AMERICA: LAND OF THE FREE

Turn you radio on this week to just about any radio station and you will hear someone
screaming about Mexicans. That’s right, Mexicans. The word became synonym for all
other illegal foreigners in this country. Your will hear irresponsible talk show hosts call
them “locust that need to be taken care of”, “puss in our midst” and the reference of their
children as “anchor babies”. The word “patriot” always follows in justification of their
remarks.
I called one these programs today, only to be told that they have no problem with people
like me, who are here legally for almost two decades. The fault on their argument,
however, is that for the first seven and a half years, before I became “legal” I was just
like all other illegal aliens you will meet anywhere in the country. According to their
national chant both my older children should be referred to as “ anchor babies”.

There lies the beginning of a huge problem: the criminalization of an entire group of
people since we have decided to make the issue so impersonal, by making it about
borders and laws. Yes, there are laws in this country that forbids people to come here on
visa and stay, like I did, or to just cross the border in search of a better life like the
Mexicans do. However, after allowing millions of people to settle and form families here,
it is not longer reasonable to call for the government to simply round up all of them and
send them back to wherever they came from. It is rarely that simple when it involves
fathers, mothers, children and communities. It is never a good idea joining in the chant
without thinking about ramification and the social problems it seeds for many years to
come.

We support our arguments by stating the law over and over again, and we feel justified.
But what has happened to the law which stated that black people could not sit in the front
seats on buses, or that they should not be allowed to vote or join the military? Do we as a
nation feel that we should revisited this notion once again; or we are finally in accord that
humans are humans no matter the color of their skins? The Germans passed many laws
leading to the Second World War, one by one transforming a law abiding community into
criminals to be despised and blamed for all economical problems of an early 1930’s
Germany. Do we as a nation believe they were justified?

One of the most telling question humans pose has to do with ones placement in time of
tragedy. Where were you when President Kennedy was assassinated? Where were you at
9 am on September 11? When we talk about Hitler, we all say that if given the chance,
we would kill him to prevent the demise of so many Jewish souls; but that is easily said
now that we have all the facts. We know how different we would treat the Japanese
community after the Second World War, and we are all certain that as German natives, we
would have the fortitude to do the right thing, and at least save the children.
I have always felt angry and embarrassed ever since I learned about the holocaust and
slavery. It shaped me into a person who does not have much confidence in humans as a
group, for in my eyes evolution always comes at the suffering of a few courageous and
charismatic souls. They alone fight out battles, and teach their disciples about the
importance of empathy and humanity. The problem always comes few years down the
road when the leader dies, and the disciples forget that it is their responsibility to pass on
the knowledge to a new generation. When we forget our past, we begin once again
chanting about a new group of people.

So we have come full circle. You accuse us of being unpatriotic and in return you think
we are calling you a racist. For all of you misguided people out there who feel absolutely
white, I will explain to you in simple terms why the rest of us are fighting you so hard.
We as a human race chanted loudly about Jews, right before marching them into gas
chambers and ovens and in fact, there are still some of us trying to convince the rest of
the world that it never happened. We dragged black people across the ocean in chains and
after years of servitude we paid them back by dragging them from their homes- to the
despair of their children- and we hung them off trees because we knew that we could. We
could not send the blacks back to Africa or keep them from claiming their rights because
one black man stood up and said: “I have a dream…”

We, the human race, have damaged the black community to such an extent, that we were
able to convince them that they do not belong here at all, that in fact, they are not
Americans; they are African- Americans. Even thought the majority of blacks in this
country have never been to Africa nor can they afford the air fare to go visit. We knew
then that we could get away with it, because the rest of us would say nothing. We all had
mortgages and a social ladder to climb just like today. We are busy chanting about
Mexicans and Muslims, while all gay man and woman in this country have their noses
pressed against their television sets, for they know they are next. Sometimes I feel funny
for having to pay a psychologist to help me to get rid of, among other things, the
unjustified anger and shame I feel about our lock of humanity when considering the
Holocaust and Slavery. I am sure the majority of teenagers across the United States, upon
learning our human history, ask the same question: how could we ever? Sometimes I
almost feel better until you people start chanting again.

So there it is. We today chant about Mexicans just like the extreme Muslims chant about
America, and off course, China, North Korea, Iran and other countries join in with their
own chant. It might surprise you to know that we think you are absolutely right about the
social and economical impact of an open border, and that we know that this problem has
to be dealt with it with no further delays. What make us different from you, is that we do
not apologize for liking the people while acknowledging the problem. We do not call
them names and we respect their children, for history has shown us how silly it is the
notion that they are any different than the rest of us. Shame on all of you “patriots” who
think otherwise, for we are still known worldwide as “the land of the free”. You should
know that we agree with you on the need to close our borders; it is your “chant” we
dislike. It is your hateful chant we are afraid of.

Marco Aurelio