by patricio
Ethics in REAL Life: Our Moral Duty
February 25, 2011 in Border Patrol, Coming Out, Congress, deportation, DREAM Act Students, Events, Meet a Dream Act Student, Student Activism, Undocumented and Unafraid, undocumented students by patricio
“The airplane glides through day and night as I wonder what will happen when we reach our destination. The United States of America, the land of the Free, the land of opportunity. At five years old, an age when nothing is everything and no worries castrate your mind, I follow my parents free to run and play not understanding the risks we are taking. But the older we grow, the more turbulent our lives become. Instant fatigue infuses our legs as we resist crashing down, our backs do not break they shatter to pieces, our minds flood with blood’s stress stench and infect us to revolting measures. Dealing with the aftermath is the most painful of all stages to go through, that is, if we even weathered the storm. This is the life of an undocumented immigrant.”— Patricio Gonzalez, “College in a Coffin Speech”
Prejudice is a virus, so widespread, worse than HIV, dehumanizing our brothers and sisters— rendering its victims garbage at the power’s disposal. According to my former class’s discussion, based on the book Everyday Morality by Mike W. Martin, the biological perspective states that prejudice is innate to the human being and aids our survival. I do not oppose this theory on the basis of its being factual or not; instead, I oppose it because we also have the ability to discern between right and wrong, taking into account that the average person is mentally healthy enough to make such decision. Therefore, if we can discern between right and wrong and Kantian Duty[1] ethics requires us to respect persons, act autonomously, and act according to the maxims by which we wish everyone act, then it is our duty to halt prejudice.
Humankind used to be a society of hunters and gatherers, but over time we evolved into farmers, then we moved to cities, and eventually created more structured societies. Just as this is the case, times have evolved and so has our mental awareness of bigotry’s disastrous outcomes: the killing of Native Americans across the world, enslavement (old and new) of minority groups, and more covert discrimination rooted in traditions. Our laws have also followed suit in an attempt to prevent such infamous actions from reoccurring and to protect individuals’ rights to equality within society, but when laws do not do their jobs, society has come out to defend our rights. In other words, society has done its duty of pushing back prejudice.
In Memphis, Tennessee, Youth for Youth, our local organization, advocates equal educational opportunities for minority students, among other things. Recently the DREAM Act had been in the news; as a matter of fact, it had been in the news for about a year. In order to put pressure on our congressmen and community to support this bill, Youth for Youth put on an event called “College in a Coffin.” At the Memphis City School Board of Education on July 25, 2010, we had a funeral procession. A child-sized coffin, all black, filled with diplomas, awards, recommendation letters, and college applications packed the coffin. Candles were lit and the coffin was placed in the front and center. Each member gave a speech commemorating our dead dreams. No one could avoid the message; the blind could hear our dreams whistle bye; the deaf could smell our incinerating hopes; and those in denial were presented with reality in front of their eyes. It is important to note that this was a state-wide effort in which the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC) DREAMers from Nashville also had a coffin and a similar action. Memphis joined them in their action, and both groups delivered the coffins to Senator Corker’s office. It was the first joint action we had in Tennessee. It was the beginning to a state-wide effort to attain what we deserved, and received high media attention, even forcing Senator Corker to respond to our action.
DREAMers across the nation brought the discussion to the forefront of the political debate, but still many wished to hear nothing about it.
Many opted out of discussing or even thinking about this national dilemma by saying, “It’s just politics. They are illegal. Send them back home.” There is a problem with this quick and simple escape. This quote is in direct violation of each person’s duty to treat people with respect and to treat others according to the maxims by which they wish to be treated. Those who take this simple approach treat those affected as mere complications in their lives, but life is not simple. Therefore, the conclusion they have come to cannot be as clear cut as they present it.
Not to mention, this quick, thoughtless conclusion treats us as a means to solve the larger Immigration problem, and forgets to treat us as ends in ourselves. It is also an erroneous conclusion which further emphasizes the racist attitudes fueled further by the hard economic times. Instead of helping us succeed in the country we know and love, that way we could turn around and help the United States, our home, most politicians and ordinary bigots opted to throw us aside, failing to realize that what helps us also helps them. There are many statistics that state that the DREAM Act’s passing would have boosted the economy and done this and that, but as a society in the land of the free and home of the brave, this issue was and is not just about money but about human beings who had the power to effect change by doing the correct thing and helping other human beings in a time of need. Our congressmen failed to do their duty.
We must also look in the mirror though. Just as they had the duty to do help us, the undocumented and forgotten young citizens, we have the duty to demand what we are entitled to: fairness. We must do so; otherwise, we are no better than those who oppose us. A broken link in the chain is the same as the man filing away, trying to cut our chain in half.
Fellow DREAMers, our fight for the DREAM Act symbolized what we are still battling— prejudice and racism. In 2009, Shawna Forde shot and killed Twenty-nine-year-old Raul Flores and his 9-year-old daughter, Brisenia, after breaking into the house in search of a million dollars that the Mexican drug cartels were supposedly keeping in the Flores household. Although Brisenia pleaded Forde not to shoot, with perfect marksmanship, the Minutemen leader shot Brisenia twice.
This tragedy received close to no national media attention, even today, February 22, 2011, the day Forde was convicted and sentenced to death for her crime. In comparison, Christina-Taylor Green’s death, at Rep. Gabrielle Gifford’s shooting incident, received national attention from the get go. Why make the distinction between the cases? What do our Kantian duties require of us? Both are tragic, but why is there a difference in coverage? While Forde was convicted and sentenced, was her sentencing the correct one? Is her death sentence in accordance to the principles we adhere to?
Brothers and sisters, while we may have felt defeated by the way the 2010 DREAM Act vote turned out, our presence was felt, and we created a movement, an entity in itself. The base is there, but just because there is a base and some structure does not mean we are done constructing. As a matter of fact, the structure must be reinforced and made stable and strong, if not, we have much to fear. If we do not step up and push back against these racist laws that are sprouting across all of our states like undying weeds, we are not doing justice to what we have already created. So I ask you, how can you fulfill your duty in our struggle? Where do you see the movement going? What are your goals in life? How can you achieve those goals? Has your voice been heard? Have you told your story?
“Dreams are dreams until those dreams become reality or turn into nightmares”—Anonymous.
[1] Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) was one of the most influential duty ethicists. His most important attribution to the world of moral philosophy was the explanation of what makes something our duty, stating that the three abstract duties (as seen above) are the principle/guiding duties.
