11/19/2025
Fifty years ago, his type wasn’t welcome at public school.
It’s hard for me to imagine how that would feel.
To be doing my best as a mother, working a job, and still, have no safe place.
Today, in Raleigh, there are people who are frightened.
Maybe they didn’t send their kids to school.
Maybe they didn’t go to work.
Maybe they lost their home to a gang and have been sponsored to be here.
But still, they’re not citizens yet and the men in masks could take them.
Imagine how that feels.
No one wants violent criminals living amongst them.
Arresting and deporting felons is a far cry from rounding up law abiding humans who fled to this country because they longed for a better life.
Because they’re willing to work to achieve a future for their children.
People just like you and I who happened to be dealt an unlucky hand when it came to their place of origin.
You may say that it doesn’t matter.
“Come in legally,” many insist.
If you’re really sick, do you wait for an appointment or go to the ER?
Rather than sit and rot in poverty, they took a chance.
Fifty years ago, mothers just like me begged to enroll their children in public school.
“You’re not welcome here,” they said.
“He will need to live in an institution,” others remarked.
I am thankful for those who came before me and paved a way for our family.
I will stand up for those who made a desperate decision and are doing their best to contribute to society.
I recognize that legal status doesn’t equate to behavior or work ethic.
Hell, there are right many Americans I wish we could send on their way.
All of us were foreigners in this land.
