Yesterday, UU minister Revs. Peter Friedrichs, Nate Walker, Ken Beldon, Kent Matthies and I marched for immigrant justice. Rev. Kent spoke eloquently about the waste of our tax dollars being spent on failed immigration policies. Rev. Nate blessed Danni West, a UU who will witness for justice this Saturday in Phoenix, Arizona.
I spoke with many young immigrants - all who have already received their BAs and advanced degrees from American institutions because their families immigrated to our country when they were young. All of them are struggling with the maze of inconsistent rules. This one can work. That one can't. This one can drive. That one can't. This one can stay because she's getting married. That one has to leave the country, because her parents do not have documents.
As a teacher and as a student, I have benefited from the presence of immigrants in my classes. And I have cringed when my classmates or my students have been treated unfairly because of their status.
In my first year of teaching, a 16 year-old Filipino exchange student asked me to coach her for state vocal competitions. She won first place all the way to the Missouri state championship.
In addition to my choir class and vocal coaching, she studied calculus, science, language arts, American History -- and she achieved by far the highest grade point average in the graduating class. But, as graduation approached, this 16-year old was denied valedictorian standing by the school board -"because she was not a resident in our town."
Which reminds me of growing up in North Philadelphia. Our neighborhood was filled with opera singers, scientists, doctors - many of whom were working mundane jobs because their credentials were not validated by authorities in Pennsylvania.
What a loss to the vitality of our economy back in the 1960's! What a loss to the future of Pennsylvania's economy that forty years later, we still educate and deport our talent!
