There is always a “Them” or a “Those”

I am the grandson of immigrants…

As a child I learned of the world in the kitchens of my childhood friends. 

I heard languages not my own, Italian, Spanish, French-Canadian, and California from the Los Angeles guy. 

I dined on generational food from around the world, most of the plates were covered in sauce. 

I knew what soccer was before I ever saw it on TV. 

I listened to Irish poetry and Italian operas. 

I was 14 years old when I saw my first left forearm Nazi concentration camp tattoo.

I watched as Mr. Lopez stood in his living room, hand over his heart as he listened to the National Anthem on the radio before his beloved New York Yankees took to the diamond. 

I watched daily at dusk as Mr. Schmidt gently lowered and folded the American flag that always flew on his front porch. 

Jimmy Smyth taught me how to work on my Triumph Bonneville that was built in his hometown in England. 

I learned more about what America means from immigrants than I did from those born on this soil.

Being born here is one thing, and I’m grateful that I was born here, fighting to get here, the desire to live here, to stand outside and want in, to see freedom work, to see opportunity, to want to have a better life is I think the entire reason ships full of people crossed the ocean to get here.

Unless you are Native American, somewhere in your past, maybe far back in time someone you are related to came here. 

Most of American can trace their roots to somewhere else.  

I am the grandson of immigrants.

Grampa Clay died when I was very young, I don’t remember much of him other than he smoked smelly cigars, carried my around on his shoulders, and told me he drove a train. 

In truth he worked in a factory and poured steel.  He was a big man with big, blistered hands and an equally big heart. 

The day he became a citizen the clerk behind the desk who swore him in handed him a small piece of paper, on it was printed the Pledge of Allegiance of his new home… 

…America. 

Clay took the paper, folded it and placed it in his wallet. 

Twenty-some years later, after his funeral his wife, Tess, found it in his wallet. 

It was bent and fragile, grease smudges on the corners, words underlined, some with two lines underneath, some with three lines and an exclamation point. 

Tess took the paper and put it in the secret pocket in her favorite purse. 

When she was buried Clay’s paper Pledge of Allegiance was in her hands underneath her rosary. 

It was her wish.

It took my grandparents much effort to become Americans, but it was fueled by their desire to provide their children freedom to pursue their dreams and desires. 

Me, and most of you, we just got born here. 

Our first breath was that of freedom. 

Was 

That 

Of 

Freedom.

I believe this.

Any person, Anywhere, has basic human rights, be it here in the United States or within countries you can’t spell or find on a map. 

Anywhere. 

It is the “Civil” in Civilization. 

All of us are innocent until proven otherwise. 

Don’t matter none your language, your education, your zip code, your bank account, who you know or who you don’t. 

Innocent until proven otherwise. 

And yes, there are immigration laws and they should be followed and enforced by law abiding folks and not by those with a criminal record. 

Arrests based on evidence and a judge’s legal consent should be made with human decency and with the right of the innocence protected until proven otherwise. 

It is again the human, “Civil” way to operate.

History Repeats

Substitute the word “Immigrant” for the word “Jew.” 

Mass roundups. 

Makeshift camps.

Substitute the word “Immigrant” for the word “Japanese.” 

Mass roundups. 

Makeshift camps. 

Humanity is not very Humaine. 

The children of your great grandkids will not look on us favorably. 

History will not be kind. 

I am here because of immigrants. 

People who gave everything they had to get here. 

So are you. 

I ask only this, enforce laws but do so legally, give every immigrant the rights granted anyone on our soil. 

Embrace those here legally, have compassion for those who are not but understand their desire for the freedom that America represents. 

Respect humanity no matter where it comes from or how it got here. 

And So…

…this is where you would put a quote from a founding father, from the Statute of Liberty inscription, or from a Google search you just did. 

Not This Time. 

This is from me, the offspring of immigrants. 

I stood alone on the darken plains of South Dakota engulfed in the darkness of night. 

America stretched out for miles around me, no lights, no one to be seen. 

I stood alone on the darken plains of South Dakota engulfed in the darkness of night…and looked up. 

And there above me the universe stretched from horizon to horizon. 

Millions of stars and planets and assorted universe stuff. 

I am not religious, I do not pray, I do wish. 

I wished for a sign, a simple sign that would somehow show we are not alone. 

None came. 

None may ever come. 

It’s just us.