I live in a country in which we say
“We are a nation of immigrants”
when it suits us.
When it doesn’t, we simply say
“Go home.” “You’re not welcome here.” “You’ve suffered, but enough.”
as we turn our backs.
I work in a system that
talks about honor
but there is no honor about treating survivors like criminals.
There is nothing heroic about power trips
about profiting off of pain
about refusing to recognize the Imago Dei.
I work tangential to a government that wants to monitor every immigrant’s movement
but makes it so difficult for them to report.
Forms upon forms (all in English only)
Meeting upon meeting
Early, fear-laced mornings met with stone faced, unmoving bureaucracy
Wouldn’t it just be easier to help people?
I live in a city that reveres its baseball team, unlike any city I’ve seen before
a team full of Dominicans and Venezuelans and Cubans
and I hear the city praise them (their talent is breathtaking)
while the same city, same people, same lawmakers
support deporting the Dominicans, Venezuelans, and Cubans seeking asylum.
Was their crime crossing the border, or not being able to play baseball?
Work lately has shown me that things simply do not make sense. Our policies, the ways we speak about people, the way people are treated does not logically lead to a conclusion of love. Instead, we get a hyper-focus on rules, profits, and power. That is the language our world speaks right now. I’m done trying to make sense of this system.
Rather than insert faulty logic to a system that is illogical, I want to speak a different language. I know that one exists. I hear it in the steadiness of my supervisors, showing me another way forward. I hear it in the tear-filled hope of my clients, who wake up to fight another day with strength that I do not possess. I hear it in my comrades walking beside me, who remind me that it is ok to feel, to view the world the way I do, and to keep pursuing love.
There is another language. It is that of love. The world wants us to think that it does not make sense. We know differently. It is the only thing that does.
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