Be The Change You Want To See

                                                

            Do you want to make a difference in the world? Do you want to see some real change in the way the world is, and how your community functions?

            “Be the change you want to see in the world.” (Mahatma Gandhi)

            “Volunteers are the only human beings on the face of the earth who reflect the nation’s compassion, unselfish caring, patience and just plain loving each other.” (Erma Bombeck)

            Do you want to live in a better neighborhood, a better community? Do you think the world could be a better place? Are you tired of hearing about the troubles of the world and all the negative political rhetoric?  Are you frustrated that things are getting worse, and there’s nothing you can do that would make a difference?

            Then, get involved and volunteer.  Connect with a person, help them out, and make a difference.  Take a few minutes, an hour, maybe a day, and offer your talent.  Pay attention to someone, work together on a project, or simply have a conversation and offer a kind ear, a helping hand. 

            Find a group where you can get involved.  Or do something on your own.

It can start with just a simple conversation at the grocery store or with a neighbor, a few kind words, and maybe a helping hand. 

Volunteers are at the center of our community life.

Our schools, churches, community festivals and gatherings, museums and parks are staffed by volunteers. Much of what happens around here would quickly fade away without dedicated volunteers.

            On a more personal level, our volunteers are helping an elderly neighbor with their yard work, or bringing them a meal.  Others tutor a child, or help out at school or church.  The possibilities are endless.

            Our community calendar in the local paper is filled with activities run by volunteers, working to make this community a better place to live.

            I see the impact of volunteerism everywhere.  Without them, our welcome mat wouldn’t be as inviting, and as enjoyable for our visitors.  Our youth and our seniors wouldn’t be as integrated into our social fabric. Our community wouldn’t be nearly as vibrant and supportive. 

            Look around you.  Volunteers make a difference, and they change lives. 

            I volunteer.  I find a project, I connect with a person, and pay attention to them, and put action into my caring for their wellbeing.  I make a difference and my heart is filled with a sense of purpose, a sense of accomplishment. My volunteer work at the local youth prison and with master gardeners gives me a sense of purpose, and helps change people’s lives for the better.

            In volunteering, I become an instrument of change.  I am part of the solution to a small part of the world’s problems, rather than a person who just sits back and complains. I have a purpose, and become a voice for doing good.

The payback for me is amazing.  What I give I receive back tenfold.  I feel better about myself, I contribute, I connect, and I become a better member of my community. 

            Volunteerism is all about health, my health, the community’s, my state, my nation, and the world. 

I can even stand to watch the evening news, and know that I don’t need to just listen to the litany of the world’s problems and get caught up in all drama. I’m not the passive listener, who can easily say the world is a miserable, hopeless place. Instead, I am part of the answer, an agent of positive change. 

---Neal Lemery, July 26, 2016

We Are All Immigrants

                                                We Are All Immigrants

            We all came from somewhere else.  Maybe not in this generation, but somewhere in the not too distant past, we came from somewhere else.

            This week, my country celebrated its political beginnings, a time of rebellion and war, a time of rising up against an imperial, oppressive power, and going ahead on our own.

            America was a different place in 1776, thirteen separate colonies. Slavery was an accepted economic reality, and times were hard.  Only white men who owned property could vote, and earning a living meant hard physical labor and going without much of what we would think are necessities.

            Back then, we welcomed immigrants: new blood, new energies, new ideas.  We needed more farmers, more merchants, more people in the cultural melting pot we have come to know as America.  And, the America today is a result of all of those waves of immigrants, and the optimism and challenges that brought our ancestors here for a new beginning. 

            On our nation’s birthday, just before my neighbors decided to shoot off their fireworks at dusk, a photo showed up on my phone.  My friend had landed at an American airport, and he had just passed through immigration and customs.

            The photo told the story: his face ablaze with the biggest smile. He held a paper stamped with the date, and the words “inspected”.  It was official.  He was now a documented resident of the USA, a big step to becoming a citizen.

            Becoming a citizen in this country now is a challenging, difficult journey, far different than when my dad made the trip to the local courthouse, filled out a form, and quickly became “legalized”, a citizen.

            My friend’s journey is longer, more convoluted.  It involves a lot of expensive paperwork, and a flight to another country and back again.  And, he’s only halfway done with the process, even though he came here when he was seven years old.

            Now, years later, he’s a college student, and has a career, a marriage. He is finding his way, focused on a profession, giving back to his community, showing his younger siblings they, too, can live the American dream.

            His story is my family’s story, too.  This anniversary day of independence, of throwing off the oppression of an unjust government, the shackles of poverty and hopelessness, of coming to a new land and being able to work hard and make a new, better life for yourself and your family, is the American story. 

It is my story, and now, it is my young friend’s story.

            Some of my ancestors left the sweatshops of an English woolen mill, becoming farmers in their new land, working as farm laborers on an unforgiving Iowa farm in the Midwestern heat.  They became citizens, raising a new generation of farmers, Americans.

They took the Oregon Trail, finding a new land, and their own farm, becoming homesteaders, new Oregonians.  As a child, I heard my grandmother tell the stories of carving out a farm in the forest, a winter spent in a leaky shack with a canvas roof.  The next summer, they built a cabin and a barn, herding their new cows for a week through the forest to their new farm.

After the barn and the cabin, they built a school, taking their hard earned money to hire a teacher and educate their kids. Those immigrants, those refugees from an English woolen mill, they built a new life in a new world.

            My grandfather came here, too, yet another immigrant, fresh from a prisoner of war camp after the First World War.  There was nothing for him where he had come from, except poverty and disease.  Coming to American offered hope, opportunity, a new beginning. He, too, worked as a farm laborer, learning English after a long day, taking the steps to become a citizen. 

            On the other side of the family, there are other stories, of pulling up stakes and moving to a new land, the promise of education, the value of hard work and adjusting to challenges, the possibilities that came with America’s promise. 

            Looking back, I see that all my family were immigrants.  Coming to America, making your life better, working hard, it was who we were, and who we are. 

            Looking around, I see that my town was built by the sweat and commitment of immigrants, newcomers who didn’t take opportunities for granted, but were willing to work and make this community their home.

            American immigration isn’t just Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty.  Not eighty miles away from here, over 100,000 immigrants came to Oregon through the Knappton Quarantine Station on the Columbia River, from the 1880s to the 1920s.  We are literally a nation of immigrants, refugees seeking a better life.

            They came seeking what my friend wants: opportunity, freedom, a chance to be part of a great freedom-loving nation.

            We celebrate the Fourth of July, and in doing so, we also celebrate our history of welcoming others, to make this nation even stronger, even more a land of opportunity. 

            My family all wanted the same thing: opportunity.  They wanted justice, and freedom from violence and a dead-end, oppressive life.  They wanted a chance to prove themselves, and make a better life for their kids.  They were willing to work hard, and make sacrifices. 

            They built farms and schools, created communities, and raised their kids.  They worked hard, and helped make this country strong and healthy, a place where the rule of law and individual rights are common values. 

            My friend wants that, too.  He sees a bright future for himself and for his family here.  He’s working hard, and wants to do his part in making America an even healthier, stronger place, a place where freedom and justice for all is just not a political slogan, but a deeply held belief, and an aspiration for all of us. 

--Neal Lemery, July 6, 2016cr