Immigration Is Our Heritage

Every family in America who is not a Native American came from somewhere other than this country. We came from someone who crossed borders. My story isn't that different from so many others but all of our stories are important. They're important to tell and retell for family and broader audiences because they speak of experiences and courage. They also help us understand how we're all connected through shared values of looking out for future generations and how our ancestors struggled to make things better for their daughters, sons and grandchildren.

My story begins with a little girl playing near a lake in Ireland. She would play dress up by covering her hands and arms up to her elbows with mud from the lake, showing the other children her fancy made up formal gloves like the well to do women would wear. She was the daughter of a hardworking woman and a father who was a baker by trade. The family had dreams of going off to America as other Irish families had. Bridget grew into her teens and one day went off with her younger brother and sister to begin that trip. The three young people waved to their mother and father who they would never see again and began a walk of twenty some miles to the coastal port of Sligo. They boarded a ship and began their journey to that land of hopes and dreams.

Bridget became Beatrice, changing her name hoping that work would be easier to find with a more Anglicized name. She worked scrubbing floors and cleaning offices. She became a housekeeper at a fancy hunting and fishing club and found her future husband, a guide at the club. The guide's name was Bob and his family had come from Scotland and Ireland but many years before. Some had fought in the Civil War. The two eventually married and moved to New Jersey. Beatrice cleaned rooms at Seton Hall for young seminarians and Bob worked as a mail room clerk and janitor at a large company.

Others of my ancestors came from Germany and moved quickly into German neighborhoods in the Williamsport area of Pennsylvania. Hard working butchers and grocery clerks, who again made those long trips across the Atlantic ocean not really knowing what to expect or how they would find work. Their approach was to find communities of other immigrants and relatives and to stick together, working to provide services to each other. As their families grew so did their experiences and talents. They became tradesmen - carpenters, plumbers. They worked with their hands and backs as bakers, gardeners, and janitors.

I grew up learning from these immigrants. I learned about their love for their homeland as well as their love for America and what it provided to them even though there were struggles for basic needs and jobs at different points. They all went through some level of discrimination and non acceptance by other, more established citizens. Immigration is our heritage and every once in awhile we need to look back and honor it and those who paved the way for us.

And now, today, I'm sure there are little girls and boys playing near a lake or next to a river, thinking about and dreaming about a better life. Maybe putting mud on their arms and prancing around like the fancy people that they've heard about wearing evening gloves or suits and dresses. They may not speak English but they speak an understood language of just wanting and trying to do and be better. Let's embrace and welcome them.

Remembering Hiroshima

On August 6, 1945, I was a one year old playing at home in a small New Jersey town. Thousands of miles away, a US bomber, the Enola Gay dropped the world's first atomic bomb on the city of Hiroshima in Japan. In an instant tens of thousands of lives were lost, men, women and children. Other thousands were either maimed and scarred for life. Most of these Japanese citizens were civilians who had nothing to do with the war that had raged across Europe and the east. Survivors crawled through smoldering rubble and saw terrible sights of the living dead with burning flesh and missing body parts. Families were separated and lost.

The order had been given by President Harry Truman - Tru Man, an odd name as others have pointed out from a biblical sense. The scientists who had built the monstrous bomb knew immediately that they were now representatives of death and questioned what they had unleashed. But it was too late to question now. The harm had been done and others would want to replicate the weapon and the destruction.

There are still survivors from that terrible day 75 years ago and many work tirelessly to end the continued threat of nuclear war. There are others, people committed to peace and to the end of war. They to work tirelessly, marching, demonstrating, educating, praying and petitioning for an end to nuclear weapon building. Some mark this day with fasting and meditating, trying to make sense of how people continue to find horrific ways to destroy each other. In a few days we will also see remembrances of the second city destroyed by an atomic bomb in Japan, Nagasaki. Thousands more, men, women and children killed and maimed.

These are times for good people to commit to peace and an end to nuclear weapons. We all need to find our own way to make the message heard loud and clear. No to war. No to mass destruction. Refuse to accept it and refuse to participate.

Return to Schools Decision Is Heartbreaking

Watching and listening to all of the discussions taking place about children returning to school in the middle of a health pandemic is truly heartbreaking. Parents, kids, teachers, administrators and communities are all struggling with the decisions they have to make. Sadly there is no national leadership or direction to this critically important issue other than Donald Trump saying "schools have to open". Of course everyone is in agreement on schools needing to reopen but the critical issues are when and how to do it safely for all of us. I really fear that we are heading for chaos and danger for everyone if things continue to go as they seem to be going right now - every district trying to plan on their own, with little assistance from the state and federal governments.

There really doesn't seem to be recognition that without the correct planning and protocols in place, community spread will be the result of these reopenings. Why is it that we all seem to be in the mindset that school has to take place from September through June. It's a nonsensical, made up calendar that can and should be changed based on the threats that school districts and children face. People have talked about lengthened or shortened academic years forever. Lots of things should be possible relative to annual calendars but there is nothing that says schools have to open in September. 

The worst thing is that everything we are all facing was predictable - the confusion, the anger, the threat itself, the economics, the spread. Yes, everything we're facing was predictable over the past 3 or 4 months. All of that time could have been spent on a national response or it could have been spent on a true shutdown to get the Covid 19 virus under control. But instead, we've argued among ourselves about mask wearing, parties, bars reopening, if children are immune, etc., etc. Yes, we've wasted time, critical time and now a false calendar deadline puts pressure on all of us. 

The answer still exists - take the necessary time to get this virus under control as other countries have done. Yes, it's going to take us longer now but that's because we didn't do it right the first time. We all just have to bite the bullet and realize that a national shutdown based on positivity data is a necessary response at this point and that will take national leadership. If the President won't do this on his own, then elected officials in a nonpartisan way along with public health officials throughout the country have to stand up to him and make it happen.

Look no further than your children and grandchildren to see that it has to be done. Yes it's heartbreaking. Every decision being made or worse, not made, is heartbreaking. But all of us could certainly stand down for two or three weeks, stay home and wear masks.