More Alike than Different...

We are all more alike than different. 

Don’t we all want to raise our families in a safe environment with enough to eat and a decent place to live? Isn’t the opportunity to work hard and improve our situation the basis of hope?

Are the words on our most famous statue still relevant? Do we still mean it?
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

In this country, we are all immigrants. Only the indigenous people have the right to say: “Enough. No more!”

Does the dream end for others because we got ours? Who are we to decide that?

I’ve lived in a beach town for 30 years, an immigrant here. The complaints of “too much growth, too many people” have been a constant. Others want the sand, surf and warm weather too. Who can blame them? Do we now blockade the roads? Build walls? Call them animals?

We are all more alike than different.

When we reach out with an offer of help and understanding, when we see ourselves in the eyes of others, when we work together, we are all stronger for it. I benefit when you benefit.

But what of the others? they asked.

The answer came back: There are no others