"Dear mother, dear father, you clipped my wings before I learn to fly."
It baffels me sometimes to hear that in the movement for immigration reform, there's still office politics going on. That's why it puzzels me even more when I see/hear that there are people and orgs that would not support the federal DREAM Act, because it conflicts or would set back their work on over all immigration reform.
It comes down to kids and parents. The DREAM Act acts as a down payment for IR, because it would show the benefits of creating path ways for individuals to legalize and adjust their status, contribute to society and set examples that others will follow and make them realize that it's not only a good, but needed.
With thousands of students better off, they will help their families, continuing to work for IR so they too can contribute and change their lives for the better. But for me, it gets more personal and complicated than that. One lesson I have learned the hard way, repeatedly in my life is that you cannot change what you've already done.
When you make a decision to do ANYTHING, make sure you are making the right one and even if you do end up making a wrong choice, stand behind it. Don't regret what you did. It happened, you learn from it and you grow knowing that you've learned from that experience. In life, there is always a choice, whether we see it now or later.
My parents made the choice to come here for their own personal reasons. I didn't. They did what they did in my best interest, yes, but that doesn't justify their decision. The best intentions don't validate decisions. That's why I work for passing the DREAM Act more so than IR. How can I help them when I can't help myself !?
It's as simple as that. My parents made their choice and they accept that. I haven't even made one yet and i've been paying for it since I was seven. I'm first generation and first to do everything in my family. If over night they got legal status, they wouldn't work and contribute back the same way I would by going to school, working, becoming a teacher and continuing on passing on what I know to the next generation of undoc students. I'm selfish because I want to improve my quality of life and the lives of those in my life. I'm selfish because I didn't mOe the decision to be here, but I am making the one to stay, fight and help others like. I love my parents, but in the end, fuck'em. In the end, I'll be helping care for them because even with legal status, they wouldn't know how to retire. They'll always be working.
~ con safos ~
