Finding America in Her Sanctuary Cities

The following poem was first posted on April 23, 2017, as part of my Journalistic Poetry series, "Bearing Witness to the Times." The issues of immigration and sanctuary cities are still very much in the news. Last week came word that "A federal court has ruled against the Trump administration in a lawsuit over funding for 'sanctuary cities.' ” That particular court ruling had to do with the city of Seattle, WA. Previous court rulings have already ruled in favor of cities in California.

This week we have had reports of troops being sent to the border to stop the caravan from Central American (even though they are still a couple of weeks away, but midterm elections are next week, so it makes for good election drama), and plans for an executive order to end birthright citizenship (even though it is a constitutional right and even Paul Ryan says he can't take that away – but it makes for good election drama).

May we never forget that we are a place of sanctuary for refugees seeking asylum. May we not lose sight of the fact that we are a nation of immigrants. May we always remember that welcoming the immigrant strengthens us a nation.

In our sanctuary cities, may we find America; may we find ourselves.

San Francisco is one of several sanctuary cities    (Photo by Kaddi Sudhi)

"Washington threatens funding cuts to California, other 'sanctuary' areas"

(Headline from Reuters)

Sanctuary Cities

Across the country

Cities rise –

Reaching for humanity,

Calling upon our higher nature.

While often seen

As places of danger –

Cruel life on the streets
And hideouts for our greatest evil –

Cities also gather our greatest good,

Presenting skills of workers

Talents of artists

And dreams of seekers.

Today
While a nation constricts,

Guarding its borders

And hoarding its treasure,

Some cities rise in freedom.

Some cities proclaim our best,

Welcoming the stranger

And speaking to the hopes of our ancestors.

Defying bitter politics of fear,

Sanctuary cities offer shelter

And refuge

To all who have heard the call

Of Lady Liberty

In New York Harbor.

While politicians cry

“We are a nation of laws,”

Our conscience cries,

“We are a nation of immigrants.”

It is to the city that we come.

We come to find ourselves,

We come to find America.

                                                           ~ CK

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Photo by Mike Blake (Reuters)

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The Pope and the Donald

 

I happened to be at home getting some home repair work done yesterday when the news broke on CNN: “Pope Says Trump Is Not Christian.” The coverage that ensued got crazier and crazier. In fact, I haven't laughed so much at the news since John Stewart left The Daily Show.  

While the news people were talking about what Pope Francis had said about building walls instead of bridges in response to an immigration question while in Mexico, the news went live to a Trump gathering where the Donald was responding to the Pope's comments. It came across as, "Oh so the Pope it talking about ME? (swagger, swagger). Well let me tell ya, for a religious leader to question someone's faith is disgraceful!"

It's not like others have not questioned the Donald's faith, wondering if he is just pandering to the voters, since faith had never seemed to me an important issue with him before. Early on, when he said the Bible was his favorite book next to his own, some news journalists asked what particular scriptures were his favorite, he said, "I wouldn't want to get into it because to me that's very personal them all. The Bible means a lot to me, but I don't want to get into specifics." And of course there was the hilarious quoting of "Two Corinthians" when he spoke at Liberty University. 

I should add that to me, it sounded like the Pope, in responding to the question of a proposed wall along the border, was explaining that that kind of action would not be Christian. Some of the context may have been lost in translation, but it is not the first time that a pope has called out a nation’s practice as being contrary to the Christian faith (that is sort of what pope’s do in their pastoral role). John Paul II called out the US on economic policies that do not reflect Christian values and in the same vein spoke out against capital punishment.  One could also point out that Bernie Sanders has some policies that do reflect Christian values, but that does not mean he is a Christian (he in fact is Jewish). I do not see it as a matter of judging a person, but rather a matter of judging a policy.  

The Donald Does Not See Himself in the White House

Donald Trump tipped his hand by his choice of words while he was responding to the Pope's comments. He does not really expect to make it to the White House. He said that “if and when the Vatican is attacked by ISIS, the Pope would have only wished and prayed that Donald Trump would have been President because this would not have happened." That sounds like someone who does not expect to be in the White House. You heard it here first. It will be just as well for Mr. Trump, though. He can continue to say things like, "That would not have happened if I had been President!" I think he will like that just fine.

Then the anchor went to Jerry Falwell, Jr. for his response. The junior is not as impressive a speaker as his dad, but he discounted the Pope remarks because Jesus said religious leaders were a bunch of hypocrites (he didn't seem to notice that he was being interviewed because he himself is a religious leader). Falwell was also quite displeased that the Pope is trying to get countries to act more Christian when Jesus, in Falwell's view, just wanted individuals to be charitable and let to just let the Romans handle all the government stuff. So suddenly, The Rev. Falwell, Jr. thinks that Christian beliefs have no place in the U.S. government? Well that should save him and his ilk lots of time formerly spent advocating for prayer in schools and ending abortion.

Between the anchor trying to explain what the Pope said, Trump's comments and Falwell's comments, I was rolling with laughter. What can I say, they were filling air time. If you wrote a screen play like this for the movies, critics would say, "That would never happen in the real world!"

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Are Our Lawmakers Capable of Passing Humane Laws?

(Birmingham News photo)

A brief article (“Latinos plead with Sen. Jeff Sessions asking him to help them andtheir families”) in the Sunday print edition of The Birmingham News reported a town hall meeting in which our senator, Jeff Sessions, was confronted by Latinos in the audience about the reality of their lives here in our state. Sessions’ initial response was that we should abide by the laws of our country.  Later Sessions admitted that our government for 20 or 30 years has failed to address the immigration issue.  So Jeff Sessions loves to fall back on making sure we treat the issue of immigration in accordance with our laws, but as a member of the law-making body he is just as unwilling as the rest to make changes that would allow for a sensible and humane immigration policy.

If it did not benefit our society to have undocumented immigrants working here, they would not be here. Increasingly over the past 2 or 3 decades, we have willingly paid these immigrant people to mow our lawns, do our housework, clean our hotels, dig our ditches, work on our construction crews, and do any number of dangerous jobs in the meat-packing industry and other types of unskilled labor. We have used them for our advantage (or I should say, our society has).  Now we are getting a little uneasy and anxious. It is as though we are shocked and outraged that all of these aliens whom we have employed at low wages (and without reporting said payments) are somehow in our midst. We resort to passing harsh immigration laws rather than making it a more reasonable process.

It is quite telling that on the front page of the same edition of the News there was a “50 Years of Progress” article about how this state relied upon unreasonable laws to prevent African Americans from exercising their rights as citizens back in 1963 (see "Threats. Bombs. Love. Hate. Descendants of local civil rights figures reflect on 1963")  On one page we pat ourselves on the back for how far we have come; on the other page we celebrate the fact that we are still relying upon unfair laws to suppress those who provide us with their hard labor.

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The Supreme Court Rules on My Blog Posts

Well, actually the Supreme Court ruled this month on two of my blog post topics. I don’t do political commentary every day – not even every week. On those occasions when I have written about political issues, the two most frequent topics have been healthcare reform and immigration.  I am pleased to report that this month the highest court in the land has backed up much of what I have been saying.  Indeed, June has been a very important month in addressing two big issues for our country. 

On Immigration

My blogging on immigration was mainly in response to Alabama’s harsh immigration law. The last time I commented on the Alabama law was on May 9 with “Our Immigration Dilemma. “

When my state refused to repeal or even budge on its Immigration law, even after the protests and the many requests from our citizens,  it became all too clear to me that Alabama will not do what is just and right in this situation unless and until the Federal government intervenes. I should have known this. The same was true with Jim Crow laws, civil rights and integration (but one can always hope that his state will do better).

The Supreme Court’s ruling on the Arizona Immigration law, issued on June 25^th, is a sure step toward correcting Alabama's law. As reported in The New York Times, immigration is a matter of federal jurisdiction , not individual states:

The justices make it clear that this case is about the power of the federal government to set immigration policy and to pre-empt, to a large degree, state policies that can infringe on that federal power. An expert on immigration law, Micahel A. Olivas, explained: "We can't have 50 different immigration policies, 50 different foreign policies."

The only part of the Arizona Law that the court tentatively upheld was the section that allows law enforcement to determine immigration status of someone detained for other reasons if there is legitimate suspicion. When this part of the law is enacted, it will likely lead to racial profiling which may then be struck down by the court.

So in short, there is some hope yet for justice. Will congress now embark on serious immigration reform?

On Healthcare

As for healthcare, I have had several posts in regard to President Obama’s Affordable Care Act.  As a healthcare worker, I am all too familiar with the failure of our healthcare system to grant access to healthcare for many of our people. I am also acutely aware of how our insurance premiums are driven up by the many people who show up in our emergency rooms without insurance. Hospitals cannot not treat them, and the cost is passed on to those of use with insurance. Many of these uninsured patients cannot afford coverage. Some are unemployed; some have part-time jobs with no insurance benefits. It is all too clear that we need reform that will bring better access to healthcare and reign in the spiraling costs of insurance coverage.  My last blog about healthcare was on April 9th after arguments had been made before the Supreme Court in the case challenging legality of the Affordable Care Act and we knew that a decision would be forthcoming in June. I was obviously concerned at the time when I titled that essay, "Healthcare in the Courts: Checks and Balances or Partisan Gamesmanship?"

Much has already been said in blogs, in print, and on the airwaves about the significance of this landmark Supreme Court ruling in which Chief Justice Roberts sided with (and wrote) the majority opinion to uphold the Affordable Care Act. Ezra Klein has a good commentary about what this ruling will mean for the country by showing how it will affect real people in their day-to-day lives.

Take a deep breath and be not afraid

In both of these important cases that went before the Supreme Court, I am thankful that reason and justice tipped the scales over doctrinaire extremism and partisanship. So much of what we have heard from vocal opponents of "Obamacare" and from loud supporters of Arizona’s immigration law has been a reaction based on fear. The road ahead will not be simple or easy, but we must never let fear be our guide.

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