I realize that there are complex issues at play with immigration, but a lot of the time I can't help but feeling like our Nation's approach to this issue that impacts millions of people in our country in a very intimate way is kind of like how the neighborhood tree house handles its membership.
One lucky kid has a Dad who knows a thing or two about carpentry so he is fortunate to have a tree house built in his backyard. All the neighbor kids realize the potential adventure and, to speak in economic terms, utility, they could gain from hanging out in the tree house, so they timidly ask to be allowed to come up after school. The owner kid determines who he likes and who he won't allow in, causing a scarcity of access, which drives up the neighbor kids' desire to be granted access to the now very cool tree house. But now there's tension in the neighborhood. The "cool kids" who the owner kid invited initially feel very special about their newly found glory. And the kids left out really want to be allowed in. So the kids in the "In Crowd" devise elaborate schemes to keep the kids not authorized to enter the tree house out. One kid suggests they pull up the rope any time they're occupying the space so they could control entry. Others devise tests to determine whether or not one would be found worthy of entry complete with secret codes. One particularly violent kid suggests they start carrying large sticks and sling shots to scare away people trying to sneak up doing so at their great peril because they would be doing so without the assistance of the rope.
Each proposal becomes more elaborate than the last until the kids have developed a series of whistles and hoots to indicate if the coast is clear or if an "illegal climber" is close by. They invest so much time, resources, and thought into protecting their turf that the tree house occupiers gain a very entrenched sense of ownership and a warped sense of why they needed to protect it in the first place. In the end, protecting the tree house becomes a good in and of itself independent of any potential good that keeping the club to an exclusive group might bring. And the protecting kids are far from the realization that letting the kids wanting entry up could bring many additional benefits like more treats, diverse conversation, or more intricate games.
This tale has a predictable end: the carpenter Dad finds out about his son's desire for domination from one of the other kid's Dads; one of the fathers of one of the kids who has scraped her knees and broken an arm trying to climb up the tree while under heavy sling shot fire. The carpenter Dad grounds his son after having a very serious conversation about sharing, loving others, or at least making room for others to enjoy the same privileges. And above the screams of "It's not fair!" and "How could you do this to me?!" from his enraged son, the carpenter Dad takes down the treehouse. After the 30th defiant, tear laden declaration for justice, the carpenter Dad quietly states a fact that his son has completely forgotten: "What do you mean it's not fair? You didn't build the treehouse. I did."
We are all so incredibly fortunate to have won the lottery of national origin being born in the United States where even the poorest are rich by comparison to many other country's situations for most citizens. How can we claim ownership of a thing we have done absolutely nothing to deserve? Almost all of us have immigrant ancestors coming to this Nation for a better life or new opportunities. The very existence of the United States is a story of immigration where immigrants came to escape religious persecution or a myriad of other reasons. But for the sake of this post, we'll focus on the strong under current of the desire for religious freedom that brought many of our ancestors to America, particularly converts to the LDS faith who immigrated between 1840-1932 to join the gathering of the early Saints (With the word "Saint" referring to the Latter-Day Saints and not the formal term used by Catholicism) to Zion.
Over that nearly 100-year span, over 90,000 Mormons immigrated to America from across the Atlantic Ocean alone. And among those 90,000 individuals stem the vast majority of today's American LDS members, tying their roots back to European ancestries (http://mormonmigration.lib.byu.edu/about).
Though he had ancestors who could boast five generations of American heritage before him, Joseph Smith's great-grandfather's grandfather immigrated from England in 1638. If Joseph Smith's ancestor hadn't decided to cross the ocean or had been barred from entry into our country, and had Joseph Smith never been in the situation he was in, a situation that could truly only have been experienced in the United States, the founding of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints may have looked very differently and the modern Church today would have been in a different situation.
With gifts that come without us having to work for them, there comes a need for a sense of humility sufficient to lead one to extreme gratitude. I can't claim any right to have earned my place as a white male in the 21st century when medical advances are such that I survived health challenges that had taken the lives of thousands of others before me. But I can be grateful. I didn't deserve to be born to parents seeking graduate degrees which led me to desire higher degrees that have further led me to my comfortable and fulfilling life I live now. But I can be grateful. And I certainly have not earned my place in the United States by any of my own merits; those merits I owe to my courageous ancestors who braved sea voyages to an unknown land. But I can, and must be grateful. And I think it's a natural human tendency that when one is deeply grateful, one tends to be more in-tune with ways of helping others to have the same blessings one enjoys.
I am deeply grateful for my LDS faith. It has given me so many opportunities for growth and learning that I doubt I could have had in any other way. And the very fact that Joseph Smith was born in the United States, the one place on Earth in 1820 where he could test out different doctrines, hear the contests of various religions, pray to determine which Church to join, and, being directed to restore one instead, establish a church with protections backed up by the very foundational documents that created the Nation, is thanks to liberal immigration regulations. For that reason alone, any faithful LDS member who believes the story of the Restoration of the Gospel should be deeply grateful for immigrants.
Now today, more immigration is coming from other directions, but the same principles hold true. Whether we have ancestors who sailed into Plymouth Rock with the Pilgrims in 1620 or parents who crossed the border so that their children could be born in a country that would provide more opportunities, we have that same need for that deep, abiding gratitude that against all odds, we are American citizens; not because of any merits of our own. And realizing this extreme debt of gratitude, we should seek for ways of helping others enjoy the same blessings that we enjoy.
That tree house of opportunity, fortunately has not been torn down in the sense that our country is still alive and thriving, but many, a lot claiming to share my own faith, are passionately seeking for ways of keeping the neighbor kids away from the opportunities the treehouse would provide. And just like the tree house owner's son, we can't cry foul against those interested in our situation, because we didn't build this Nation: we can only be grateful for those who did.
Among the many thousands of immigrants traveling to America, lie the families and individuals that make up our grandparents.
“Thursday, January 18, [1900]. . . The Anchor line steamship ‘Anchoria’ sailed from Glasgow, Scotland, with 37 Saints on board, bound for Utah. The company consisted of 23 emigrating Saints (18 Swiss, 2 Scandinavian, 1 German, 1 British, and 1 Dutch emigrants) and 14 returning Elders. . . The company arrived in New York Feb. 5, all well" (http://mormonmigration.lib.byu.edu/Search/showDetails/db:MM_Europe/t:account/id:3/keywords:1900).
That ship's log could describe many of our own ancestors landing in the New York harbor. The faith I hold dear was founded by a man whose ancestors traveled to that same harbor as an immigrant. For this reason alone the LDS community should be the first to decry the atrocities that are now taking place in our Nation against immigrants: families being torn apart, being forced to work jobs for extreme hours that even those most desirous of work would hesitate to take, or risk deportation, living shorter much less satisfied lives simply because they are the first generation to enter our country instead of the second. I know there are more complicated issues at play, but before I post my passionately felt opinion about the issue, I have sought for the necessary gratitude that my ancestors were among the lucky ones who could come to America and build a new life here without always being nervous when there was a knock on the door. That's why I am, gratefully, a Mormon and Liberal.
