The Road to America

My wife, whom I love dearly is not an "American." She was born and raised in Mexico City and has lived throughout Mexico. Edith is well educated, the daughter of a professor and school teacher she was one of several children and part of a huge family in Mexico. She comes from a family with a rich heritage, who live in or around Queretaro, MX.

About 15 years ago she came to the USA to learn and eventually landed a job teaching at the University of Southern Mississippi. There she remained on a work visa for a time when a professor she worked with started a local business. Her work permit was transferred and she began a new job in Mississippi. She also began a journey toward becoming a citizen of the USA.

This journey would not be easy.

As a Mexican living in the USA and in the south Edith experienced first hand the indignity of being an outsider here, but her professional attitude and charm kept most immigrant problems at bay. As she worked here she took on more jobs through the company that sponsored her. She became a translator for the local court system and later for federal courts. She travels the country training law enforcement, dispatchers, EMT's, and others on how to speak and work with immigrants or Spanish speaking individuals.

She taught Spanish to individuals at the local library, is active in her church, and has brought immigrant forums to our area. All the while the Immigration Issue was growing stronger in the state and country. In 2010 Mississippi almost adopted a new law that would be harsh to immigrants but luckily it never passed. Edith's own quest to get a green card was still ongoing.

Edith has done more to help the community in our area than most locals.

Eleven years ago she set out to get a green card and in August 2011 she finally got it. This is after paying some thirty thousand dollars in work permit fees, work visas, lawyer fees and medical exams over the years waiting. She is now a permanent resident. And in five more years she can apply for citizenship.

For those who think getting a green card is easy, think again. For those who think it's simple and cheap, think again. And for those who wonder why we have so many illegal immigrants in the USA, well you have your answer. It is not easy, simple, cheap or quick to get a green card!

However it is easy, simple, cheap and quick to get illegal papers and use them while here. What do you think most people would do? Pay $85 at the border to a coyote and instantly have passage and papers or go through the long journey & cost a Latino has to endure to be here legally? This is why we have an immigration problem. The system is broken and no one is willing to look at it and do what is needed to simplify the process and make it work.

Latino's work the fields in jobs that companies have proven citizens will not take. They bring billions into our economy by being here and taking those jobs. They spend the money they make in our stores and shops. Most don't want to stay, they want to earn enough to live and perhaps return next season. Yet we treat them like pariah while consuming the food they labored to bring to our tables. Then we stand on moral high ground and declare they are taking jobs from us?? We call them names and try to run them off. We enact harsh laws to deflect them and hamper their ability to survive. We put up walls and citizen border patrols in an attempt to stop their migration to these jobs.

We are the problem.

As with any society there are criminals. We have criminals in our society. We should not allow them to cross our borders, but we should welcome the workers. Rather than lump them all into a category of criminals we need a system to identify individuals and allow the honest workers to come to the USA. While here we should treat them as guests, not an infection. They are providing a service and we reap the reward from that service. With today's technology having a system like this would not be hard. But it will require that we change our attitude towards a people who want to be here, and we need them.

Edith didn't cross a border or swim a river to get here. She came by airplane. While here she has worked hard and taken the long slow legal road to citizenship. Yet many see her as another "Mexican" taking jobs or being a pest in "our" country. She gets the same flack yet in her own way she is providing for all of us just as they are. The laborers provide for our tables, she provides for our minds. She trains officers who respond when we need help. She educates our EMT's and emergency responders.

Before I met Edith, Mexicans were just another people here. I had no particular opinion either way. But since then I have paid closer attention to our laws and how they effect individuals and the country. I've gone from a moderate republican to mostly democratic. Though in truth I am neither. I am an American. I see good in both and fragility in both. I see both sides fighting more for political position than to help the people of the USA. And I see a nation spending way too much time trying to be politically correct than doing anything else.

We have become a nation of finger pointers. We blame, chastise and scorn each other while sitting on some righteous pedestal and proclaiming our specific clique is the only way to be. We are a nation divided, and we will fail because of it. The republicans are not right, nor are the democrats. And there is no other party strong enough to compete.

The sad thing is that the USA will probably fall. It will be blamed on others but the truth is we are the cause. We are the pariah in our own country. Like a flesh eating disease we are chewing away at the very fabric of our nation and slowly rotting it to death. All the while we stand up and proclaim ourselves the greatest nation in the world.

We wonder why other countries hate us yet we refuse to see ourselves as they do. We spend billions trying to police and convert the world to our way and spit upon those who want to give it a try on our own soil. We are a country of spoiled brats on top of our little hill trying to knock off anyone who builds around us. And yet we are the ones destroying the hill underneath ourselves.

We spend too much time wallowing in the past and regaling on "the good ole days" but spend very little time looking to the future. We refuse to take responsibility for our past deeds and blame others for our mistakes. But worse of all we are afraid to talk to each other. We hide behind computer screens and vent, yet never make the effort to change anything. This futile attempt of passive resistance will be the death of us all if we keep it up.

Winds of Change

It is time for Americans to take a long look at ourselves. We are a nation of immigrants. Each and every one of us! We built this country not by looking back but by looking forward. When we needed something we invented it. When it didn't work we improved it. And occasionally when another nation needed help we provided it, but we left and let them run their own affairs.

Being an American is not some privilege given at birth. It's an opportunity to do your part and continue to build a nation no matter where you came from. It's a responsibility to work together in a democratic way no matter what you look like or who you are. It is also a commitment by every individual who makes it further up the hill to reach back and help other Americans along the way. And it's a pledge to move forward, work together and accept one another as equals, to accept those who want to come here and do the same.

The road to America is not a destination. It is a continuous journey to be better than we are. To have pride not only in ourselves, but all who look to us for inspiration. It is a state of being, not a place to be. We are not here because we are lucky, we are here to be a beacon to every nation who wants our freedom and individuality...

...so they too can be as we are.