to the voices

Sigh. Why I never write about politics. It's not the comments from other people (of which there have been none, to the last post) that I can't take. It's the ones from the mob of voices in my own head.

While, thankfully, I don't seem to count any racists or extreme conservatives or status-quo-preservers among that number, there is quite the contingent of anxious PR-agents, devil's-advocates, and all-around backside-coverers who lose no time in suggesting all the BUTs and YETs that I forgot to anticipate and respond to. And on a subject containing as many possible points of view as there are people, there's no lack of such voices. Well, I'm not making the effort now to presume to answer all such challenges. Especially when, so far at least, they come from my own mind. Only to suggest a couple of things, on the immigration argument. And these aren't totally original points either. But they do, I think, deserve a little more hearing.

One, and this is the most basic to me and I'll say it as basic as I can: what if we let people be humans first, and political entities second? That is, what if we first made the vast concession of acceding our own categorizations to however we perceive that we got here, on this planet (created and gifted with life? miraculously evolved? matter from the void?), in the first place? Or, more practical and present, what if we recognized our mutual existence as living, breathing beings with the same basic needs (water, food, safety, shelter, opportunities for self-sustenance), as a fact occurring before such things as nations, governments, and borders? This is the most foundational, most astonishing assumption of the discussion, that I fail completely to understand. And an assumption that seems to be intrinsic, unquestioned. But I question it not least because I understood it to be woven into our Declaration of Independence, and our Constitution. Although my suspicion is that the disparity comes from too many arguments being made by people who have never had a moment to have to imagine these basic human needs not being met. Have not ever been required to acknowledge their own humanity, at such an essential level as that which our founding documents affirm and protect.

And second. What if, instead of such talk of "securing" a geopolitical boundary, we looked at how many boundaries are already more-than-amply secured around life in this country? Boundaries between those who have their basic needs met, and those who don't? Rather than artificial geographic constructs crossing not only history and culture, not only need and desire and commonality, but equally fundamental, vast, and real things such as ecosystems and watersheds...what if we looked at how clearly, as a man-made political entity called "country", we've already secured many other borders? Across such frontiers as access to healthcare, basic community participation, communication, and meaningful work? No, we don't look at those lines, and it's not just due to prejudice against that "Other" perceived as arriving from outside those lines on the map. It's because we can't acknowledge how many of the so-called "us" in this country are aliens to its essential benefits. Even in light of the - yes - remarkable mobility and opportunity available to all who, again, are able to first meet their basic survival needs.

I know, now I'm preaching to the choir. Probably everyone I know can more or less agree with me here. All my friends and community members who, like me, don't have health insurance, and never have. All those who long to be more of a voice in the life of their community, but can't because their less-than-living wage requires them to work nights and weekends. And the recent immigrants I know, who for lack of a 9-digit number are unable to compete - not with you, policymakers and loud reactionary voices, but with ME! - for a housecleaning, landscaping, or service industry job. These are the voices that I, reluctantly and less-than-articulately, raise my voice for now and then. Despite the despair that I get from the newspaper. And despite the chorus of naysayers in my own head.