Closed: The Statue of Liberty

When I was a child, the Statue of Liberty held my attention. I memorized its words:

                                                      Give me your tired, your poor,
                                         Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
                                            The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.  
                                        Send these, the homeless, tempest-tosted, to me,
                                                I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

I never in my wildest imagination thought that I would ever set my eyes on her. Then I lived in New Jersey for a year as a young adult. And there she was!

She was important to me because my Danish grandfather came to this country via Ellis Island. He would have seen her there, welcoming him. In his passage into this country, he shortened his Danish last name. No need for papers to validate who he was. He prospered here, once owning a large tract of land in the northern midwest. 

There he met the woman who became his wife. She too was a Danish immigrant, coming here when she was 14 with her parents. She was so proud to become an American that she changed her name from Bodil to Betsy, after the early creator of the American flag. Their children were not allowed to learn Danish because "we are Americans now."

Other ancestors of mine immigrated from Northern Ireland and Germany.

My husband's grandparents were German immigrants. They came here to escape religious persecution as members of a Lutheran sect.

For me, Lady Liberty is the symbol of my country's welcome. Without that welcome I would not have been the child of immigrants and an American.

During the recent government shut-down, The Statute of Liberty was literally closed. Closed because of Congressional and presidential differences over the Dreamers. Technically, these young adults are illegal immigrants, brought here as children in a time when immigration is far more complicated than it was in my grandparents' time.  But what child comes here by choice and follows complicated rules regarding citizenship? These Dreamers were educated here, many going on to college. Many married American women and men - and had children who automatically were American citizens.

But the current debate about immigration is far broader than these families. Overt and covert views about race and religion lean toward whiteness and Christian ancestry. Lady Liberty never made these criteria for immigration to this country. 

I feel fortunate to now live in a diverse metropolitan city. I have Muslim neighbors. Across the street lives an Ethiopian family. I encounter people of African descent - both the children of slaves brought here years ago and new immigrants from Africa, who have come out of the lack of safety in their country of origin. We have a large population of Hmong, who are contributing to the literary community here and who hold public office. The list could go on and on.

So now we would deny immigration from many countries. To even encourage Norwegians to immigrate here! How ludicrous to think Norwegians would be attracted to this county to hold jobs Latinos held as their entry to job advancement requiring technical skills and college educations!  

Millions of men, women, and children have fled their countries because of war. Ethnic cleansing continues. The days of my childhood are over when you sold what little you owned for ship passage and could land here with nothing in your pocket - and make a better life for yourself. But the desire for a better life still lives in the hearts of many people. It is this country - and others - who need to revise immigration laws put in place decades ago that are now discriminatory. There are no words on the Statue of Liberty that say: My ancestors came here and let's now slam the door in other's faces.

Give me your tired, your poor . . .

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

So Much To Be Done

Earlier this week we honored Martin Luther King. Though not a perfect man, he was a great man. Not only did he teach us so much, he acted on his convictions. How much more would he have done if his life had not been cut short by an assassin's bullet!

The same could be said about the other two assassinations that marked the twentieth century in this country. I stood on the curb of Wisconsin Avenue in Washington DC, watching the cortège carrying the body of JFK as it sped toward the Naval Hospital. How could this event be happening? What would our country be like today if JFK had not died?  Then months later after MLK's death, JFK's brother Bobby suffered the same fate.

These three deaths had a common denominator - fear and hatred. Before their time and after their deaths ,countless other men and women have died for the same root cause. What is it that causes some people to fear and hate others who are different from them?

In the current climate in our country (and elsewhere), the double fears of race and religion run rampant. Anti-semetic hatred has emerged from the ashes of Holocaust death camps. Added to such hatred, is anti-Muslim hatred. And the color of one's skin matters greatly for some people.

I grew up in a white northern European, Midwestern small town. Not even Italian or Greek immigrants lived there. There were the Catholics - and an assortment of Protestants from Lutheran to Pentecostal. But no one burned homes or taunted others. The Ku Klux Klan was some vague bunch of hooded white guys in the South. Then I moved to Washington DC. An awakening for me in this diverse international city.

Where does fear and hatred live in the hearts and minds of some people? One can generate theories from history. But racial and religious hatred is not a twentieth century phenomena. Go back to the earliest records of humanity. Does that give us an excuse to shrug our shoulders and say it is just part of being human?

On August 29, 1963, Martin Luther King delivered a powerful address at the March on Washington. It was not the speech he intended to give. But Mahalia Jackson urged him to tell people about his dream. I have a dream he began. His words still echo. A dream when humanity moves beyond fear and hatred.

There is still much work to be done.

Back to Normal?

The holidays are over. As are the first two weeks of the New Year. Children are back in school. Eight to five workers are back on the job. After a somewhat hectic ending to the old year filled with parties and times with families, our lives have returned to their normal routines.

Wait a minute!  Northeastern United States is still paralyzed with record snowfall and extreme cold. Residents are still digging out from the onslaught. Some schools closed because of dangerous cold. Employers have given employees the option to telecommute because getting to work is grueling or simply too difficult. Air travelers have been stranded in clogged airports because of cancelled flights. The sea even froze along part of Cape Hatteras.

               Normal it is not!

What is the meaning of all this weather drama? Noting weather and climate change are not the same, it is likely that climate change is part of the root cause. Our weather patterns are no longer predictors of what we might experience in the year(s) ahead.

As a gardener, I used to keep track in the spring of when various trees and plants would emerge from dormancy. Then I quit doing it, because so much was predictable to the day. We even had a duck with a limp that returned on the same date. And I remember being in seas above Norway, where the Atlantic Puffins returned to rocky island cliffs to build nests - at the same date and same hour every year.

Trying to wish it away or pretending this extreme weather is just an aberrant year. Nor will flying away to warm places. Spending vacation time sleeping in airport terminals is not the same as enjoying time in the sun in Aruba.

People used to believe that if they were careful about their use of products, we could turn this climate phenomenon around. Living responsibly was a code word to guide our choices. Bicycles were ridden to work. Thermostats were turned down during the winter and up in the summer (to minimize use of air conditioning). People grew their own vegetables and avoided eating strawberries in January that were flown in from Chile. Reusable cloth bags replaced paper sacks at the grocery store.

In the Genesis stories, women are cursed to endure painful childbirth. Men are given dominion over all the Earth. But this also was a curse, not a blessing. Humans are part of the fabric of the Earth, not given it to destroy. There are hopeful signs that care of ourselves means care of the Earth. At the same time, political economics is about exploitation. Unfortunately, short-term profits take precedence over global issues. 

Greed and power override our grandchildren's future.

Drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Reserve or along both coasts? What insanity! What more will it take than this current weather to resound in the minds of everyone!  How many more billions of dollars does it have to cost due to lost business when the weather turns vicious?