We are All Immigrants: Children and Grandchildren of Immigrants

By Monica    Columbus, Ohio

        Coretta Scott King once emphasized, in recent years, the level of sheer despise and disrespect along party lines people exhibit toward each other in the United States.  It so greatly grieved her that she said that her husband did not do all that he did in bringing people together and building brotherhood for this!  She pondered aloud where in the world this even came from, in both parties, and prayed that dialogue, respect, and courtesy would be rekindled among us all.

Today in Columbus, Ohio!

       Today I had the pleasure and duty of demonstrating at the State House here in downtown Columbus, Ohio against the U.S. immigrant and refugee policies that have more recently landed some small children in "jail" for days, terrifying them and millions of others.
      This includes my own ESL (English as a Second Language) populations as an ESL teacher in Colulmbus City schools for most of the past 11 years.  During the six years as a mainstream teacher, I always taught ESL students as well. In their honor mainly, but for all those suffering at the hands of these unbelievable policies, I joined thousands of others downtown in solidarity and protest.

   

       Their has been an extremely high anxiety level in many of my students and families, with lots of tears, and I have had to comfort many.  Several large families who have been at my school all five years "ran," meaning, left this school year, trying not to be found by moving around, or are attempting to move back to Mexico, Honduras, etc, into highly dangerous and poverty-stricken destitution.  It appears worth it for some who witness or hear of the trauma of what is being done to others, even children.  They wonder too, as do I, what is next if this is possible.
      WOSU media online just posted the following, which may surprise those who think everyone is overreacting or making these things up about the current state of affairs from a Trump administration spokesman:
 "From Tyler Houlton, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, welcomed interest in the immigration system and said only Congress has the power to change the law.

"'We appreciate that these individuals have expressed an interest in and concern with the critical issue of securing our nation's borders and enforcing our immigration laws,' Houlton said. 'As we have indicated before, the department is disappointed and frustrated by our nation's disastrous immigration laws and supports action.'"

     Today, I walked throughout the entire population of protesters --  I wanted to stand with Catholics to be a visible Catholic presence there -- I could find only two priests and about 6-8 Catholics that I recognized.  It had been put on by the Domestic Workers Alliance, The Leadership Conference, the American Civil Liberties Union, and MoveOn.org.  

       I confess to have only found out about it today by a dear friend who was at the 8:30 mass with me.  I do not own a cell phone or computer and rarely watch TV (I am not condoning this!), and did not realize so large an event was happening.  I was elated to lend support to something and to people so near and dear to me.

       Back to Coretta Scott King and the partisanship that seems to be pushing out level headed thinking and humaneness, I wonder where the Catholics were?  I have protested against the abortion mills and industry often with many, but why were they not here?   I understand why there were nearly no Hispanic people (many of whom are Catholic), and much of this is mainly for them, because they do not want to further be a target for themselves and their families.  But where were those who value the sanctity and sacredness of all human life, especially children.... Those who greatly value strong families and family ties, hard work, and family values?  One sign put it correctly:

Where is the Catholic Outrage? 

        This sentiment is in terms of the ordinary Catholic lay person protesting the recent crackdown of illegal immigrants and refugees.  Yes, our beloved Ohio bishops put out a clear and strong statement in their pastoral letter a year ago, (see last year's article on this site: "Bishops Speak Out on Trump's Policies Against Immigrants and Refugees," June 16, 2017).  Moreover, in June Pope Francis has recently backed the U.S. Catholic bishops in denouncing the new asylum-limiting rules as immoral, I am proud to say.  In general though, you typically do not hear middle class white Catholics speaking much on these things in sympathy toward the immigrant and the refugee.
      Here in Ohio, you would think there would be such gratitude among most white middle class Catholics from their own immigrant history 2, 3, or 4 generations back: of immigration to the U.S. and specifically to Ohio from Ireland, Germany, Poland, England, and Italy, among other places.
      Our families were the lucky ones, so you would think we would want to give back for the sake of others in the situation our forefathers were in a few generations back.  We truly are an entire nation of immigrants, except for the Native Americans.  The backlash against them is not new though, and it is worth looking back at newspaper headlines and sentiment in New York City and Boston during the 1800's against the waves and waves of mostly Catholic poor immigrants.
 "They're going to take all our jobs!"
"They're hooligans who drink and beat their wives!"
"They are ruining our society!"

        Some of the time the Catholic Church did reach out earnestly to help settle the genuine problems that the swell of poor people had created, compassionate people with a strong sense of social justice and the preferential option for the poor stepped in to help these people along.  Where has our compassion gone?
        My father remembers as a teenager, watching the news and seeing ocean-liners filled with pleading Jewish immigrants wanting to port in New York, and being turned away (1940's).  They would sale from port to port and nobody would take them, to finally head back to Germany and their certain death, unless compassionate people broke the law and hid them.
       In the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., Hitler was quoted as retorting, when under criticism yet seeing even the response of the United States, that the Germans did not want these "Jewish rats" either, so is this such a bad thing?

 

     
         A Hispanic man attested to 146 Ohioans being rounded up at a work site this past week and put into a migration camp, terrifying them all, but especially fifteen small children who were kept in "jail" for two days.  He kept saying, "Fifteen kids right here in OHIO!  It's happening right here in OHIO!" He also mentioned a 19 year old girl being gunned down and killed on the border of Texas in Texas this passed month.  In the United States of America?  There is not a humane way to stop someone coming in illegally?  I know I certainly shook my head in disbelief.

       I was interviewed by a television reporter and I explained the terrible situation of my ESL families, and that the Catholic presence is here at this protest, but not as strong as it could be.  While there were many Trump-bashing signs, which the thought probably kept some Catholics away,  most were thought-provoking and true.
      After expressing to the reporter my grave disapproval of President Trump's immigrant and refugee policies, particularly putting teenagers and children in equivalent to large dog cages, apart from their parents, I did say that he did a major feat in rescinding the Mexico Policy, by once again banning abortion funding when giving medical aid to foreign countries.  This is huge!
       The abortion industry and its support, in my opinion, are the most ghastly and horrific entities of our time. Killing off those U.S. citizens in their most delicate, vulnerable, and dependent state where you and I were at our most fragile point in our own lives, is the taproot of evil in our society. What can possibly compare?  All else is minor, though still worthy of protest.  Even our beloved Creator became only a few cells at one point, so great does He value the sacredness of human life.  Many abortions are performed long past this point though, sadly.
       Why though, do Catholics who live by the "consistent ethic of human life," in our Church's social teachings, not show up at both kinds of protest -- wherever human life and lives are gravely affected and even put at risk?  And conversely, why do these people on the liberal side, not show up at the abortion protests for saving human lives?  Coretta Scott King, and her beloved Martin, would be encouraging all of us to come together on all of these life issues.

       Since I do not own a cell phone and cannot show the brilliance behind many many signs there, I will simply change up the font for each one-liner.  These are only to make you think, and hopefully, to make you act on behalf of "your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free," as on our Statue of Liberty.
       I did not think that the few Trump-bashing signs were productive and I am not fully convinced that he was aware of the cages for teens and small children.  Sometimes the departments do their own thing, as with the handling of the Branch Davidian fiasco many years ago.  The fact that he immediately changed that aspect (from here on out of separating the parents and children -- he says) -- partly perhaps from the voices of so many speaking out on their behalf, tells me that it might not have been his idea. 
       Many of the conversations during this holy day were peppered with comments that I whole-heartedly agreed with about the solid work ethic of nearly all of the Hispanic population here -- how they do not ask for anything in return, do not take welfare, contribute greatly to society with strong family values.  I would be proud to have any of them be my parents!
       My favorite chant begun by one Hispanic presenter was:

El Pueblo

Unido

Jamas Sera Vencido!

      Translated, this means: "The People, united, will never be defeated!"  It was a tear jerker from someone who is powerless and had terrible things happen to him and his family.  How brave!
      After the protest and a few talks, we marched around the capital block chanting songs like, "No HATE!  No FEAR!  Immigrants are WELCOME here!"

Jesus was a Homeless Refugee

I’m Jewish, I know this story

The Mayflower was Full of Refugees

Concentration Camps Were Legal Too

Those Who do not Learn From History

are Doomed to Repeat it

We are all Immigrants, Children

or Grandchildren of Immigrants

Migration Camps= Internment Camps

Refugees are not Criminal

But Taking Children is Criminal

Strong People Stand up for Themselves

But Stronger People Stand up for Others

Awful and Unlawful

Reunite Children Now

          While President Trump did back down on any further separation of parents with children in the future, there are over 2,300 children already separated whose parents are in custody and this newer  crackdown is still going very strong, continuing to separate families now and in the future.  I can attest firsthand for the terror and anxiety in impossible life choices right now of the ESL hard-working immigrant families holding many jobs to support large mostly Catholic families.  I cannot begin to imagine what they are facing with trying to support their children with so many strikes against them.

            What is going on with beginning a community for the poor and forgotten in Columbus?  I believe I announced this but if not, I am parting with the Catholic Worker Movement but not with Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin and how they modeled and lived out the Early Church.  I only add charisms of the Holy Spirit to the level of the Early Church as well.  Dorothy loved the charismatic renewal and encouraged people of all ages to become involved in them.

           While I am still discerning and waiting, I have "gone into the desert"  for this summer between teaching jobs to do the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius as best I can without a constant spiritual director.  Fr. Denis Kigozi is giving ideas -- such as not to miss a day until it is done -- but he is in the process of moving to a parish three times as large at Church of the Resurrection. 

          One new thing I added with prayer from last year is that instead of "talking to Jesus" for 15 minutes straight every day, I changed it up to rotate around.  One day I do this as talking to the Father, the next to Jesus, and the third to the Holy Spirit.  It has been beautiful!!!

          I am still very open and wanting, very ready and waiting, for whatever comes my way in living the life of the Beatitudes and the Book of Acts. Whatever I do as one with the poor, I have and will continue to do all in the Spirit of Christ, and in the spirit of Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin.  God saved my life through their intercessory prayers 3 years ago in my live liver donation to my nephew and the subsequent reparative surgery 4 days later.  It has a high mortality rate for the donor, 1-200 to 1-300 (because the patient loses a large of the largest lobe of the liver, damaging it badly), and as far as those who have researched can tell, I am the only living case in the world who required a second emergency surgery 3-5 days out -- meaning something wrong happened in the first surgery -- that survived.  Thank you Dorothy and Peter!!
         I am still waiting for community members for what God would have me do, and all that this life would entail (funds, prayers), God willing. Of course, I am also still praying hard for the canonization of Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin.
        Two recent large churches here in the U.S. (perhaps more) have already chosen to honor Dorothy -- St. Paul's Catholic Church in Westerville, Ohio with a large painting above a main door, like a fresco, right on the wall; and a life-size statue of Dorothy in the vestibule of the Blessed Solanus Casey Shrine on Elliott Street in Detroit, Michigan.  Please, dear Papa, Pope Francis, go ahead and move her to venerable.  I believe you have your miracle!

          There is though, a new community or charity on the horizon that seeks to live as one with the poor -- Urban Encounter -- coming down the pike as an offshoot of Encounter Ministries.  The charismatic aspect sets it apart like a city on a hill, with the spiritual works of mercy, with the charisms of the Holy Spirit lived out, being right up there to the level of the corporal works of mercy, living the "profound poverty and profound joy" of the Early Church..  Pray for them! 
        A final sidenote is that the abortion mill that performed the first abortion in Ohio, and continued for over 30 years straight, as of June 25, 2018, has closed!  I went one month before it closed!!!!  I have prayed there for years, trying to go once a month with others, and we heavily, heavily prayed for the conversion of the abortionist.  If he's not there, nobody is there.
 Yes, there are miracles!  Now we need to stop the crackdown of immigrant and refugee people here who have worked hard for their families and for our society and could not have come in legally like our forefathers who just happened to be the "right" nationality and race.  Come, Holy Spirit, come!!

HHS Mandate: A Dangerous Trend Against Everyone

        THE LAMB CATHOLIC WORKER, Columbus - On July 3, our beloved U.S. Catholic Bishops bravely spoke out yet again in a USCCB statement against the Constitution-breaking HHS Mandate as it is currently written, which blatantly violates religious liberty.  This came near the end of the “Fortnight for Freedom – 40 Days for Life,” a country-wide inter-denominational praying and fasting time ending on our country's founding birthday, the Fourth of July, to move the hearts of our president and lawmakers to protect our former religious liberties cast aside.

       This "HHS Mandate" portion of the Affordable Care Act forces most employers to provide contraception coverage to employees (colleges for students as well) at no cost, and eventually, may include the “morning after pill,” an abortifacient.  The controversy has fueled 60 lawsuits, many from religious colleges that do not want to offer staff or students contraception coverage.  What many do not know is that not only is artificial contraception against the Catholic faith (one may use Natural Family Planning if needed), but when taking "the pill," within a given year, there are on average two or three “break-through” ovulations, which, when fertilized, become human beings who are then fully aborted. 

        The “pill” is also a Level One carcinogen (up there with cigarettes and asbestos), according to the World Health Organization, due to its connection to breast and ovarian cancers and other serious diseases. This is in addition to its proven connection to infertility.  Think of how powerful this type of drug is that can alter and dictate a woman or teenage girl's very ovulation cycle.  Young teenagers and women who have never been pregnant before starting the pill are exponentially susceptible later to cancers and other life-threatening health issues.  For this danger alone, Catholic or other religious organizations should not be forced to pay for these, as we would not buy cigarettes for all teenage girls and women, let alone for the strong moral objections of our Catholic faith. 

        What should alarm all of us though - people of all faiths - is this trend-setting and to where it will lead.  The outcry by people of numerous faiths has been continuously observed, and yet leaders and lawmakers press onward.  Many protesters are in favor of the Affordable Care Act, but not this mandate forcing Catholic and other religious groups to pay for something they strongly believe is immoral.  It is an extension though of all taxpayers, including people of many faiths, paying for actual abortions through government-sponsored Planned Parenthood facilities, another violation of religious liberty to an even higher degree.  These baby mills, paid for out of our pockets, should be halted even more than the HHS mandate - the straight-up killing of our most vulnerable yet-to-be-born Americans.  This newer turn with the HHS Mandate is even more widespread though, where faith-filled law-abiding citizens, who are the majority and backbone of this country, are further forced to go against our consciences in a manner that affects far, far more teenage girls and women.  What then is next?  What will be in the future if our religious liberty on these life and death issues continues to be disregarded so completely?  This is how Hitler began - the disregard for humans starting with the mentally ill, elderly, and frail.  These changes continued without  protest, early and on, and  it snowballed bigger and bigger. 
       The same mentality has trumped with the outcry against torture on humans done at places like Guatanamo, that are taught at our "School of Assassins,"  as it has been called, the "Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation," formerly known as the "School of the Americas," an entity of the U.S. Army (at Ft. Benning, Georgia).  Besides learning multiple torture and assassination techniques, North, Central and South American graduates have actually assassinated clergy and others such as  Archbishop Oscar Romero, the four sisters/workers  and  the six Jesuits, among others. If this cruelty  was performed on animals one can imagine the outrage and condemnation.  Not so for human beings who, without trial, are tortured for information, or, without trial, are hunted down and assassinated.  Especially troublesome is the breaking of the promise, years ago, to shut down Guatanamo, which has not happened.
        When will our government leaders and lawmakers decide to listen? Will their consciences, or basic humanity, triumph for the sake of the mistreated or killed?  This blatant disregard for human life continues daily in both the torture and murder of grown people, and in the killing of the soon-to-be-born people who, while having basic freedoms of various kinds prepared for them in the U.S. Constitution, do not have the most basic freedom of all - the right to stay alive.  It is also poignantly shown in forcing those law-abiding faithful citizens in the private sector who have a strong religious belief in the sacredness of all human life to destroy that human life in chosen and inadvertant abortions and put numerous teenage girls and others at a much higher risk of life-threatening diseases.  Our Constitution was designed to protect all U.S. citizens in the practicing of their religious faiths, particularly in matters of life and death.  We are spiraling downwards and this trend needs to change right now.
        We at the Lamb Catholic Worker give our heartfelt gratitude to the leadership of Cardinal Timothy Dolan and of Archbishop William Lori who have lead this massive protest for protection of religious liberty and the unborn.  Hopefully, it will not fall on deaf ears before the January 1, 2014 implementation.  Our prayers also go for the ending, once and for all, of torture and assassinations done to humans at places like Guatanamo and throughout the world in the name of the United States or from the hands of United States trained people.  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, inspire our leaders.  Mary, mother of Jesus, pray for their change of heart.  Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin, lovers of the unborn and of all people, pray for protection in practicing our Catholic faith, and pray for our leaders to change their minds.  Help them to see this and all violation of religious liberty - particularly in matters of life and death - and to no longer demand it. 

Could Jesus Use a Deadly Drone to Kill a Person? Most U.S. Catholics are Unaware of Drone Warfare

THE LAMB CATHOLIC WORKER, Columbus - Drone Attacks by the United States:
      According to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, there have been 364 drone strikes in Pakistan over the last nine years. 312 have been carrried out by the Obama Administration. It is estimated that up to 3,500 people have been killed by drone strikes, including up to 196 children, and over 1,400 people have been injured. In the name of all the victims who have suffered and died from US drone strikes, and all their grieving families, it is time for all people of faith and conscience to demand an end to the Obama administration's illegal and immoral "Kill Lists" and use of killer drones (info. from a fellow Catholic Worker).
      Pakistan’s Ambassador to the U.S., Sherbano (“Sherry”) Rehman, a former political journalist and diplomat, has recently emphatically stated that "there should not be any ambiguity that Pakistan is very clearly against drone attacks on its territory.  We see them as against international law and we consider them a violation of our sovereignty." She also conveyed that drone attacks were counterproductive because they were fomenting extremist views.
      At the base of Jesus’ new command to love one’s enemy and do only good to those who hate you, is another: to love one’s neighbor as oneself.  To do this one must place him or herself in the neighbor’s shoes and imagine what that would be like.  Loving one's neighbor as oneself reminds of a recent national magazine cover's subtitle about what it would be like if these drones were used against us.  Jesus  gave a clear warning about this:  "Those who live by the sword shall die by the sword." What would the physical searing pain be like on the receiving end of a sharpshooter's high speed bullet or military drone’s high magnitude and high speed explosive (dropped in batches at a time)?  What would it be like for you or your children to live under and in terror - sporadically hearing the whistles and explosions and even witnessing loved ones dying in this manner?
     I happened to recently teach Iraqi war victim children in a public school, and not only heard horrific accounts of what transpired with loved ones, but have witnessed their post-traumatic stress syndrome. One example is of a fifth grade girl (who had been a Kindergartener when we attacked Baghdad) who, now in fifth grade, ran screaming into my ESL room and screaming out of my room and screaming back in for weeks.  I explained to my Iraqi  students and families  that most Americans were very against this war and that we are very sorry.  This, though, was kind of hard to explain to my Pakistani students.
    *Note:  While an ESL teacher, I had all my 2nd -  5th graders create a simile and a metaphor for peace to hang up before the Winter Break (Christmas).  Those of the Iraqi  students were the most touching like, "Peace is People Not Dying," instead of "Peace is People Not Killing," like other students had written.  Since many of my students were Muslim, and the five times a day that they pray begin with, "All merciful Allah, ..." (and because I personally believe in all-merciful God), my peace metaphor was: 
                                             "Peace is an All-Merciful River
                                              Flowing Out of the Holy Place,
                                              Slowly Changing the Hearts
                                              of Men and of Women."

*Note:  On May 3, it is the 30th anniversary of something worth reviewing - the U.S. Catholic bishops' peace pastoral: "The Challenge of Peace: God's Promise and Our Response," which states that the only way that we can possibly possess weapons of mass destruction is that we are in the process of disarmament.  It is worth reading!  And special thanks to Dr. Ron Carsten, an Ohio Dominican University teacher of peace and justice who co-authored it along with the U.S. Catholic bishops in 1983.   Muchas Gracias!