Community Gardening Part 2

Community Gardening Part 1

A poem about power and struggle....

"This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress."

~ Frederick Douglass, 1857

They are not aliens, they are PEOPLE!!!

When the issue of immigration comes up, the term "illegal alien" is frequently used. I feel my heart ache every time I hear this term. In part, I feel this way because of my immediate and extended family's history of immigrating to this country. However, I also see and hear other people's struggle toward seeking a better life. Whether they came here legally or illegally, we are always judged. I can't understand why we are called "aliens" and are always deemed unworthy. These so called "aliens" are my family members! They are people!!! They see, hear, taste, smell, and feel like anybody else in this country. They also breath, eat, sleep, love, cry, and so much more like people all over the world. Sure they may eat different foods, speak different languages, practice different customs but does that really make them "aliens"?

Even when these so-called "illegal aliens" do succeed, there is always someone who is trying to bring them down. Sometimes this is out of spite, racism, jealousy, ignorance, or misunderstandings but some even say it's out of patriotism. Even within the immigrant community, we are conditioned to separate ourselves, in order to oppress each other, just like the dominant society. It's incredible to see that there are so many misunderstandings that fuel such terms as "illegal aliens" and the hatred expressed towards this community. Some of this is shown in the following videos: