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Crossing Borders

By Jan Nesset

It's impossible to know these things for certain, but in speculation I wonder what I'd do if I lived in a developing country and a poor, deprived or abusive life. If Mexico, would I seek out dreams across the border in the United States of America? If Somalia, on passerby ships? I mean, within me is an exhilarating need for adventure, a devotion to family, a sound body and the proven ability to get around. Basically, all the tools and motivation one needs to work toward a wide scale of dreams. Should I be living the strain of an overwhelmingly hard world, however, I lack the disposition to know whether I'd choose an illegal path to my dreams. Or to point a weapon. I can't know. Not here. Not in this life.

I like to think that regardless of my life situation I'd make my dreams happen the old-fashioned way with hard work and within the constraints of the law. But my country is developed, a super power, one of the richest countries on the planet. I've got options. And while I was raised in a middle-class but not wealthy family, my background was neither poor, deprived nor abusive. My family is healthy. I have a job. Health insurance. Plenty to eat. A few bucks to play with. Toys, many. Living the dream, I am.

As it is with many Americans, I allow myself to selfishly hope for more - more money, a bigger house, a weedless lawn, a sail boat and the time to sail it. And while I may not always know how to get it, I know where to get it. That answer is right in front of each U.S. citizen, literally, out our front doors; not across a border or aboard a ship. We may have to work harder or smarter to get what we want, but in the luxury of returning home each day we have direct access to real opportunities to achieve dreams. Who wouldn't want that?

Obviously, I have a sympathetic side. Another side is of intolerance, telling me in the case of illegal immigration to the United States that, in this country of laws, illegal means illegal. Another sides flips to compassion, based on my mother's stories of teaching the children of (legal) Mexican migrant workers - all children deserve hope. Anger is yet another side. Anger for gang and other criminal activity that creeps across the border with illegal immigration. So many sides. Writer Jen Jackson adds another in this issue. In her story, "Scars," pg. 10, she reveals an environmental side to illegal immigration where areas along the U.S./Mexico border are getting trashed with litter and foot traffic. The path to America is not pretty and, as Jackson also discovered, for many the trail is mined with abuse.

- Jan Nesset, Editor