Welcome the Stranger

See the Beauty

  The world’s major religions emphasize kindness and hospitality toward strangers, acknowledging that God might be coming into your home seeking shelter. Most cultures have traditions of welcoming the stranger, some stronger than others. Understanding the dangers of being lost in the desert, Bedouins welcomed strangers into their tents with open arms, providing food, water, and shelter. Before their removal from their ancestral lands, it was known that the Cherokee people provided food, sometimes in lavish quantities, to anyone who was hungry, whether relatives or strangers. In modern Europe, care for the stranger has been incorporated into law, providing that citizens must assist those in need, including migrants. In the US, until very recently, immigrants were welcomed into their communities or, at the very least, tolerated. Sadly, this facet of human culture is in rapid decline.

As populations are disrupted by climate disasters, wars, and poverty, migrations have increased throughout the world. Refugees and economic migrants from poor countries have crossed continents and oceans to reach the shores of more fortunate ones. This trend is only expected to increase in the coming years. Rather than welcoming and embracing the stranger, people have come to fear those who come to their communities looking to make a better life.  Unfamiliar languages, customs, and appearances make people want to avoid contact with them and force them to leave.  Constant anti-immigrant messages in some media emphasize the dangers of the “other” and promote narratives of immigrant crime, gangs, rapes and drug use.  Politicians describe migrants as “animals” and “vermin,” being especially denigrating toward black and brown migrants. The President and his party have tried to strip human rights from migrants by removing due process and habeas corpus protections. Images and statements from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Tom Homan, Acting Director of ICE, not to mention President Trump himself, are sometimes frankly sadistic and gleefully cruel in their comments about immigrants, many of whom are here legally but voice opinions the administration doesn’t like, and others who are innocent of any crime other than being here illegally.

What are we to do? Is it mindful and moral to ignore the needs and sufferings of strangers in our communities? Is it acceptable to refuse to consider how you might help those who are suffering? Can we say, “There is nothing I can do about it?” What corrosive effect does it have on our awareness to refuse asylum to refugees or to wrongly blame imprisoned people for their fate? How poisoned are we by the sadistic videos of rich, pampered women posing in front of dehumanized people in cages or ICE agents smashing the windows of cars in an attempt to capture cowering women? What is the mindful approach to migration, refugees, and economic migrants as it increasingly becomes a fact of life in our world?

Mindfulness teachings instruct us to see reality as it is, not to hide from what is vital and true, even when it is unpleasant or painful. This situation is unlawful, cruel, and extreme. We, as individuals, must reckon with this moment and change course. While we may not accomplish much alone, we must still try. Learn about the immigrants in your community and the threats they face. See how you can help. Form a rapid response team to appear and provide compassionate witnessing and cellphone videos when ICE operates in your community. Contribute to local immigrant aid organizations, such as Catholic Charities, which provide legal assistance to the undocumented. Call your Congressional Representatives and tell them not to do this in your name. (A free app called Five Calls makes placing a phone call to Congress easy.)

If we ignore human rights abuses in our daily lives, we will diminish our humanity. We will lose our capacity for empathy and compassion and become estranged from ourselves. We will enter a numbness and blindness that will rob us of our souls. No amount of hiding, distracting, dismissing, or even practicing mindfulness meditation will make this go away.  Now is the time to care for the stranger, give them safety, and protect their human rights while they are in our American home.