When I was a child I wanted to be Spiderman. I remember standing in front of the cinder block wall in my backyard, reaching forward with a shaky hand, and dramatically pressing my palm to the rough and chilly brick only to find with crushing disappointment that it did not stick. I wasn’t able to climb the wall back then, but I dreamed of a day when walls could become my playground and boundaries would be optional. At that time I never could have imagined that one day the subject of walls and boundaries would become a central conversation in current affairs, but perhaps my “Spidey Sense” was tingling after all.
Whether we like it or not, boundaries are important-in relationships, in careers, in debates, in the law. Psychology tells us that boundaries are healthy. Traffic control tells us that boundaries are efficient. Volcano dwellers tell us that boundaries are lifesaving. Most people would agree with these statements. What is interesting is what happens when we begin speaking about the boundaries between countries. This consensus that “boundaries are important” seems to suddenly fizzle and explode into a platform for debates on policy, discrimination, safety, and finance. All of these are good and necessary things to discuss, but the lack of sanity in current deliberations leaves one having to choose sides in the debate of “the wall” or “the travel ban,” and whether you are in favor of a wall or not, by choosing a side you ultimately result in erecting a fence.
The immigration debate is full of all kinds of confusion, and I think part of this is because this is an issue that tugs at the very heart of our humanity. We become emotional, and in that emotion we tend to prioritize differently based on our own beliefs and convictions, but deep down I believe that all of these feelings are stemming from a common root, namely a great and beautiful patriotism for this country.
The Texas man who is a solid defender of property rights, who wants a strong border, and is concerned about the safety of our people, is a good American. The Kentucky-born Muslim woman that is concerned about her family being able to visit her from overseas is a good American. The Polish refugee, now US citizen, who fled to America during World War II to come to a country founded by immigrants is a good American. We want to be safe. And we want to be welcoming. We want America to be a place of opportunity; a place where dreams can come true, and where even the lowliest of people can have a voice. But instead of unifying over these principles that we all share, we have become too busy building our own walls around our respective camps that we cannot see the divisions we are constructing in our own communities. And when we cannot feel welcomed and at peace in our own country then we, too, risk becoming a nation of refugees.
We seem to have a lot of opinions about refugees and how these neighbors on the other side of the world should be treated. We protest at airports and give sound bites to the media and put the bumper sticker on our cars. But I wonder what are we doing for our neighbor down the street? What are we doing for the mentally ill person standing at the corner seeking refuge from the cold? What are we doing for the veteran who is working at McDonald’s for minimum wage because he was injured in the war and has to now use a cane? What are we doing for the lonely person in our office that doesn’t talk much because their home life is in shambles and they have no comfortable refuge to return to after work? I am speaking as much to myself as to others.
If we consider ourselves to be defenders of refugees we must let all those in need take refuge in our hearts. Sometimes I’m afraid that we let our love for policies supersede our policies to love.
So how does one even enter into a discussion about immigration if one person’s priority is different than that of another? I don’t have the answer to this. My goal here is not to solve the extremely difficulty problem of making the immigration system more efficient while upholding the safety of the borders and still being compassionate to our foreign neighbors in crisis. I’m still figuring it out myself, but my tendency is to hold to the maxim that we can’t help others until we heal our own wounds. If a plane is crashing and someone beside us needs help, we are always instructed to secure our own masks first before assisting the other. Now, this doesn’t mean forsaking all foreign refugees by any means, but I think for me at least, it is a wake up call to look with fresh eyes at my local neighbor first.
In my opinion, all misunderstandings come from a bad stewardship of language. We must be clear with our words and our intentions and our motivations and our stories. The truth of the matter is that no one is a purist when it comes to the way we frame our lenses. In a just society, “tolerance” would not run rampant, but be held in check by both morality and the law; morality would be respected by the law and tolerated by “tolerance”; and the law would be the reverent balance and communicator between the “rights of the individual” and the common moral good. But we live in an imperfect world where we must suffer the unfortunate pains of the intolerance of tolerance, unjust laws, and corrupt moralities.
Whereas once the language of mankind was confused while trying to build a tower to the sky, today man continues to babble incoherently over the walls we are constructing.
There is no doubt that we are a country of fence builders and will always be “fencing” with one another. But there are rules and dignity in the art of fencing. It is important to use to concise language and to BE KIND when speaking with one another. We need to be respectful as we listen and remain open minded, though not so open minded that, as the saying goes, “our brains fall out.” Or as Chesterton said, “I am incurably convinced that the object of opening the mind, as of opening the mouth, is to shut it again on something solid.”
Our fences should be semipermeable, allowing for truth to enter and lies to leave. This country is longing for an unmasked conversation! All these tensions: racism, sexism, jobs, healthcare could start to be healed if we would give due regard to our neighbors, respect their dignity, and listen to their voices without erecting a soundproof wall. Truth is not a wall; it’s a dance, a giving and receiving that enriches the heart and fortifies integrity.
The ultimate sign of trust happens when fences are torn down. A good shepherd doesn’t need a fence, for his sheep trust him and together they can roam the land in complete freedom. Spiderman likewise didn’t build fences. He rose above them. There was a motto that he lived by, “With great power comes great responsibility.” I might tweak it a little to say, “With great freedom, comes great responsibility.” This is an amazing country founded on courageous principles. We have a responsibility to safeguard these principles, which includes taking care of our fellow human beings. This is the challenge that lawmakers have, to balance the importance of maintaining boundaries with the compassion due to those in need. In the meantime, maybe the rest of us should take a deep breath, so that when we do finally meet a refugee we can safely remove our own masks, and be able to assist them.
