I’m the Rev. Kathleen Owens, Lead Minister at First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego answering the call of Love. We are here to speak the truth – that unless we are of Indigenous Native American or Mexican heritage, we are all immigrants on this land.
We’re here to name the truth that immigrants have always made this country better, that we need bridges, not walls. Walls divide people from their families and loved ones, interrupt the natural flow of water, keep animals crossing from one side to the other. Walls divide and we know that divisions never add to an environment, a country, or a people. Walls and division only bring less; division encourages fear, only serves the elite in power, never the people.
We live in an interconnected web of life and dividing that web means the web will not survive. My faith tells me that we are one human family. We want the money spent to build the wall to, instead, be put into building up the local economies in all communities along both sides of the border. If the government wants fewer immigrants, then stop raping other countries of their natural resources, creating the road that leads right back to the United States. (See www.harvestofempiremovie.com)
Stop creating poverty conditions in other countries and then being angry when people are migrating for a better life. That makes no sense. We want government to do its job: create a clean DREAM Act for Dreamers and their parents; repair our cruel, broken immigration system now, and create a worker program that allows for a temporary work force for the betterment of the people and our businesses. We people of faith call on our elected leaders to LEAD – with action; stop with words that go nowhere and to bravely act so that our country’s ideals become a reality.
Rev. Kathleen Owens can be reached via the First UU Church of San Diego website.