by Ernie McCray
It’s so refreshing,
especially nowadays,
to hear ideas being expressed
in loving ways,
and I listened, recently,
to a few speakers,
at a forum sponsored by
H.O.M.E.
the abbreviation for
Humanitarian Outreach for
Migrant Emotional Health,
who spoke with affection concerning how the organization
goes about its mission to ensure
that the voices of asylum seekers,
ICE detainees,
and immigrants in removal proceedings
are heard and understood,
the evening beginning with a warm reminder
that we were gathered
in Kumeyaay territory
and that we should honor that with dignity.
That inspired me to sit up straight in my seat
and direct my attention very intently
to everything being said,
and as words were verbalized
regarding the many reasons
people from other countries
seek lives in ours,
words silencing the lies
about immigrants being part of a criminal class
as very few are,
images rose in my mind
of some soul
breaking loose from a cartel
or escaping the grasp of a kidnapper
or torturer
or someone bent on harming them sexually,
a husband or boyfriend, perhaps,
and I visualized
human beings coming to realize
that the politics inherent in their nation’s government
would forever
crush the hopes and dreams
they have for living a good life,
causing them to sometimes risk their lives
to come to our shores
among the “huddled masses yearning to breathe free”
written at the base of the Statue of Liberty.
It was so refreshing to my spirit
to hear people share
how H.O.M.E. clinicians
listen to the stories that survivors
of such conditions tell
and document their accounts
so that government officials
can determine, with the best knowledge available,
who might be granted protection
and given permission to live in our country.
And I left the gathering
with these words from one of the speakers etched in my being
due to my fervent wish that we, as a society,
work to become more welcoming:
“We are not powerless
as long as we act in a spirit of
justice and fairness and common sense.”
Oh, what an amiable closing message
that heartfelt sentiment was to me
with respect to human beings
reaching out to other human beings
to make a situation humane.
It left me thinking just how better
the world would be
if all of humanity
possessed H.O.M.E.’s mentality.
Anyway, a man can dream.
