Immigrants


US NEWS

Hundreds of immigrant children settle in U.S. southern border states

A woman lays pictures of missing Central American migrants during a march by mothers who are searching for their children, in Mexico City, Wednesday, Dec. 9, 2015. The caravan of women, mostly from Central America, are traveling through Mexico to search for their relatives who left for a better life in the U.S. but disappeared. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

A new spike in unaccompanied Central American minors crossing into the United States is pushing federal officials to open shelters in Texas and California. About 800 immigrant children from Central America who have entered the United States illegally will be moved to two campsites in the Dallas area over the coming days, local officials said on Thursday. Incoming family groups are usually sent first to detention centers, and adult migrants are often jailed when they are apprehended, but children traveling alone need special treatment under federal law.

We didn’t feel like there was any way we could turn them away and not care for them. We have the beds that are empty and the food that can be served.

Reverend Rick DuBose, superintendent of the Assemblies of God of North Texas

Increasing gang violence is pushing people out of Central America, said Maureen Meyer, a senior associate for Mexico and migrant rights at the Washington Office on Latin America. More migrants are crossing the border, even as new checkpoints between Central America and the U.S. are turning thousands of people back, said Emilio Gonzalez Gonzalez, a political scientist and independent researcher in Mexico City. Rather than fleeing, many of the children seek out U.S. officials, surrender and request political asylum, citing violence and endemic crime in their home countries.

10,888

CHILDREN

Young immigrants

A total of 10,588 unaccompanied children crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in October and November, more than double the 5,129 who crossed during the same two months last year, according to the U.S. Border Patrol.

bjwordpressdivider As liberal as I am, I do not want undocumented people sneaking into our country. I guess this is my conservative trigger. I am from immigrant ancestors who came here to avoid Communism. They spoke English quite quickly after arriving and became citizens. They got jobs and even survived the Depression by taking care of each other. My grandmother would make soup from bones she had begged from the butcher. They lived in Cleveland and during the Depression my grandfather found a job in Chicago and sent money home for people to survive on. They cared, and they worked to help each other survive. We don’t really do that anymore. Some people might but not many. It is far easier to assist people to get back up on their feet than to go to war and then have to rebuild entire cities.
I am very glad that we are taking these children in. They are in so much danger from the drug cartels. I realize that this costs us money, but one of these children might find the cure for cancer. One might be the next Mozart. One might be a Monet. One might be the one who is able to lead us to peace.
May we live in peace with our neighbors and may we keep remembering that these are our sisters and brothers in the human family. All have something to give to enrich the world.
Wars cost trillions of dollars and we are sacrificing our sons and daughters on the alter of the warriors. War accomplishes nothing and peace brings about the peace we so badly need.
Namaste,
Barbara, the Idealistic Rebel

#Bloggers4Peace

bjwordpressdivider

Where is Unity and Peace?


Unity, the ability to come together in harmony and compassion. Unity brings with us peace that flowers within us and then flows out into our worlds. Is Peace possible without unity? I don’t really think so. Perhaps this is why peace comes and goes in our lives.

 

So, let’s look at unity. Unity is not everyone thinking alike. Or as they are told to think. I believe that Unity is a process where we come to really know one another, our deepest selves. Within Unity, we find differences of education, race, religion or no religion. We see people with different dreams. Unity can bring us together despite that I don’t look like you. I possibly don’t think like you. I don’t, perhaps, dream like you.

 

Unity is people, whoever they are, coming together for a common goal. With all that is happening here and around the world between me, you and the other people, we need to know that each attack, each death brings us together. There have been two recent times of extreme love, compassion, forgiveness and kindness in America. Twice we have recently come together out of shock, horror and unbearable pain. One was Pearl Harbor, which effected my immigrant father more than I realized. The other was 9-11 and I don’t think I have to discuss this one.

 

Pain, tragedy, suffering pulls people together. Hitler found this out. There have been, there are, and there will be evil in the world. At least until we fix all of the problems humans are dealing with. When there is huge amounts of evil in the world, the events which effect humans are put into their proper importance.

 

I had a horrific migraine yesterday and it was hard to get past the pain. But today, with the pain mostly gone, what matters to me is sleeper cells, the homeless people, the war on women and the journey to truth and peace.

Focus on the positive

Focus on the positive

 

We need to remember that the most terrifying serial killer has a spark of goodness within. Divinity is in there. So suicide bombers, lone terrorists, and Jihadists who decapitate innocent people are barbaric, yet there is that one small drop of Divinity within. Are they harmful? Yes. Do they need to be found and punished? Yes. Does their existence mean we can’t have Unity and Peace? No, it does not. But it may seem that way at times. I think that is why we form connections to people we will never meet. And we become friends and care about them and want them to be happy and safe. Each of us has created a network of people with whom we are safe. Now, let us grow our networks, spilling peace out into the world.

 

Let’s celebrate every positive act we see. Let’s not take them for granted. Let us be sad for the attack on Charlie Hebdo, and celebrate that no one else was killed and those who are guilty of this barbaric act were caught. It was barbaric. But people around the world are now working together to find these cells and stop the Jihadists from bringing more death to a world that has plenty without any help.

 

May we choose unity and peace and may we not hate “others”.  May we find forgiveness for those who hate and kill. May we live centered and in contact with our inner peace.

Namaste

 Bloggers 4 Peace

bjwordpressdivider

Achieve peace with understanding.

Achieve peace with understanding.

We Are Going Into the Future – With Positive Energy


I have been listening to people, what they write and what they say. I have looked around me at the people in my life and the acquaintances. When people talk, there is a flow of negativity. If one person does not make themselves clear, the other assumes the worst.

Now, it occurs to me that these threads of negative thought and speech are influencing more and more of the energy of our communities. People hurt others’ feelings, there is a lack of respect of others, of the elderly. Everyone seems to be on a hair-trigger. This trigger seems ready to go off and escalation is the result. My confusion comes from the fact that many of the angriest people have everything they could want. Yet it isn’t enough. Then I began thinking about how if friends and neighbors can’t have conversations without hurt feelings, there is something going on.

Times are changing. There is a lot of negativity in our cities, our country and all the countries of the world.  There is an outcry across the world by the people who have been living under dictators, who live amidst bombs and fear. We human beings are committing terrible crimes against each other. Racism, sexism, greed and power are bringing out the worst in humanity.  Not that we historically have had any difficulty torturing or causing pain to our fellow sentient beings.

Genocide is happening yet again. We have made it a purpose  in life to try to wipe out races of people who are different. Their skin color, religion, education, natural abilities all have worked together to sound the battle cry to kill…the “others”. Some countries are keeping women and girls from receiving an education. This leaves them in perpetual poverty and controlled by the males in their families. They are owned by fathers, brothers, and husbands. They never even have a chance to figure out who they are. They never get to experience themselves as a child of the Universe. They are stuck having to always do what they are told. They don’t know how to protect their daughters because no one protected them.

Girls are being married off at as young as 10 years old. Their bodies are not even completely formed yet. In my mind, only a pedophile could or would do something like this. IN some cultures, if a man wants a woman and she doesn’t want him, he has the right to throw acid in her face. This is done to save his family shame. Also no one will ever want her. I have seen such horrible pictures of young beautiful women who are scarred so much their families are shocked. Little girls disappear. Mothers cry and pray, but the girls are gone and have been sold into sexual slavery. Their life is essentially over. Very few governments will search for them, so they are used until they commit suicide or are thrown away like garbage. In many countries, when girls reach puberty and their menses begin, the mother takes her to the midwife for genital mutilation. This practice is what will make them marriageable. It is done to decrease sexual pleasure and to ensure virginity. Some men have their wives sewn closed while they are away on business so their labia is sewn together to prevent sexual intercourse. A small opening is left so they can pee.

All of this adds to the negativity which is swirling around our world.  Every time a girl or woman is saved and educated, we decrease the negative energy. It takes getting involved and understanding that every woman who is injured, is a sister.

Here in America, Domestic Violence is not stopping but increasing according to the FBI statistics. A woman who is married is not owned. She is not required to obey. She is not the reason he hits her. We  started building Domestic  Violence shelters and giving hope to abused women and their children in the 1970’s. We taught them to do the Activities of Daily Living so they could escape and survive in the world. Legal advice and assistance was provided. We saved lives. In those days, we were grass-roots organizations. Hard work, prayers and tenacity is what we lived on while we counseled, loved, fed and sheltered millions of women and their children. We just saw a need and began to do something to change lives.

This is exactly what we need to do to go forward into the future. We need to form grass-roots groups of dedicated men and women to stop the violence and negativity, of all kinds. Righting wrongs is an important aspect of our journey here on our World. Stopping negative energy and gut reactions is necessary to take us forward into the future. Caring is good, it is important. Volunteering a few hours a month would do much to create  positive energy. People need to just think and act positively. Get out and give the Universe a few of the hours of your life and we will feel the energy brighten and we will feel joy within us. This must be a present and the future and we all can participate.

Bloggers 4 Peace

Bob Marley said it so well. One World, One God, One life. Do what you can do to add positive energy to our world.

Love and Peace Instead of War


Mother Teresa stated, ” Works of love are always works of peace.”

When and where there is God, there is peace. He/she pours their love for us and peace flows over us and within us. Divine love always pours joy and peace into our hearts. My prayer is to be led from despair to hope, from fear to trust, from hate to love, and from war to peace. Our world, our universe is Peace, Peace, Peace.

It cannot exist with war, hate and violence. Every day, we make choices about the world we create around us.

We all have the right to be at peace and happy. We were created to have this life of peace. We can each have peace in our world without causing pain or suffering to others. We each have a responsibility to use what we have been given to create peace. There is no other higher pleasure than to create peace and have that peace in your life create a ripple effect and flow out to touch others in positive ways.

We need to love one another as The One loves each of us. Accepting that love and using it to bring peace into your life will bring peace to those around you. As they feel covered and immersed in peace, it will flow out of their lives and will touch an ever larger group of people. It is a beautiful thing to see and experience.

Peace Plea

Please, protect my child.
Please, protect other mothers’ children.
Please, give me peace.
Please, give other mothers peace.
Please, give the world peace and justice.
This is the peace only you can give.”

————Karen Lavin

bjwordpressdivider

Bloggers 4 Peace

Love and Peace Instead of War


Mother Teresa stated, ” Works of love are always works of peace.”

When and where there is God, there is peace. He/she pours their love for us and peace flows over us and within us. Divine love always pours joy and peace into our hearts. My prayer is to be led from despair to hope, from fear to trust, from hate to love, and from war to peace. Our world, our universe is Peace, Peace, Peace.

It cannot exist with war, hate and violence. Every day, we make choices about the world we create around us.

We all have the right to be at peace and happy. We were created to have this life of peace. We can each have peace in our world without causing pain or suffering to others. We each have a responsibility to use what we have been given to create peace. There is no other higher pleasure than to create peace and have that peace in your life create a ripple effect and flow out to touch others in positive ways.

We need to love one another as The One loves each of us. Accepting that love and using it to bring peace into your life will bring peace to those around you. As they feel covered and immersed in peace, it will flow out of their lives and will touch an ever larger group of people. It is a beautiful thing to see and experience.

Peace Plea

Please, protect my child.
Please, protect other mothers’ children.
Please, give me peace.
Please, give other mothers peace.
Please, give the world peace and justice.
This is the peace only you can give.”

————Karen Lavin