Intertwined
Whether you like it or not, you are part of a society. You walk on roads you did not build, protected by laws you did not write, and safeguarded by people you may never meet. The air you breathe is cleaner because others agreed to rules you did not set. The food you eat reaches you through systems of inspection, transport, and labor that would collapse without collective effort. The myth of absolute self-reliance is a comforting story told by those who have forgotten how deeply dependent we all are.
The Borders Within Us
It’s hard to understand the coldness I see in so many of my fellow citizens. People speak of deportation as though it were housekeeping, as if families could simply be swept away without consequence. They call them lawbreakers. They use the word illegal like a period at the end of empathy. Yet many of these people have lived here for decades. They’ve worked, paid taxes, built lives. Their children are citizens. Their roots are deep. But to so many Americans, none of that matters. What matters is that, at some distant point in time, they crossed a border unlawfully.