Beautiful photograph. Thank you, Dr. Richardson, for your intelligent dedication to our beloved country. Wishing you and those you love a wonderful 2023.
I have been thinking about how to counter the right messages about immigrants that may sway fearful voters in the next election. asylum? letter and postcard writers, who helped mobilize voters across the country in 2029 & 22, send a succession of mail telling the truth and sharing stories of immigrants desperate enough to risk everything to seek asylum? The cards could share some of the history Heather recently covered...what worked and what did not. Some solutions, like establishing more courts at the border and hearing more asylum requests could be covered. Any other ideas for educating and changing public opinion?
Dear Susan, thank you for your very thoughtful comment. I work with immigrants through my church and wish so much that the narrative could be changed and that people would recognize that these people are just like our parents and grandparents wereтАжonly seeking to have a better life for themselves and their familiesтАжand of course leaving a homeland they love but can no longer live in due to violence, climate change, etc.
Education is a good goal -- the just-say-no anger gets us (ahem) nowhere. Kindness, understanding, stories are what can open hearts. Thanks for bringing this forward, Susan!
Hi Susan. The only thing I might add to your thoughtful suggestions would be to express our pride in living in a Country that accepts and welcomes asylum seekers. And if the time should ever come when we, in our Country should find ourselves in the same situation, there would be a place whose government had the same policy.
I am reading "American Gospel" by Jon Meacham. I am not a regular church going Christian. I have two married brothers who see themselves as born again Christians with political views that don't seem very Christian. They don't understand why we don't have zero immigrants who aren't 100% legal when they enter the country. Of course all of this is up to Americans to define what is legal. And in fact, if we were all held up to scrutiny, none of us are 100% legal 100% of the time.
Back to my book. It very effectively describes our history of America and it's religions, as well as the care that earlier leaders gave to this issue. Separating private, personal religion from public and national use of religion.
I have concluded that immigrants are a political issue, but that mistreatment of them is a religious issue. That God has assigned no territorial boundaries around the earth. That in God's eyes, there are no immigrants. That true Christian's would find a way to deal with this that provides for the needs of all God's people. If this were to happen, there would be no immigrant problem.
I have been seeing more comments (Post, Mastodon, Twitter) that we should drop the term immigrants and use "asylum seekers." The narrative is important and we can better phrase it away from the Right's emotion-laden terms.
Susan. I've had an idea for quite some time, but have not been able to operationalize it. It might sound crazy, but I think we should sell t-shirts emblazened "Take Up Oxygen" in honor of HCR and use the proceeds to sponsor annual scholarships for bright young minds, including Dreamers, who are ineligible for so many existing awards.
I will forward your comment to the head of our postcard group. I think this is an excellent idea! I would love to keep writing and this is a very worthy topic.
Happy New Year to you dear, Heather. Thank you for everything and wishing you all good things in 2023.
And to all in this wonderful community - wishing you the same.
Beautiful photograph. Thank you, Dr. Richardson, for your intelligent dedication to our beloved country. Wishing you and those you love a wonderful 2023.
I have been thinking about how to counter the right messages about immigrants that may sway fearful voters in the next election. asylum? letter and postcard writers, who helped mobilize voters across the country in 2029 & 22, send a succession of mail telling the truth and sharing stories of immigrants desperate enough to risk everything to seek asylum? The cards could share some of the history Heather recently covered...what worked and what did not. Some solutions, like establishing more courts at the border and hearing more asylum requests could be covered. Any other ideas for educating and changing public opinion?
Dear Susan, thank you for your very thoughtful comment. I work with immigrants through my church and wish so much that the narrative could be changed and that people would recognize that these people are just like our parents and grandparents wereтАжonly seeking to have a better life for themselves and their familiesтАжand of course leaving a homeland they love but can no longer live in due to violence, climate change, etc.
Education is a good goal -- the just-say-no anger gets us (ahem) nowhere. Kindness, understanding, stories are what can open hearts. Thanks for bringing this forward, Susan!
Hi Susan. The only thing I might add to your thoughtful suggestions would be to express our pride in living in a Country that accepts and welcomes asylum seekers. And if the time should ever come when we, in our Country should find ourselves in the same situation, there would be a place whose government had the same policy.
I am reading "American Gospel" by Jon Meacham. I am not a regular church going Christian. I have two married brothers who see themselves as born again Christians with political views that don't seem very Christian. They don't understand why we don't have zero immigrants who aren't 100% legal when they enter the country. Of course all of this is up to Americans to define what is legal. And in fact, if we were all held up to scrutiny, none of us are 100% legal 100% of the time.
Back to my book. It very effectively describes our history of America and it's religions, as well as the care that earlier leaders gave to this issue. Separating private, personal religion from public and national use of religion.
I have concluded that immigrants are a political issue, but that mistreatment of them is a religious issue. That God has assigned no territorial boundaries around the earth. That in God's eyes, there are no immigrants. That true Christian's would find a way to deal with this that provides for the needs of all God's people. If this were to happen, there would be no immigrant problem.
I have been seeing more comments (Post, Mastodon, Twitter) that we should drop the term immigrants and use "asylum seekers." The narrative is important and we can better phrase it away from the Right's emotion-laden terms.
Susan. I've had an idea for quite some time, but have not been able to operationalize it. It might sound crazy, but I think we should sell t-shirts emblazened "Take Up Oxygen" in honor of HCR and use the proceeds to sponsor annual scholarships for bright young minds, including Dreamers, who are ineligible for so many existing awards.
I will forward your comment to the head of our postcard group. I think this is an excellent idea! I would love to keep writing and this is a very worthy topic.
Thanks Susan
Yes!!