It's about families, it's not about borders

When dealing with immigration we should remember that it’s about families, not borders.  It’s so easy for us to get so concerned with nationalism, patriotism and technicalities that we forget that people are people and deserve our respect.  Over the course of this semester I’ve done a thorough investigation of why so many Americans rage and are overly concerned with immigrants.  I took a Latin American culture and history class to better understand why this happens and what we must understand to overcome it. 

I first began trying to get at the roots of the problem.  I thought that perhaps it was an obsession with nationalism mixed with racism, and it was quite the philosophical ride as I dug deeper into it.  I went from the “oo-rah” gun-totin’ American to the “I don’t care” American to America’s Communist Party to a writer named William Blum.  By then I had well-developed the habit of questioning every assumption.  The last man, William Blum, hammered patriotism.  He argued that the great mass murderers of history fell back and justified themselves with the concept, “What I did, I did for my country.”  Whether it was Hitler or Stalin, they fell on patriotic knee.  It was so convincing that it started to resonate with me.  But then I thought, “Wait a minute, what about all the heroic deeds done by civilians and soldiers in the name of country?  Were they in vain?”  That was a rather disturbing thought and the answer came as a resounding NO!  Patriotism when taken to the extreme is chauvinistic and despicable, but patriotism in and of itself is a part of the human sense of family extended to neighbors and country.  That’s not evil. 

So what’s the problem then?  I had to think back to my own experience growing up in California and how that’s shaped the way I see the world and its people.  I didn’t have such a problem with racism nor chauvinistic tendencies because almost all of my friends were either immigrants themselves or children of immigrants.  Then it made sense.  The main reason why people have such a hard time accepting foreigners is because they personally haven’t come to really know any.  When you understand someone, it’s very hard to hate them.  When you have a personal connection with someone outside your “group” you come to see them as family, not foreigners.  My call to action then is to go out and meet someone who is different than you, whether they are foreign, different colored skin or culture than you and get to know them.  If we do that sincerely, hate will fade away.

Update

I think Andrew brings up a good point in his comment in that to be understanding we need to understand the viewpoint of the racist as well, not of just the tolerant.  I guess that's the real way that we can be truly understanding.  We have to hear both sides of the argument in order to get the full picture of what's going on and thereby make an informed decision.  Extending that beyond just what I've talked about, any serious opinion in life should be developed by looking multiple sides of an issue.  And like Kenny suggests, (something that I forgot in my presentation but had in my blog post) the specific call to action that I would make is to get to understand people by going out and meeting someone that is different than us.  I believe that as we get to know people who are different and think differently than we do we will develop the kind of tolerance and charity that Christ wants us to have.  We will then see people as family, not as foreigners.