Reaching out in person

© 2019 Christy K Robinson

Please consider this. All over the United States, there are churches, shelters, charities, clinics, food banks, and many other outlets for you to help with. It's more than politics, more than writing a check or swiping a credit card, it's about being personally involved in helping human beings.

They are not sub-human. They are not gang members. They are NOT, repeat NOT, drug runners. They aren't "murderers and rapists" -- they're actually trying to escape that violence. They aren't stealing your job or "using up" medical care and other resources in a country that's "full."

Trump has been outspoken about how dangerous he believes undocumented immigrants are, once referring to some of them as “animals.” His claims come despite the lack of evidence that the presence of undocumented immigrants leads to an uptick in crime. --HuffPost, April 2019

They're not coming here, like Trump says in his condescending voice, to go to Disneyland (single-day tickets at both Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure cost $97 on value days, $110 on regular days, and $124 on peak days). These are people who don't have shoelaces, much less mad money.



The refugees and asylum seekers are young parents with little children. They are members of the Central American caravans who are fleeing gang and drug cartel violence, rape, and massacre. They risked death at the borders, at bridges and river crossings, by riding on dangerously overcrowded vehicles, and from exposure to harsh weather when they were exhausted from walking 20 miles or more for a day, carrying a baby or a toddler. But all of the risks they incur are worth it, to escape the horrors of their home countries.

Her home in a rural area of El Salvador’s La Paz region became a death trap when a relative testified against a local gang member, Alvarado said. Uncles, nephews, classmates and others have been kidnapped or murdered in retaliation, she added. At the news conference, she held up a photo of a young girl, a neighbor, left for dead on a dirt road close to her home. --Houston Chronicle, 2019.

HUIXTLA, Mexico — As thousands of Central American migrants renewed their trek Wednesday through Mexico toward the hoped-for, but still far-distant U.S. border, the physical toll was beginning to show in sickness and exhaustion, especially among the children toddling along, being pushed in strollers or carried in the arms of adults.
And for their parents, it was their hope for their children’s futures, and fears of what could happen to them back home in gang-dominated Honduras, that were the main motivation for deciding to leave in the first place.
“They can’t be alone. … There’s always danger,” said Ludin Giron, a Honduran street vendor making the difficult journey with her three young children. “When (gang members) see a pretty girl, they want her for themselves. If they see a boy, they want to get him into drugs."
And it is well known that refusing either can be deadly. Honduras has a homicide rate of about 43 per 100,000 inhabitants, one of the highest in the world for any country not in open war.” --Albuquerque Journal, October 24, 2018 

Central American mother and two daughters, part of a caravan of asylum seekers.
Photo: The Columbian, Google Images

A Honduran boy and his father were tear-gassed, attempting to cross
from Honduras into Mexico.
Photo: Encarne Pindado, BBC.

One of the Central American mothers who made it out
of her dangerous country, through Mexico,
and into the United States seeking asylum. She and her
daughter stayed for three weeks in a detention camp
before being dumped in Phoenix by the Department of
Homeland Security, with no money, no clothes or shoes but
what they were wearing, and no food for the journey to her
sponsor where she would stay until her immigration court date.
Volunteers provided for her immediate needs.
Photo: Christy K Robinson

In the culture of our spiritual ancestors, hospitality was a great virtue. "Strangers" (travelers, aliens) were treated even better than family members!  

‘If any of your fellow Israelites become poor and are unable to support themselves among you, help them as you would a foreigner and stranger, so they can continue to live among you.' Leviticus 25:35 NIV 

I urge you to not just be outraged at the evil that has been unleashed by racism and bigotry, but to do something about your outrage. Don't sit at home and tap out frownie faces in social media. Find a way to act. Find a way to do something that engages you personally with those who are "the least of these." It will change another human being's life. And yours.  
 

Want to be an influential person, a person of substance and character, who is admired and respected by others? Here's how: http://christykrobinson.blogspot.com/2010/02/influential-people.html


For other articles on refugees seeking asylum, click this link: https://christykrobinson.blogspot.com/search?q=asylum

*****

Christy K Robinson is author of these books:

We Shall Be Changed (2010)

Mary Dyer Illuminated Vol. 1 (2013)  

Mary Dyer: For Such a Time as This Vol. 2 (2014)

The Dyers of London, Boston, & Newport Vol. 3 (2014)  

Effigy Hunter (2015)  

Anne Marbury Hutchinson: American Founding Mother (2018)

And of these sites:  

Discovering Love  (inspiration and service)

Rooting for Ancestors  (history and genealogy)

William and Mary Barrett Dyer (17th century culture and history of England and New England)

Editornado [ed•i•tohr•NAY•doh] (Words. Communications. Book reviews. Cartoons.)