PRESCIENCE?

"I felt fortunate to have migrated into the U.S. during a window of time when the country still embodied the ideals represented by the Statue of Liberty, welcoming the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free. But perhaps that was only the ideal and never the reality. Certainly, during this horror show that is the current Presidential administration, my adopted country often feels unrecognizable.

I entered this country legally, and with my Green Card I was awarded the privilege of permanent residency. When I finally became a United States citizen and obtained my first U.S. passport I was filled with tremendous pride. The great irony is that today, with that bigoted tyrant in our White House, I have never felt more vulnerable and fearful of being uprooted from my life and deported back to a country I no longer have any memory of or a connection to. I cannot begin to imagine how scary it must feel to be an undocumented immigrant at this time. I don’t get why it’s so hard for political leaders to understand and appreciate the utter desperation it takes to summon the courage to leave your entire world behind for the prospect of a better life. Many of those undocumented immigrants who make the treacherous journey into the U.S. are aware that life may not be automatically easier for them. They often toil at jobs that require extreme physical labor at very low wages, the likes of which most Americans will never experience, but those hard-working immigrants are motivated and thrive on the hope that someday it will be better for their children and all the generations to follow."

~HIGH WATER

by Patty Flores Reinhart