One of our clients today mentioned that she worked with Refugees in Arizona in the 1980s. It is one of the things that I talk about, but it is the first time it has been mentioned to me in a very long time. She also thought my analogy to the Seattle Tent City was a stretch. OK, she has a point about that, and my only defense is that it is as close as most people in the United States will get to refugees.
Anyway, in the 1980s, while the United States was funding wars in El Salvador, and Guatemala, many people migrated, and were allowed, into the United States. It was a special Visa for humanitarian reasons that is still valid today by an Act of Congress. Then there were more refugees after Hurricane Mitch in the 1998.
Let me explain that millions of people world wide are displaced by war, famine, and drought. Here in the Western Hemisphere, that translates into Central and South America. To the East it’s Europe, and Africa. We have it much better because we are new countries with less baggage, but that baggage is growing.
It’s one thing for the people of the United States to talk about how awful it is to have violence, gangs, and drugs, but it’s another thing to see it. It’s far more difficult to live it.
