In God’s Country
A common argument that I hear when discussing immigration is that immigrants should stay in their home country and create change there, (whether that needed change is due to a dictatorship, narco-violence, human rights violations, etc.) instead of looking for change here. I always come up with some counter argument essentially glossing over this interesting point that is made. Why do immigrants not create change in their home countries? I guess it’s the same reason why people don’t create positive change in their own country. One looks at cities like Detroit and quickly dismisses it as a has-been city and the butt of jokes. Why haven’t former Michiganders created a better Detroit instead of simply abandoning it? In the valley, we suffer from enormous brain drain. A significant number of our brightest people go to school elsewhere and never return. Why not come back to the valley and make it a better place? I guess the bottom line is that people go where opportunity exists. Why be an agent of a change that is going to quite possibly take a lifetime when one can simply move somewhere else. Is this right or wrong? I have mixed feelings. I stayed in the valley not because I was fearful of leaving. I stayed in the valley because this is my home. This is where I grew up. If my parents had never left Detroit I would probably still live in Detroit. Regardless of the reason, any individual should have the right to move where opportunity exists. Although I wish that there was change that would swiftly move Mexico in the right direction, at this point in history, that seems to be in a far off future. Until then I am happy where I am at now.
In the above pictures you can see a photograph of my former elementary school in Detroit, as well as a picture of an alley that led to my house…the same alley that would fill with snow…the same alley where we played with our Star Wars action figures.
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