A Better Life

Yesterday, I watched A Better Life.  I knew that the story was going to hit me where I think I needed to be hit, my emotional core.  It is one of the reasons I watched it.  I have seen and read many stories of immigrant families who have crossed the borders illegally to find a "better life" here in America.  In fact, I tried to even capture one in my senior capstone project.  No matter how many times I hear the stories though, I never ever feel less compelled by them.

Not because I feel like immigrants need my help or because immigrants have done bad things, but because the injustice of separating families is always something that should compel anyone to take action. We, as Americans, are guilty of an awful crime when we allow our systems to separate families from one another.  Our systemic laws must change, and in the meantime, we must figure out how to make loopholes.  How to change the current path, so that the pain, heartbreak, and consequences of such awful experiences can be ended.  This must be done in a way that provides citizenship too and does not take it away.  This will allow for these families to at least have a better fighting chance at finding sustainable income and pursuits of stronger education.

Education must also be tackled.  The lessons of love must be taught within our school systems.  They must be spread throughout math, science, english, and history, and we must work on fixing the system to allow everyone the best opportunities at jobs, education, and overall well-being.

This is obviously way more than probably even one lifetime could see effective change for, but it is one reason I say that we must be forever hopeful.  Hopeful in a way that is not conditioned by our current climax, but one that is unconditioned and open to any possibility in the future.  Sure, things may have been rough in the past and rough in the present, but we don't have to believe in a cyclical nature of the world.  We can believe in something different.  This is what hope is.  Without believing that things can be different, we become hopeless.

We must hope for a better life for all people, and within that hope, we must try to figure out how to best take action towards and for that hope.