OVS faculty meetings have been peppered this year with explorations of diversity and inclusivity, including one this week on the myths surrounding immigration. Teacher Steve Risser closed this week’s meeting by sharing a piece he wrote on the topic…
We first came on foot, from the far northwest, across a land bridge, moving south and extending across the continents.
Millenniums hence we came by boat from the north and east, and people suffered and cultures were disrupted and ruined, but for some life improved. Then came hundreds of thousands more of us by boat, many unwillingly, forced to live and work unwillingly, and people suffered but others prospered.
Does anyone really prosper while others suffer? Certainly, no one should suffer so that others may prosper.
For centuries human souls have arrived here by the millions, by force and by will, from Europe, Asia, Africa, Mexico, the Middle East, and South America, to create the country with the largest immigrant population in the world. Often to seek safety and opportunity and a better life, which is a universal human behavior.
Today, many come from the south. The majority come from the south. Many on foot, carrying backpacks and water, crossing canyons and rivers, facing abuse from the natural world and humans alike. They come seeking safety and opportunity and a better life, which is a universal human behavior.
We came for freedom, for safety, for wrong and cruel reasons, for pure and naïve reasons, many have prospered, and many have suffered.
So here we are, all of us. And regardless of where you are from, or when you got here, rest assured others were here before you. And if you feel entitled to what this country has to offer because you were born here, remember that you may only feel that way because your relatives did the work of immigrating here for you. And if you feel put out, taken advantage of, or imposed upon by today’s immigrants, bear in mind that your woes are likely just a fraction of the woes suffered by the earlier peoples of this land, who endured wave after wave of much more hostile immigrants.
Let’s swipe the suspicion and blame from our hearts. Let’s educate, compensate, empathize and forgive. Let’s open our eyes, compromise, help others live. This land is not my land, this land is not your land. This is a land where millions have come, for centuries, to seek survival, safety, freedom, a better life. Which, after all, is a universal human behavior.