Old Body, Young Soul

There's no denying that 71 years in a "human suit" is a long time. The suit is a little worn and threadbare. The stuffing in the scarecrow is getting moldy. Thank the Lord He has seen fit allow my mind to remain sharp and "young" with a touch of wisdom. 

Oh, I am not entirely interested in what the "young suit model" think is "the cat's meow" or "cool" or whatever they're "verbifying". these days. Though, I can conjure new words with the best of them. Truly, when I stay away from the mirror, and don't expect the stamina of my teenager body to suddenly return, I am ageless. Of course when my sister who is 11 years my senior tells me that I am indeed "old" , I think she is just projecting. Another anniversary of my original Earthfall, and hope for  joy and purpose as I circumnavigate Old Sol to the next one. 

The Open Door: On Immigration, Fer, and the American Conscience

The Open Door: On Immigration, Fear, and the American Conscience

We are a vast and wealthy nation.

Our land stretches from ocean to ocean, from tundra to tropics, abundant in food, fuel, intellect, and innovation. We are rich not only in money but in infrastructure, in institutions, in cultural heritage, in technological marvels. We speak of ourselves as a beacon of liberty, a promised land, a refuge of opportunity.

And yet — at the sound of footsteps at our southern border,

we tremble.

We are told to fear the migrant.

We are warned that our country is full.

That we are under siege.

That we are being replaced.

And so the gates close. The rhetoric hardens. The laws tighten.

And children sleep on concrete in detention centers.

What Are We So Afraid Of?

Not resource depletion — we waste more food than we distribute.

Not job loss — immigrants grow our economy, start businesses, take risks.

Not crime — immigrants are statistically less likely to commit it.

Not cultural decline — unless you believe culture must be static, preserved in amber rather than evolving with grace.

No — what we fear is change.

What we fear is difference.

What we fear is the mirror that immigration holds up to us.

For immigrants, more than anything, reveal our hypocrisy.

We speak of freedom and opportunity — and deny both.

We speak of Christian charity — and turn away families in need.

We speak of hard work — and then despise the hands that build our homes, clean our hospitals, pick our fruit.

The Myth of Burden

Immigrants are not a burden. They are the backbone.

They do not drain our wealth — they expand it.

They do not threaten our values — they remind us of them.

They do not dilute our culture — they enrich it.

Every major study confirms this. Economists have shown that immigration raises productivity. Demographers warn that without new arrivals, our population will age and shrink. Business leaders acknowledge that immigrants fuel innovation.

And yet we persist in the fantasy that welcoming others means losing something ourselves — as if decency were a zero-sum game.

Who Benefits From the Fear?

It is worth asking — who profits from the fear of immigration?

• Politicians benefit, especially those who traffic in nationalism and grievance. They distract the public from broken health systems, corporate greed, and environmental catastrophe by conjuring images of a caravan invasion.
• Media outlets benefit, especially those that monetize fear. Every headline screaming about “surges” or “waves” reinforces a story of scarcity.
• Corporations benefit — paradoxically — from the presence of undocumented workers, whose legal vulnerability makes them easier to exploit, harder to organize, and cheaper to pay.

And in all this, the ordinary citizen is asked to believe a lie:

That our neighbor is our rival.

That the poor man crossing the border is the cause of our troubles.

That solidarity is weakness.

The Moral Cost of the Closed Door

The cost of this fear is not just economic. It is spiritual.

A nation that refuses the stranger becomes a nation that forgets its own story.

Unless we are Native American, our ancestors came from elsewhere. Some came fleeing famine, others fleeing pogroms, war, poverty, or persecution. Some came in chains. All came with hope.

To deny that same hope to others is not self-preservation. It is moral amnesia.

And when we close the door, we don’t just shut out the world.

We shut out the best part of ourselves.

What Would a Just Nation Do?

A just nation would not confuse order with cruelty.

It would not pretend that a wall is a policy.

It would not weaponize legality to dehumanize.

A just nation would ask not “How do we keep them out?”

But “How can we welcome them well?”

It would recognize the migrant not as a threat, but as a fellow traveler in search of the same peace, the same dignity, the same chance that we once sought.

Conclusion: The Nation We Claim to Be

If we truly are the nation we claim to be —

A land of liberty.

A haven for the tired and poor.

A shining city on a hill —

Then the question is not whether we can afford to welcome others.

The question is whether we can afford not to.

For a nation’s greatness is not measured by its GDP, its armies, or its walls —

But by how it treats the stranger at the door.

Why Should a Vast and Wealthy Nation Fear Immigration?

Why Should a Vast and Wealthy Nation Fear Immigration?

Indeed:

We are vast.

We are wealthy.

We are resourced with oceans and forests, with cities that rise and farmland that stretches to every horizon.

We possess unimaginable technologies, towering universities, and food that rots before it’s distributed.

So why do we tremble at the knock of a stranger at the door?

The Moral Illusion of Scarcity

We are not overwhelmed. We are conditioned to feel overwhelmed.

The rhetoric of “burden” and “invasion” is not based on actual capacity. It is rooted in a manufactured illusion of scarcity — a fear narrative endlessly amplified by demagogues who profit from division.

Immigrants do not threaten America’s resources. They renew them. Historically, they have built our cities, filled our classrooms, staffed our hospitals, harvested our food, founded our startups, and served in our armed forces.

And yet, we are told there is not enough — not enough jobs, not enough housing, not enough “America” to go around.

But the truth is: There is enough.

What’s lacking is not capacity — but compassion.

Not opportunity — but will.

Who Benefits from the Fear?

You asked the most incisive question: Who benefits from this refusal?

• Politicians benefit — those who need a scapegoat to distract from their failures. Immigrants become a symbolic enemy to rally the fearful and deflect attention from corporate corruption, crumbling infrastructure, or environmental decay.
• Corporations benefit — those who exploit undocumented labor while lobbying against their legalization. So long as immigrants live in legal limbo, they can be underpaid, overworked, and silenced.
• Cultural supremacists benefit — those who see whiteness, English, or “Christian values” as under siege. Immigration becomes a proxy war for cultural anxiety.
• Media empires benefit — those who monetize outrage and fear. Every “border surge” headline is designed to stoke panic, not inform.

Meanwhile, the rest of us — the ordinary citizen — are told to fear our neighbor, when in fact we should be welcoming our brother and sister.

The Truth: We Were All Immigrants Once

Unless you are Indigenous to this land, your ancestors came here seeking the very dream we now deny others. Some fled poverty, others persecution. Some were brought in chains. Some arrived by choice; many by desperation. But all of them helped build this country.

To slam the door behind us is not patriotism.

It is betrayal.

A Nation’s Soul Is Measured Not by Its Borders, but by Its Welcome

What does it mean to be a great nation?

Is it military might? GDP? Stock markets? Or is it the capacity to see the stranger, to shelter the refugee, to say not “There is no room,” but “There is always room at the table”?

If we are to be a moral nation, we cannot fear immigration.

We must fear what we become without it.