Erma Vasquez: Have we lost our way? Let's honor our values
What has happened to us? How could we have forgotten? How could we have lost touch with the values and principles that gave birth to the vision of a democracy such as ours?
How is it that we cannot remember that we are all the direct descendants of immigrants? How can we forget or disregard this essential truth about the nation in which we live?
Yet so very many of us believe that the present administration’s policies regarding newcomers are somehow appropriate. Go ICE!
Well, there was no ICE when the first of us arrived here hundreds of years ago — only friendly, albeit naive, Native Americans who welcomed us and helped us learn how to live off the land. At least they did until they realized these newcomers were planning to steal their beloved land, but this is a tragedy for another telling.
As America enters its 250th year, it is fitting that we as citizens of this country reflect on where we came from and, more importantly, where we are going. It is time for today’s citizens to remember that so many of their own ancestors fled lives of tyranny and despair to come to a new place — one they hoped would be better.
Their motives were no different from those who wish today to become part of America.
These people still believe in the promise of this country, even though it seems that many Americans, disappointed with their own lives, have totally forgotten the vision of the nation their forefathers struggled so hard to create. Dreading that newcomers will steal what little they have, they fear and resent these people’s efforts to build a better life for themselves and their families — just as our forefathers did.
The animosity, contempt and gluttony that defines the current Administration is a catastrophe beyond words.
Worse yet is the cleverness it has demonstrated in seizing the hearts and minds of so many sad, angry or disillusioned Americans who feel marginalized and misused. All this while they enrich themselves and their cronies to a degree (as the President loves to say) “never seen before.”
Yet, there is still a fiber of hope. It is fragile and easily damaged, but lives within us all.
It begins with every American reclaiming the rights and responsibilities given us by our Constitution. It begins with standing firm against those who abuse their authority and exploit their offices for personal gain. And, yes, it begins with welcoming the newcomers of today and realizing that their presence here will always keep this nation renewed and vibrant.
As citizens, we must reclaim, embrace and employ our constitutional powers.
Our most potent powers are rooted in twin principles our forefathers deemed essential to the democracy they were crafting. These are our right to speak our minds and our right to vote our choices.
For two and a half centuries, these principles have held fast and guided America through the most difficult of times. Our founders conceived a nation in which power dwells within the governed and is imparted — indeed, only conditionally — to those who govern.
We Americans are living today, as always, in a world of our own making. Sadly, we have allowed our best values — equality, inclusion, intellectual freedom, kindness — to be shouted down by those who believe that only their opinions, their aspirations, and their beliefs should prevail.
Hate has taken the place of inclusion. Greed has consumed generosity. Selfishness has defeated charity.
We have become more divided, more self-centered, more exclusionary. And far too many of us hate or fear (or both) anyone who is different — who looks different, who worships differently, who speaks a different language.
Our circumstances going forward will be the direct result of actions citizens take and actions citizens fail to take.
I wonder today how our founders would view the America of 2026. Would they be surprised at what we have become? Would they be saddened that their careful planning had gone so very far awry?
We cannot know. But I think there is yet hope.
Recently, on a brief trip, we drove past an elderly woman sitting alone in a metal chair propped against the speed sign that greeted those entering her small, rural town. She held a hand-made sign bearing one word: RESIST.
It was an easy decision to turn back so we could talk with her. She told us that she was there because she felt that it was simply her duty to “do something.”
And then there was the woman — smack-dab in the middle of the latest McMinnville “No Kings” rally — holding a sign exclaiming, “I Support ICE.” Clearly, she too felt she needed to “do something.”
Although I strongly disagree with one of these women, I respect and appreciate them both. I equally respect and appreciate the “No Kings” proponents who accorded the woman supporting ICE the space and the respect she deserved, her contrary opinions notwithstanding.
These Americans represent the very essence of citizenship — paying attention to what is happening and doing something. And, of course, the brilliance of the American ideal is that we all have the right, and the duty, to speak up and to take action when we see the need.
Our nation as a whole must, now more than ever in our history, muster the same clarity and courage the two women exhibited in their small, brave acts. As well, we must embrace the grace that comes with respecting differing points of view.
Those who surrender their rights of citizenship and forget their civic duties are betraying the very essence of the dream of our founders.
They are announcing that they have lost the courage to question leadership — either because of fear or because of indolence. They are divesting themselves of their obligation to analyze what they hear, to seek out differing opinions and to use their minds.
It is absolutely essential we do not cede our power as citizens to the loudest voices shouted.
When we surrender our power as citizens, we also abdicate our duty as citizens. When we hear lies, distortions and hate-speech, we must always answer back with truth, with grace, with dignity and with courage.
Most importantly, we must always remember who we are, where we came from and where we want to take this nation that our ancestors came to these shores and fought and died to establish. It is essential we look beyond ourselves to what is happening to those around us.
Speak up. Act. Vote.
Only Americans can save America.
Comments
B
I stopped reading when you referred to illegal immigrants as "newcomers." Or did I misread this?
Roger
Yes, you totally missed the point sir. Hope someday you can see the light. And know that not everyone with dark skin is illegal.