Immigrants

My family, probably similar to yours, is a history of immigrants. Not from Guatemala or Mexico, but from northern Europe. Philemon, from Württemberg in 1854. After Napoleonic wars calmed down and there was period of peace in that land. He was an educated person. He was a religious person. He left his native land and journeyed across the ocean with hopes of a better life. He traveled from New Jersey, to Missouri, and then to California by ox cart. Seeking his own kind he located an area of largely German immigrants, Woodland. He was granted citizenship. He was granted a homestead. [Thank you, President Grant]. And a beginning was made, Americans were shaped. A family was founded.
Liv, from county Buskerud in Norway came to this country in 1886. She and her family were at first, farmers. Like others of that time she was anxious to be an American rather than a Norwegian. Another family was born. A family that became farmers, carpenters, and one, a WWI soldier. They shed the old tongue for English. Americans were shaped.
I see in the faces of the new immigrants the old immigrants. My family. I see in the hopes of the immigrants new the hopes of old. I see in the immigrants new the stamina and determination to succeed. I welcome these immigrants to become shaped as Americans.
This is the strength of our country. We are all Immigrants. We must look kindly on refugees. They are who our family ancestors were.
This is the strength of our faith. Our inheritance of faith must include Joseph, Mary and Jesus who fled to Egypt; who were threatened by Herod. Our inheritance of faith must include Israel, who fled Egypt and Pharaoh’s threat. Out inheritance of faith must include Ruth and Naomi who fled from a life of poverty and God surrounded them with promise and hope.
May your religion inform your politics. May America bless God. May we bless all those immigrants!