Musings on Immigration

The slogan for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation is “Everyone deserves a lifetime.” This is exactly what we (Kim and Mandira) have been fighting and training for the last several months: the chance for everyone to have the opportunities of life. This experience has been incredibly rewarding and generous in so many ways. We wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to help the men and women all over the world who are faced with the onset of breast cancer, like the inspirational two year survivor Janet Podlogar, Kim’s mother, who battled and survived this terrible disease. The fear, confusion, anger, tears, pain, depression, complications, and all of the surgeries and treatments all wear on individuals and families affected by the disease. Our 3-day experience began on a rough, rainy, and chilly day, but the inclement weather wasn’t able to dampen our spirits on Friday, October 24 th ! After a wet 18.3 miles, everyone was safely relocated and able to sleep indoors Fri...

This week’s national elections brought home a very simple fact. The American People have, for a third election cycle, once again rejected Anti-Immigration candidates. Hate simply does not sell in America, and the Anti-Immigrationists only peddle hate. Frank Sharry and the folks at America’s Voice, issued a press release today confirming what many of us already suspected, Latinos came out strongly for President-Elect Obama and the Democrats. The key demographic came out so strongly not because they inherently believe all that Democrats espouse, but rather because the Republican party, the party most Latinos would culturally and philosophically be more drawn to, rejected them, classified them as “illegal” and law breakers, and literally chased them away and lost them, perhaps for a generation or more. Anti-Immigrationists, who tragically have found a home in the Republican party, can say they are only talking about “illegal aliens” and that they love legal immigrants, but the realit...