I've started teaching an adult ESL class on Tuesday and Thursday nights and I love it! I was really nervous before I started and really regretting taking the job, but tonight was class three, and we're starting to get to know each other and I'm remembering why I came to Wheaton in the first place. I love teaching! I love the prep and the presentation and seeing the light of comprehension glowing in my student's eyes.
I only have five students, with one more coming soon, or so the rumor goes. They're all immigrants.
I never really felt especially passionate one way or the other, re: illegal aliens. I always thought, on one hand, rules are rules and they should be followed. What would happen if EVERYONE moved to the US? We'd turn into the new poor kid on the block!
On the other hand, though, as a Christian (well, and as a person) I've always found it quite arrogant to say, "Hey, I was lucky enough to be born into this country. I learned the language as a child; I've never missed a meal, never spent a night without heat, never had to walk more than a mile to get somewhere; never even saw a starving person or a had to drink contaminated water; I've never worried about getting malaria or TB or HIV or anything, really, because we have drugs for everything. YOU, on the other hand were not so lucky. Too bad for you. Stay where you are. Starve. Die of a disease we could cure on this side of the border. Freeze to death or die of heat stroke. It's your own fault, for being born outside my country's borders".
So until this point I've felt pretty torn. But this weekend I was talking to someone at church about my job and she asked if the students were all legal. I didn't know. And I felt angry that she asked, which surprised me.
I guess I finally chose my side of the fence. My students accidentally reminded me, again, how hard it is to be in someone else's country. I knew this before. I've been that person often enough to know.
But you know, of all the countries I've visited, I've never gotten the kind of poor treatment refugees and immigrants to the US get daily. No one every said to me, "Why don't you go back to your own country?" or "Why don't you learn German/Russian/Spanish/Mandarin/Romanian?" No one ever glared at me when I didn't know how to use their money and just held out a handful of coins with a hopeful look at the cashier.
I know that not every American is like that. Surely, those sorts of people are the minority. But they are a loud minority. So if you're part of that silent majority, the majority that chooses kindness over condemnation regardless of political views, let me urge you to speak up. I challenge you to question the arrogance and self-righteousness of assuming we're the only ones worthy of appreciating the blessings of this country.
If you haven't yet, please go watch "God Grew Tired of Us". It's a National Geographic documentary of four Sudanese refugees who come to the US. It's honest, funny, stirring, heart-wrenching, and encouraging. It will help you to understand the challenges faces by refugees who are relocated. Definitely worth your time.
PS
You can check your local video store for God Grew Tired of Us if you're interested. I looked online and Family Video and Blockbuster both carry it. My library does, too. If you want a taste, you can watch a clip on National Geographic's website. Here's the link:
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/specials/films-specials/god-grew-tired-of-us/
1 comment:
GET IT LESLIE! Such appropriate comments, I appreciate them so much! I teach a lot of immigrants and children of immigrants, too, but I also live in a place where the Anglo attitude toward the immigrants is exactly what you described. I have personally heard many Anglos who look at the immigrants and have the GALL to self-righteously say, "Well, if I were to go to a foreign country, I'd learn the language first, so how come these Hispanics can't learn our language before they come here?" It frustrates me. Thanks for sharing how you came to be on your side of the fence. ;)
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