Please legislate and don’t obstruct by abusing the process
“EACH son or daughter of a given country has a mission, a personal and social responsibility. Your own responsibility as members of Congress is to enable this country, by your legislative activity, to grow as a nation. You are the face of its people, their representatives. You are called to defend and preserve the dignity of your fellow citizens in the tireless and demanding pursuit of the common good, for this is the chief aim of all politics. A political society endures when it seeks, as a vocation, to satisfy common needs by stimulating the growth of all its members, especially those in situations of greater vulnerability or risk. Legislative activity is always based on care for the people. To this, you have been invited, called and convened by those who elected you.” – Pope Francis, 9/28/2015
“Grandma Tabitha Moffatt Brown climbed down from her tall horse and glanced anxiously at her companion., old Captain John Brown, her brother – in – law, was ready to collapse from fatigue and hunger. Tabitha looked at the rugged, mountainous wilderness surrounding the remote wagon trail over which they had just ridden. What could she do? Her tired, aching body cried out for food and a soft bed. Darkness was coming, and it was raining, Captain was so sick and worn out she wondered if he would live through the night. They had no shelter from the wind and rain, and only three strips of bacon left.” – Mary Barmeyer O’Brien, Heart of the Trail, 1997.
When Pope Francis visited the joint session of Congress, I was so hopeful, hoping that the Holy Spirit’s representative would move this illustrious body into doing what was significant, critical and necessary. For far too long, this House of Representatives, under Speaker John Boehner, has voted over 61 times to stop what they feared as job-crushing Obamacare; yet, this law has provided 17 million Americans and permanent residents with affordable health care.
The fact is Obamacare has created jobs to reduce the unemployment from a high of 9.5 percent to today’s 5 percent, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics, cited by AOL.com on June 9, 2015.
Yet, it has not stopped this august body of legislators, dominated by 247 Republicans, from being obstructive, as their default reactions have cost the taxpayers unwanted and unnecessary expenses, including a government shutdown, which cost the US government coffers, $24 billion.
For all that reduction in the unemployment rate, I was hoping that this august body of legislators would give us, the taxpayers, “shelter from the wind and rain,” and enact legislation to provide us, immigration reform.
In “In Heart of the Trail”, Mary Barmeyer O’ Brien’s wrote about Grandma Brown, who in 1846 at 36 years old, traveled from Missouri to Fort Hall in today’s Southern Idaho, up to Oregon’s Umpqua Mountains, where she came across in her own words, “strewn with dead cattle, broken wagons, beds, clothing, and everything but provisions of which we were nearly destitute.”
Grandma thought of the wolves and the cold; she was so wet the night before that she could not even be warm, for lack of fire. She worried about her husband and daughter Pherne (whose food was almost gone), as they insisted that they move ahead to catch up with the emigrants [immigrants] they saw a day before in covered wagon, hoping to share in their provisions.
Sharing with a purpose
But, what if these immigrants turned a cold heart to ignore the needs of Grandma Tabitha and Captain John Brown? What would have happened to these pioneers of the Oregon Trail, Grandma Tabitha and Captain John Brown, without these caring immigrants?
Mary Barmeyer O’Brien cited, “As soon as light had dawned, I [Grandma Tabitha] pulled down my tent, saddled the horses; found the Captain so as to stand upon his feet – just as this moment one of the emigrants [immigrants] that I was trying to overtake came to me – he was in search of venison—half a mile ahead were the wagons I was trying to catch up with. We were soon there, and ate plentifully of fresh venison.”
Modernly referred to by CNN as “aliens” — a repulsive derogatory term for human beings — these immigrants became the crucial links to survival for these early 19th century pioneers, enabling them to see through their ordeal.
Grandma Tabitha wrote, “…Here we were obliged to wait for more emigrants to help cut a road through; here my children and grandchildren came up with us—a joyful meeting. They had been near starving. Mr. Pringle tried to shoot a wolf, but he was too weak and trembling to hold his rifle steady.”
Had there not been immigrants who shared with Grandma Tabitha, she would have perished, just as the Captain would, and they would not have lived through to blaze the trails of Oregon, as much as unnamed emigrants, unsung heroes called immigrants.
Immigrants and why reform
Had we lived up to being dignified members of a compassionate nation, essentially part of humanity, we would stop making “others” our enemies. Instead, we would remember immigrant histories, as trailblazers, much like native-born Grandma Tabitha, and that they were bridge builders and beacons, much like Emma Lazarus on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty read: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
Until 1921, writes John F. Kennedy in “A Nation of Immigrants,” this was an accurate picture of our society. Under present law, it would be appropriate to add: “as long as they come from Northern Europe, are not too tired or too poor or slightly ill, never stole a loaf of bread, never joined a questionable organization, and can document their activities for the past two years.”
He continued, “the national origins quota system has strong overtones of an indefensible racial preference. It is strongly weighted toward so-called Anglo-Saxons, a phrase which one writer calls “a term of art” encompassing almost anyone from Northern and Western Europe.”
“The idea behind this discriminatory policy was, to put it boldly, that Americans with English or Irish names were better people and better citizens than Americans with Italian or Greek or Polish names…Such a concept is utterly unworthy of our traditions and our ideals,” Pres. Truman said when he vetoed the Immigration and Nationality Act (only to have that veto overridden).
Today, on the examples of our pioneers — like Grandma Tabitha and the immigrants who helped her family live, Pres. Kennedy and Pres. Truman — we need you, our members of the 114th Congress, to distinguish yourself from these abject discriminatory thoughts, that the “others” are foreign to us, when in fact, their histories are interwoven and linked to the histories of our pioneering trailblazers.
We need to make their histories more visible to make for a healthier, vibrant, interrelated America, a representation of what world-class America looks like and the way America looks at itself, away from its discriminatory and medieval ways of being and practices.
It is your challenge to rise above your party’s blindness and to see beyond its ideological focus that you are the only ultimate source of wisdom and knowledge and reach out to our duly elected top executive, President Barack Obama, who was elected by over 120 million Americans.
It is time to set aside party politics and legislate for the common good, as Pope Francis said. It is time to remember the immigrants who saved Grandma Tabitha and make them more visible in our American history!
It is really time to be noble statesmen, much like the examples shown by President Obama.
You cannot rewrite the history of interlinkages that immigrants have contributed as pioneers, any more than you can derail destiny. We are all human beings, worthy of prosperity, equality and opportunity, much like you and your predecessors are enjoying!
And to the Democrats in the House and Senate, we thank you for your abiding convictions to do what is right for the common good. Thank you for being our steadfast champions of American values of care, compassion, equality and no discrimination!
It really is time to move forward and reclaim America from ungrateful hearts, from destructive discriminatory thoughts, and become the noble legislators who move America towards peace, prosperity and humanity, an America we can all be proud of, as much as the world can, too!
Soon, it will be Thanksgiving, and what a gift you will give us, the taxpayers, to enact an immigration reform, worthy of the White House’s signature.
I pray to the Holy Spirit that you will do the right thing, as our elected congressional leaders. After all, we are more than Democrats, we are more than Republicans — we are Americans and most of all, we are all children of an awesome, loving God, whose legacy is for all of us to thrive in joy, love and peace!
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Prosy Abarquez-Delacruz, J.D. writes a weekly column for Asian Journal, called “Rhizomes.” She has been writing for Asian Journal Press for 8 years now. She contributes to Balikbayan Magazine. Her training and experiences are in the field of science, food technology, law and community volunteerism for 4 decades. She holds a B.S. degree from the University of the Philippines, a law degree from Whittier College School of Law in California and a certificate on 21st Century Leadership from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. She has been a participant in NVM Writing Workshops taught by Prof. Peter Bacho for 4 years and Prof. Russell Leong. She has travelled to France, Holland, Belgium and Mexico and 22 national parks in the US, in pursuit of her love for arts.