Collaboration!
Emily and I have started a blog together in which we recount our food adventures. You should really check it out.
Mia Fioritto’s Weblog
Archive for September, 2007
Choices
I was raised with a firm sense of individual responsibility. Being provoked, no matter the circumstances, was never accepted as an excuse for bad behavior. “You need to worry about you–not about them,” we were told over and over again. “You can make good choices.” I really do believe this. Our circumstances certainly impact how difficult those choices are, but in the end we are responsible for how we move through life.
I recently read an article in the New York Times about a town that made it illegal for any business to hire an illegal immigrant or to rent property to them. In the end, most of the immigrants left town leaving the economy in shambles. Now I have my opinions about legislation like this. I’m not sure it’s wise to place the burden of enforcing immigration law on citizens, nor do I think it makes a ton of sense economically; however, what really horrified me about this particular circumstance had little to do with any of that.
When asked to reflect on his decision to push for the ordinance, the town’s former mayor said, “The business district is fairly vacant now, but it’s not the legitimate businesses that are gone. It’s all the ones that were supporting the illegal immigrants, or, as I like to call them, the criminal aliens.†Later in the article, the mayor comments on the slow return of illegal immigrants saying, “It’s not the Wild West like it was,†he said, “but it may return to that.â€
Criminal aliens. Wild Wild West.
Mr. Hilton made a choice. In his mind, he seems to envision illegal immigrants as a threat to civilized society, akin to the outlaws or Indians of the Wild Wild West. He could have chosen differently. He could have chosen to see them as people, as families, as neighbors, as workers. He could have chosen to do that, without forgetting or ignoring that they broke the law. You can uphold the law without demonizing the people who break it. People are people and we all make choices–good and bad.
When you look at the big picture, Mr. Hilton’s attitude might seem a little dramatic, but it doesn’t necessarily seem extreme. However, when you apply that attitude to day to day circumstances, say an elementary school classroom, how does it play out? Let’s say the teacher believes, like Mr. Hilton, that illegal immigrants are a threat to society and sees their ‘unwillingness’ to learn English as justification for this belief. The logic goes, if you wanted to be a part of this society you would learn English, so if you don’t learn English you are against this society.
As a result, the child of Spanish speaking parents (legal or illegal) is criminalized, looked down on, neglected, isolated. Their teacher makes a choice. They make the choice to see the student as a threat to their way of life rather than as a vulnerable child who needs to learn how to read. I’ve generalized the scenario, but it’s real and it’s common.
We all make choices.
I can only hope that in making those choices we can remember that the most important thing in life–more important than a flourishing economy, secure borders, or comprehensive immigration reform–is to love our neighbors. If in the day to day, I find that the debates I’m having in my head over this policy or that is distracting me from fulfilling this commandment, then I need to make better choices.
Locusts!
So, the joke goes that if Jesus came back to earth today and showed up in Yemen he wouldn’t think any time had passed since he was last here. It’s kind of true. Between the camel-powered flour mills and ancient mud-brick buildings, Yemen does seem to be a remnant of another time. The recent invasion of locusts in the country, which appears to be of Biblical proportions, only serves to confirm Yemen’s ‘old world’ existence in my mind.
Seriously though, this is worrisome. Yemen already struggles to produce enough food to feed it’s people, in large part due to the conversion of agricultural fields to qat production, or so I was told when I was there. I’ll be looking to see how they weather the storm, so to speak.
Reading about this made me want to go back to Yemen. It wasn’t always easy being a foreigner in Yemen, or more specifically a foreign woman, but there was something about the place that captivated me. If you’re interested, you can check out the pictures I took while I was there. While none of them have cute puppies in them like all of Daniel’s pictures seem to these days, there are some interesting shots. Enjoy!
Feeling strangely comfortable
I’m visiting my brother in Arizona this week for a much needed, yet poorly timed vacation. I am trying hard to enjoy my time here even though I have so much to do at home, namely finding a job.
We had a lazy day today and I spent much of my time inside applying for jobs and catching up with my email. I still had some loose ends to wrap up at work even after the crazy hours we put in the past few weeks.
All of that to say that at some point this afternoon I just had to get out of the house. So I put on my shoes and went for a walk around the block, which was a little silly given how hot it was today. As I was walking I had the amazing experience of actually feeling my body cool itself. You learn about the whole ‘evaporative cooling’ system when you’re a kid, but if you go for a walk in the middle of a September afternoon in Arizona you can actually feel it happen.
It was such a familiar feeling. It made me feel so ‘in place’ like you do when you return to school in the fall and everything settles back into the normal rhythm. Yet I don’t feel at home here. In fact I feel very transient at this moment, for a number of reasons. I left school, said goodbye to Sarah and Ryan as they head off on their own adventures, walked away from two jobs that I have been devoted to for years, and moved to a brand new neighborhood.
None of this bothers me really, but I just felt oddly aware of it all today. Change is good, but it’s always hard.