God Bless the Children of Juarez

Tell Me Where To Be Born

People of the world,

Tell me where to be born.

If I were born in the land

of “your interest”

would you let me die?

People of the world,

my name is Holocaust and

I’m fifty plus years old.

My name is Sarajevo and

I’m three years old.

My name is Rwanda and

I’m but a month old.

I have no name,

I’m yet to be born.

People of the world,

Tell me where to be born

so you will not hate me one day,

so you will not maim me one day,

so you will not kill me one day.

People of the world,

Tell me where to be born.

- Avideh Shashaani

I thought of this poem that was published in the April-June 2009 issue of “Radical Grace,” the CAC publication, as I have observed the children at the CSC the past few days. Because they are brown, and poor, and speak another language, many in the United States will hate them – maybe not now as children, but when they grow up, marry, have kids of their own for whom they try to provide by seeking a better life, perhaps even north of the Border. They will be the "illegal immigrant," the "people stealing our jobs, " the "criminals," the people "ruining the neighborhood." And for that we will hate and maim and kill them - perhaps not with guns, but with our policies, our injustices.

We should rather see them as the human beings they are, made in the image of God - many, Christian people with deep faith. They are parents who deeply love their children and are doing the best they can to provide for their families – amid political, social, and economic disasters that we Americans helped to create. They are gentle people who love their land and would have stayed if corporate agribusiness through globalization hadn't driven them from their family farm. They are resourceful, creative, persistent, hopeful people.

I meet these mothers, and some fathers, and know they want what is best for their children (and what is basic to most of us) – to be fed, to be housed, to be educated, to be loved. (These are the same things my brother wants for his 3 year old son. These are the same things all parents want for their children.)