What Betty had to say . . .

Betty Soderlind of Forks, Washington, is a long time advocate for the poor in this small logging community. One of the founders of the Clothing Bank, Food Bank, Disaster Relief Committee, she has spent her life doing the "corporal works of mercy."

In a recent letter to the Forks Forum, this is what Betty had to say on the current "round-up" of undocumented workers in this area. (Scroll down - Betty's letter is beneath a couple of others on the Opinion page of the October 1, 2008 issue of the Forum.

And just in case this letter to the editor is no longer available on the Forum website, here's the text:

Defends West End immigrants

I want to come to the defense of the illegal aliens in our country. First, why are they here? I have lived many years below the poverty line, from the Great Depression to past middle age, but I have never known hunger nor have I ever seen hunger in the faces of my children. Six of my seven children are college educated, productive and comfortable. The Hispanics coming to our country are hungry, their children are hungry with no hope unless they leave their homeland and cross the border. The quota for legally entering is very low, so the alternative is to come illegally. To become a legal alien is not easy, and in many cases ends up in deportation. Some have employed lawyers to help them and have been successful, some have fallen into the hands of unscrupulous lawyers who have taken their money and disappeared. One family told me of their giving a lawyer $4,000. He disappeared. They are a very good family and would have been good citizens, but were deported. I believe most lawyers are honest but unfortunately there are those who take advantage of the defenseless.

They do pay taxes, many are living in substandard housing and paying $500 to $600 a month. That is ample to pay the property taxes. They pay gas tax, sales tax on everything but food and drugs.

Those of us who are comfortable, let us be a little more compassionate to those who are just trying to survive. Let us not forget that a large section of the Southwest U.S. was taken from Mexico just because we are stronger.

Betty Soderlind - Forks

Here are links to related stories, all from the Peninsula Daily News.

Living on the Peninsula Illegally

Part 2 of Maria's Story

Victor Velasquez is now a citizen

Border Patrol crackdown on West End pleases some, disturbs some in Forks

Detained teens choose Mexico; others reported arrested

Nativism at my doorstep

This article in the Forks Forum prompted my response below:

Editor of the Forum:

When I was in the 8th grade in 1950-51, we had a big fat blue history book; the rule was that we had to pass the 8th Grade Constitution and U.S. History test or we wouldn't be allowed to graduate and go to high school.
I remember one vocabulary lesson where we had to learn the meaning of some very big words, and we had to understand what they meant in the context of American history.

Xenophobia was a word that came from the Greek and meant a "fear or contempt of that which is foreign or unknown, especially of strangers or foreign people.

Nativism had to do with fear that your culture would be adversely affected by immigrants.

"Know-nothings" were people who belonged to a political party in the U.S. in the 1850's who were afraid that Catholic immigrants from Europe would overwhelm the U.S. and be controlled by the Pope.

Children were expected to memorize things in those days: the Gettysburg Address, the Preamble to the Constitution, the words of the National Anthem, and the words engraved upon the Statue of Liberty:

Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:

I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

We 8th graders had grown up during WWII. We knew well the ideals which our fathers and uncles and fought for. We 8th graders were proud to know that our country was far beyond the ignorance of the xenophobic, nativistic Know-Nothing people who were ignorant and prejudiced, and who didn't believe in what the constitution said. We knew that America stood for something better than that.

(We didn't know yet that there was a long way to go. In our early adulthood we lived through the Civil Rights Movement. We saw our peers take great risks to make sure that America would become what we had been told in 8th grade it already was.)

Now I am old, and I see a resurgence of navitism and xenophobia. Do we really need to protect ourselves by rounding up young men like Edgar Ayala and expel them from our country: I don't know Edgar. I hear he was an honor student at FHS where I taught for 27 years, a member of the FHS wrestling team, a potential recruit to the U.S. Navy? Sounds to me like just the kind of person we'd want to keep here.

What are we becoming? Does anyone still study the constitution and care about protecting what it stands for? My ancestors arrived in 1635. They didn't have permission to enter this country. They didn't have title to the land they settled on. They didn't have a passport or a visa. They did what people do. They migrated to where they thought life would be better for them and their children. We have no "right" to this land. We live here with others who got here in a variety of ways. We better just get along with each other, show respect, and accommodate to others who join us. I knew in the 8th grade "Know-nothings" were small-minded, selfish, and contemptible. They still are, and it makes me sad and sick to hear them spew their un-American venom on cable TV and radio talk-shows.

Please don't protect me by betraying the ideals on which this country is founded. Don't protect me by deporting Edgar Ayala and people like him! Let's not let the "Know-Nothings" take over our country – they were an embarrassment in 1850. They should know better by now.

Marsha West