"La Bestia", a train loaded down with immigrants heading to the United States. Source: npr.org
First, let’s remember that most of us are immigrants. The Europeans had their exodus one hundred years ago. The Irish, Poles and Italians served their time at the bottom rung of the social ladder, and now it’s Latin America’s turn.
The “natives” of this country turn their suspicion and hostility to Mexico, and more recently, the flood of child immigrants from Central America. The antipathy towards them has grown to the point where “illegal immigrant” sounds like an epithet, synonymous with “vermin” and we don’t want any more.
Recently, buses carrying Central American immigrants from overloaded Border Patrol facilities in Texas to Murrieta, CA, were stopped by a blockade of protesters waving American flags. They must be horrible racists, right?
I admit, I have an emotional bias on this issue. My mother immigrated from Mexico. It would be easy for me to just paint the protesters as awful people, but that’s simplistic thinking and it will only harden the walls between the two sides.
Dueling protesters in Murrieta, CA, demonstrate the inefficacy of shouting as a method of changing minds or solving problems. Do you think either person reconsidered their opinions after this exchange? Source: usatoday.com
The idea of taking part in those protests is distasteful to me, but I have to acknowledge their legitimate concerns: is it the moral responsibility of the US to take on the whole population of desperately poor or endangered Latin Americans? Can our legal and social infrastructure even handle such an influx of migrants?
I don’t understand the complex political apparatus Washington operates, so I can’t offer any solutions in that arena, but what I can offer is a way to smooth the dialogue between the two sides.
To have a meaningful exchange of ideas, you must understand the other side’s context, but the program that often runs through people’s minds when it comes to heated issues is: We’re trying to solve this problem in a reasonable way, and we could get it done if those bastards on the other side would stop being so evil.
Except, those guys on the other side are thinking the same thing…and both of them are wrong.
Few people wake up in the morning wondering how to be an monsters. Can you imagine that someone, after brushing their teeth and eating their cheerios, goes out into the world rubbing their hands together and mua-ha-ha-ing as they plot to wreck the plans of those only trying to do good?
Most see themselves as good people trying to make the world a better place. But methods are different, and that’s where the conflict comes in and that’s when the two sides put each other into the “villian” role. Instead of seeing each other as competitors, why not see each other as co-operators in solving mutual problems?
People on the Left and Right see their side as right and the other as wrong, but Left and Right are only one half of a whole perspective, two eyes bringing depth to a painting. Their points of view are not competitive, they are complementary. Instead of competing in a shouting match next time a hot topic comes up remember that you need their perspective as well, and you get that perspective by listening.
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