I am about to go on trial in Phoenix. One year ago, I was arrested during an act of nonviolent civil disobedience to speak out against anti-immigrant legislation in Arizona. Side by side with local activists and fellow Unitarian Universalists from across the nation, I was protesting Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's sweeps through Latino neighborhoods. It was July 29, 2010, the day Arizona's infamous SB 1070 went into effect.
Exactly one year later, on July 29, I return to stand trial. Let me be clear: the worst I will face pales in comparison to the hardships borne by so many others. Those who find themselves caught in the wrath of Sheriff Arpaio struggle as their families and their lives are torn apart.
As president of the Unitarian Universalist Association, I am a religious leader, not a political one. For me, joining the protest and being arrested along with fellow ministers, lay people, and local community activists was an act of religious witness. It was an affirmation of our common humanity and a spotlight on acts by law enforcement officials that marginalize and dehumanize our neighbors. These actions -- terrifying raids into private homes and racial profiling among them -- do not speak to humane immigration reform. They do nothing more than break our communities apart, person by person.
One of the slogans used in the struggle for immigrant rights is "Todos somos Arizona" ("We are all Arizona"). That phrase takes on new meaning as 10 other states either have passed or are actively considering passing copycat anti-immigrant legislation. Meanwhile, states like New York and Massachusetts are pulling back on their cooperation with federal immigration authorities. The conflict in Arizona rages across our land. Todos somos Arizona. Literally.
Good and thoughtful people are going to disagree about the particulars of public policy on immigration. But none of us is free to condone brutality, humiliation, policies that cause thousands of deaths of innocent people. Our religion compels us to take a stand.
We have to remember that our laws are founded on our sense of what is moral. And our sense of what is moral is ultimately founded on our religious and spiritual values. With legislation like SB 1070, our treatment of migrants goes against the teachings of all religious traditions.
I try to imagine what someone like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., would say about how we treat migrants in America today. Or Gandhi. Or Jesus. Where would they stand? Would they allow those with less power, less social standing, to be treated as if they are less than human? I believe we already know the answer.
I am proud to be president of a religious movement that calls all of us to stand on the side of love, on the side of the inherent worth and dignity of all people, on the side of compassion for those most vulnerable. I am proud of our Unitarian Universalist ministers and congregations in Georgia and Alabama who are at the forefront of opposing anti-immigrant legislation in those states.
Throughout this struggle, I think of my visit last year to our border with Mexico, and the children at a detention center there whose father had been taken away. I think of the thousands who have died in the desert. I think of the young undocumented adults I have met who came here as infants and now live in constant fear of being deported from the only country they have ever known. I can still see their faces. They haunt me.
When I think of the people who are suffering and dying as a result of our broken immigration system, I know I did the right thing a year ago. And I know all of us who stand on the side of love will have to make that stand again and again.
Todos somos Arizona.
Follow Rev. Peter Morales on Twitter: www.twitter.com/uua
Rev. G. Jude Geiger: Love vs Sheriff Arapio's Tent City
Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that the U.S. would be better off if we paid to free every slave. He was right. Let us hope that Americans will learn from our history: bad laws can lead to catastrophic results. All the rest is just talk.
Or, as is the case of mich in this thread, whatever punishment undocumented persons get is what they deserve. Mercy would be weakness, foolishness, and undeserved. Have we lost all shame?
2. Don't you think maybe *inviting* illegal immigrants into the U.S.A. is wrong and should be protested seegray? Or do you much prefer to "see gray", rather than black & white aka right & wrong as so many moral relativist U*Us do?
I am 100 percent for extremely large fines of employers and accompanying jail time. That is exactly where the "blame" for illegal workers belongs....not on those trying merely to make a living for themselves and their families.
As to "seegray", "see" is my initial (C). "gray" is my name. Thus, "seegray". I also believe in shades of gray to every problem and issue in our society....fortunately, the world is not black and white.
3. Whereas *inviting* illegal immigrants into the country in the first place does not "tear families apart and force them to make undeserved¬ly tough choices". . . Right SeeGray?
See above. That's exactly why employers should be punished. Also, you would do well to read up on the immigration issue and the border. Until 2001, most illegal immigrants lived up to that name; they migrated back and forth each year. They didn't have their families with them. The population really increased after that date, because entire families came. Prior to 01, there wouldn't have been nearly the same problem in "tearing families apart"....now, due to our policies, it is a much greater problem. I'll give you one guess as to why.
Do you see UUA President Pedro Morales, or any other U*U "religious leader" calling for "extremely large fines of employers and accompanying jail time" seegray? I sure don't. . . I expect that you are the exception that proves the rule of U*Us seeking blanket amnesty for illegal immigrants.
Most UUs I know do not support flat-out amnesty. Most of those I know support the type of pathway to normalized status that I outlined above. As border denizens however, perhaps we have a different perspective than many...I do not know. Thank you for a rational discussion on the topic.
1. You ask: "So just who *invited* illegal immigrants to come to the U.S.A. by offering them jobs seegray? Since you say "we" may I assume that you are one such person? Do you *really* think that it is *wise* to invite *illegal* immigrants into the U.S.A.?"
We as a society invited these persons for the last several decades. We looked the other way while companies and farmers and homeowners hired them. We bought the furits of their labor cheaply. "We" is a word for our society as a whole. If you didn't turn in your neighbor who hired a "maid", or the one who hired someone to do their lawn, then you are as complicit as anyone else. We as a society are to blame, and now we wonder why there may be a problem.....it isn't rocket science.
(to be continued)
Your heart may be in a kind place but perhaps you are just ignorant of the many problems brought by illegals. Another example of the financial troubles brought is welfare http://www.fairus.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=16985&security=1601&news_iv_ctrl=1017 You need to repent for your sins against your fellow citizens and try to help them. In case you haven't noticed, our country is in a serious budget crisis and illegal aliens have done their share to hurt our budget.
Look at the numbers on this web site and see the "value" brought to our country by illegals http://immigrationcounters.com/
The irony is that the liberals keep saying that it's the Republicans who are profiting by being able to pay low wages.
Guess what Dems/Liberals/Lefties? You're doing the exact same damage. Your lobbying for open borders and mass illegal immigration has led to Oversupply; especially in the time of a down economy and massive unemployment.
Your illegal friends are not only taking up jobs, resources and social programs, they're driving down our wages.
It's ironic because I hear how the lefties want to raise the minimum wage up. Great. The first step in doing that is to ship out the illegals. When you have 500 people applying for one job; and many of those applicants willing to work for minimum wage or less, you're guaranteeing that Americans won't be able to receive a living wage.
You're helping illegals, but you're hurting Americans.
Illegal immigration is a problem, but it pales in comparison to the attempts to take away the rights of citizens of the United States. Under this illegal law, people who cannot prove to the officer's satisfaction that they are really citizens can be sent to prison. People can thus be falsely arrested, falsely imprisoned, and have their lives destroyed by the overheavy hand of the State.
All the while the people of the State are blind to the fact that the rich are robbing them blind, sending their jobs overseas, forcing them into jobs paying less, taking away their unemployment insurance and plotting to take away Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. The rich are setting people against people, pretending that there isn't enough to go around, when in reality they have gobbled up everything themselves.
Everyone's rights are under attack. Those who do not recognize that undocumented workers are being made the scapegoats for crimes of a much larger nature are foolishly looking the wrong direction.
We might someday be able to afford single-payer health, but not if we have to include all of Mexico.
By providing unfettered access to SS, Medicare, and Medicaid to unqualified individuals, we are virtually guaranteeing their eventual failure. It's time we put our own house in order.
And raise my taxes, I'm fine with that. But they should go to benefit legal Americans of all races first and foremost.
Jesus did.
President Morales knew perfectly well what he was doing, he knew that the risks of any serious consequences for his erstaz "civil disobedience" were very low, indeed he might not have engaged in this fake "civil disobedience" if the risks and consequences were much higher. In fact he has said elsewhere -
"I'm a very *privileged* person. I have a whole religious organization behind me. I'm not going to get deported or separated from my family. The worst I will face is some *inconvenience*."
If anyone is wondering why I waggishly refer to President Morales' ersatz "civil disobedience" as Civil Dis-O-BDSM it is because the police Bondage & Discipline that he engaged in Seeking Media attention was comparatively safe, moderately sane, and 100% consensual just like "safe, sane, consensual" BDSM. . .