is built on the quicksand of lies. It invents “them.” It invents enemies. And it persuades otherwise ordinary people to support evil or at least tolerate evil. And it persuades us that evil is powerful. And so we obey and accept it.
But here’s the secret: evil is incapable of anything without our active support. Leaders persuade young people to go to war. Leaders persuade parents to let their children go to war. Leaders persuade people to be divided, to exploit each other, and to support the leaders who promote this evil.
Without OUR obedience and support, evil is absolutely powerless. And because of this weakness, each of us has meaningful power to fix this broken world. Each of us. Even acting alone we can make the world significantly better — at least for the people around us.
If we are ready and willing to withdraw our support from evil and to speak out against it, and to reach out with love to our friends — and even our opponents — bad leaders, and the bad in each of us can be weakened and minimized. By “we,” I mean you and me. We can set an exmaple for others.
We can repair our humanity and we can repair our damaged planet. We can learn to love and respect ALL of humanity and our Earth. We can live in accord with Nature, not as Nature’s destroyers.
We only need to choose and to begin to act. We are like Dorothy in Oz who had the power to return home at any time.
Yes, it’s not a simple as clicking our heels together three times and reciting “there’s no place like home.” But we DO have the power and we CAN do this.
My Usual Pitch
We have a group, a new group and so far a membership that only numbers in the hundreds. But we will grow. We are dedicated to the best that humanity has to offer — love, creativity, compassion and determination to stabilize the climate and preserve the habitability of our Earth for our children and future generations.
We are dedicated to non-violence yet powerful Gandhian strategies to achieve our benevolent objectives. We are starting now.
You can join. You can do as little or as much as you want in support of humanity and Nature. There will be no pressure. We recognize that people are busy and have obligations and other challenges.
But this is our common challenge and together, helping at whatever level we choose, we can act to fix the world.
See the website WeAreSaners.org. Or join by signing up for the email list at WeAreSaners.org/join.
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