Oil and Immigrants

Two huge events are weighing heavy on my heart. First, the fatal oil rig explosion and subsequent unabated leak that is polluting water, beaches and wetlands in the Gulf of Mexico. It will be decades if not longer before the full extent of damage is known. As I pumped gas into my car yesterday, an image flashed in my mind: the pump in my hand was connected to the broken pipe on the sea floor. There are many steps between the raw crude being spewed and the golden liquid that keeps me logging miles, but the connection is valid. I feel small and caught in the middle. Yet, I have to ask, what is my culpability in this crisis? What didn’t I learn in the first gas crisis (of my lifetime) in 1974 when my Mom and I had to wait in a two-block queue to put enough gas in the car to go to the DMV to get my first license.

The other event on my mind is also human made: the Arizona immigration law. Many states have immigration laws but this one became a tipping point. Not only do immigrants – or anyone who looks like one (aka Hispanic) – have to produce their identification papers on demand, but if a law enforcement officer fails to ask, and an immigrant slips by, that officer could be held personally liable and sued. Imagine what a world it would be if every time you stepped out of your house, you were carded. Then again at the grocery store, picking the kids up from school, the clinic, and so on. Your paperwork might as well be worn on your body, not so different than Nazi stars and triangles.

A huge protest is planned for Memorial Day weekend in Phoenix. Many Unitarian Universalists are planning to march, including at least 50 ministers. If I were able to go, I would wear a kilt and carry a sign announcing my family’s immigrant status. Protesting the law doesn’t go deep enough though. Arizona is struggling in a battle that should be waged at the federal level. Until that is done, the human cost is high.

In an ongoing act of compassion, a few UU’s in Arizona have been leaving water jugs in the desert, refilling them and picking up trash in the process. They’ve been arrested and found guilty of trespassing. How does that speak to our plight as human beings?

With the environmental disaster and the immigration struggle, I wonder where the line between “me” and “we” is drawn. Theologian Martin Buber wrote about the “I/Thou” relationship. What would it look like if the “I” were deflated to a point of equilibruim? Reframing the environment from a thing to be exploited for our conveniences, to a “thou” worthy of reverence, and relocating the immigrant from the position of other deserving to be arrested, to seeing him/her in relationship to our selves as brother or sister.

There is much beauty in the world. There is much destruction. As a religious person, I stand in awe of creation in all its forms. I do not have to stand idle – or helpless – in what we as humans have chosen to destroy, demean or cast aside. As I consider my place in the “I/Thou” relationship, I connect the gas pump in my hand to oil-coated birds and marshlands. I will walk more. Instead of expecting a suspected immigrant to produce papers, I will offer a glass of water. Let that be my prayer. Blessed be.