Drawing: the Asylum Seekers

Do to others as you would have them do to you. Jesus

Drawing: the Asylum Seekers. Pencil on 9" x 12" mixed media paper.

I've had a week of keeping appointments, business as usual. Certainly, though, not a day goes by I don't think of the migrant caravan(s), of people walking, walking, walking through despair and hope to exhaustion.

I saw an iconic photograph on about October 25th, which I have kept on my phone. Today I tried to draw it, at least to evoke a little of its impact. The faces above don't resemble much the young people in the photo, but maybe the drawing expresses how lost I think they might feel. Behind them are danger, poverty, and lack of opportunity; ahead are a bunch of people raging that migrants and asylum seekers aren't wanted.

I am deeply disappointed, often angry and grieving that as a society we have ended up in this hellish political firestorm of corruption, hatred, vitriol, and fear-mongering. If this prevails it will lead to much worse damage. Fueled by greed and lack of empathy for others it is antithetical to religious, spiritual, and ethical values.

All the major religions of the world, including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucianism, indigenous spirituality (excuse me for leaving anyone out) teach a pathway to relating to others' suffering, that is, empathy. Is religion or spirituality now entirely lost on us? Most who are religious or spiritual, as surely as most who are not, know of the example Jesus, that he lived, walked, and talked from the heart of compassion, in brotherhood, and for social justice. "Do to others as you would have them do to you."

Please do not believe irrational rhetoric which suggests all liberals want to open wide the flood gates to illegal immigration. There has always been a system for immigration. That system has for some time needed, and now desperately needs, to be adjusted to or reformed for current realities. Instead of traveling to pep rallies for self-gratification and to provoke fear and incite violence, public servants "in office" should be in office working on solutions to problems such as this one. 

Who are the children and who are the adults, after all? Adults should be looking after all children.

If you have interest please also read the following related blog post, a brief essay about my great great grandparents' immigration to America in 1872.