Why the Dreamers Must Go

The dreamers must go for the simple reason that they are dreamers. Over 800,000 of them have dreamed in concert since they broke the law as infants and children by entering this country illegally. Their parents aided and abetted their crime by holding their hands en route. Now they are threatened with exile because part of the vocal culture in this country can’t abide those who dream like they do, especially when almost a million of them do it together.

They dream of a different, more hopeful future than the one the government has planned for them. Those in power don’t prefer a different future, especially a cultural one, because it will be, well, different. And the promise of those in power is that things will not change, they will remain the same. As Walter Brueggemann puts it, “Moreover, for all the talk of ‘individual freedom,’ the force of homogeneity is immense – partly seductive, partly coercive, partly the irresistible effect of affluence, in any case not hospitable to ‘difference.’” [1]

What does the different dream look like? It isn’t a dream of being forced to return to a country they don’t remember, whose language they can’t speak, a country that persecuted them and perhaps threatened to kill them several years ago.

What does the dream look like? It is terribly sinister. For some it means remaining in this country to care for aging parents and to remain a family. It may mean continuing a career based on an education partly or already completed. Most nefariously it may mean wearing the clothing and celebrating the holidays and speaking the language and worshiping in the same manner of their previous culture, and remembering their sacred history. It is a dream of hope.

Dreams aren’t easily realized, nor do they come cheaply. We recall Martin Luther King Jr.’s words: “I still have a dream, a dream deeply rooted in the American dream – one day this nation will rise up and live up to its creed, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” I have a dream.” But it isn’t yet a reality in many places.

Hope is made of dreams.

To us of this generation who have walked through the ruins of aborted dreams and desecrated ideals … the supreme question is: How does the road sign read: Abandon all hope, ye who enter here. Or: To despair is to betray; at the end His mercy will prevail.

The one road sign may be almost everywhere, the other road sign is revealed in the lives of those who would rather suffer than bear falsehood, who would rather be exposed to torture and living in jail than to remain silent in the face of lies, blasphemy, and injustice.[2]

So despite the promises of the legislators and all the president’s men, the Dreamers will in all likelihood be quietly and slowly sent away. The recent school shooting in Florida, with endless arguments about gun control, will serve as an adequate cover for the promises to be broken and the exile to begin. After all, who can possibly focus on two issues at once?

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[1] Brueggemann, Walter. The prophetic imagination (xvii).

[2] Heschel, Abraham Joshua, “To Despair is to Betray”. Unpublished manuscript.

Good Grief

Supporters of some governments seek to suppress grief. Walter Brueggemann[1] points out that it’s an effort to silence passion.  Numbness comes when passion is eradicated, and numbness causes potential critics to sit down and be still.

Scripture gives a vivid example. After her rape by her brother Ammon, Tamar tears her clothing and begins weeping because she has been defiled and her reputation has been destroyed. But her brother Absolom, King David’s older son, minimizes her grief:

“Tamar put ashes on her head and tore the ornate robe she was wearing. She put her hands on her head and went away, weeping aloud as she went. Her brother Absalom said to her, “Has that Ammon, your brother, been with you? Be quiet for now, my sister; he is your brother. Don’t take this thing to heart.” And Tamar lived in her brother Absalom’s house, a desolate woman.” -2 Samuel 13:29-30 NIV

“Be quiet … don’t take this thing to heart.” The argument can be made that Absolom is dismissive in part because Tamar is a woman, but it is even more tempting for him to treat a woman who is grieving as an object. Absolom eventually puts Ammon to death. But that is an honor killing. Tamar is never restored, never vindicated, even by her father. She is regarded as chattel, used property.

The best of us have only moderate patience with the grief of others. When a loved one dies and friends get the news, sympathy can run its course after a week or so. For those who grieve it can feel quite incredible that they themselves can be in such pain while others go about their business.

And repressive governments and those who support them can be even more indifferent. So it wasn’t surprising when Fox News recently allowed Rush Limbaugh to denigrate students from a Florida high school. They supported a march in memory of their recently slain classmates.

“Minutes after interviewing a group of Parkland, Florida, students organizing marches in response to the mass shooting at their school, “Fox News Sunday” put conservative pundit Rush Limbaugh on the air to dismiss their plans and condemn them for trying to advance a ‘political agenda.’”[2]

For those in power, advancing a political agenda is the sole privilege of those in power.

Why should passion, especially grief, be suppressed? Because grief is connected to death, and repressive governments do not easily entertain the possibility of death. That is, they suppose that their power should be unending. Criticism is an affront to their authority, and loss of authority means loss of power and control. Thus critics are demonized. They become enemies of the state. Which I suppose is fine as long as the critics don’t become too numerous.

Scripture seldom tries to dampen grief. The Psalmist expresses it this way:

“By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.” ( Psalm 137:1) And Paul encourages the early followers of Christ “not to grieve as others do, who have no hope.” (1 Thessalonians 4:13) I think it would not occur to people of faith to disallow grief. Whether it would occur to unbelievers is a different matter.

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[1] See Brueggemann, Walter. The Prophetic Imagination.

[2] O'Connor, Lydia.  “Immediately After Interviewing Parkland Students, Fox News Invites Criticism Of Them.” HuffPost•February 18, 2018.