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GUEST OPINION
Most people know that I am called as a minister, serving a small church in Metaline Falls.
I am also a very happy volunteer at the Cutter Theatre. And then there’s the mayor-thing I have been doing since 2008. And from the articles I’ve written, most of you are aware that I lean a little “left of center” when it comes to my political and social positions.
In a small town there is no place to hide when it comes to community. I see people of all ilk at the theatre, the churches, the bank, the post office, the stores, etc. We may not have much in common, but we’ve always treated each other with respect. This was especially evident when I was teaching/directing for the school district.
Everyone has their position when it comes to where they stand on any given issue/topic/ candidate. I try to walk carefully neutral, making sure I hear everyone, take into consideration that there are two sides to every story and situation.
But today I’m going to plant my feet and say something controversial. I may pay for it, but I have to speak from my heart and from my faith.
Leviticus 19: 33-34 (NIV) When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord, your God.
Some Christians love to quote Leviticus when it makes their point, so I am going to make mine with the same book. Leviticus is an expansion and explanation of the Laws as set down in Exodus. And there it is, in the proverbial “black and white.”
Which is why the current situation with anyone who looks like they MIGHT be an “illegal” makes me sick. Which is why people smiling happily beneath a sign that reads “Alligator Alcatraz” makes me angry. Which is why I weep for anyone who now fears coming to the State of Washington to pick cherries and harvest vegetables because they might be pulled off a bus and have no recourse.
Remember that the Town of Metaline Falls stood up for the Kubota family when the Federal troops came to arrest them in 1942. They would have been shipped off to an “internment camp” like all the other Japanese save for the people of this community standing behind them. For all you Star Trek fans, remember that George Takai’s family WAS shipped off… the years of his childhood spent in barracks behind barbed wire and armed guards.
And yet so many of you have been convinced that somehow this situation is different. It isn’t. These are people, okay – some of them are in the country illegally. And some of them have been here for years, raising their families, working hard, paying taxes, buying homes.
How can we not treat human beings as human beings. There has to be a way to make our empathy and our sympathy greater than our fear.
I don’t have to dredge up Nazi Germany.
We are as guilty in our history of callous and hateful behavior. We landed as “illegal aliens” on the shores of the new world, escaping persecution and searching for a new beginning.
We then preceded to push and move and then annihilate the Native peoples already here.
We once were proud of Lady Liberty, her torch shining to welcome those who came in waves, fleeing famine and pogroms. The words now are bitter on my tongue and in my heart.
Give me your tired, your poor.
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.
The wretched refuse of your teeming shores – Send these, the homeless tempest tossed to me.
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
God says that we are to welcome the alien among us… who dares quote scripture now?
