Last Day! Vote For The DREAM Act on Change.Org
My first post of the 2009 was a poorly written interior monologue about the conflicts between blogging and organizing. If there's any place that blogging and organizing intersects, it's with undocumented youth, or DREAMies as they like to be called. For those that aren't familiar with the DREAMie struggle, DREAMies are those who were brought over to the United States as children, usually without any say whatsoever in the matter. As Senator Dick Durbin, one of the major sponsors of the DREAM Act has said, the only sin they've committed is "the crime of obeying their parents."
Often, the only country DREAMies have ever known is the United States. Though I'm not a fan of the word, they are culturally "American" in every sense of the word, except for they don't have papers that say they are a U.S. citizens. Personally, that's not the most significant reason why I advocate for the DREAM Act though and support DREAMies whenever I can.
In my last years working as a blogger and a migrant advocate, I have been completely inspired by the unauthorized migrant youth I have worked with. In many ways, I exemplify how unfair their situation is. I was born in Guatemala and spent 18 years of my life there, but am still a U.S. citizen because I was fortunate enough to be born to two U.S. citizen parents. Coming from the perspective of having been born and raised in Guatemala, I can safely say that if I were an unauthorized migrant, I would have gotten fed up with the U.S. long ago. I always joke with DREAMies that if I had been in their positions, I would have started my own "Back To Latin America" movement in the tradition of Marcus Garvey, long ago. That sure would have made nativists happy.
I mean how ridiculous is it that you can get the best grades in U.S. schools, graduate from the best U.S. colleges, and still not be able to work or live in the U.S.? That's what unauthorized migrant youth frequently have to go through, but still they fight on. They fight to make a country better, even though that country doesn't even believe they have the right to exist. That is the essence of what it means to do good in this world. To fight on and do the right thing even if everything around you is against you doing it.
What is most exciting about unauthorized migrant youth is that because they are marginalized and afraid to speak up even to their closest friends about the fact that they are undocumented, new media is one of the best outlets for them to be heard. It's this convergence of fighting for the soul of a country that doesn't believe they have a right to exist and the internet being one of the only places of refuge for unauthorized migrant youth that makes me passionate about supporting them.
That's why you should vote for the DREAM Act on change.org. Support unauthorized migrant youth. I will be the first to admit that there are problems with the DREAM Act, but it's not my place to tell unauthorized migrants what's best for them. At this point, unauthorized migrants need a victory, and getting into the top 10 of this change.org contest is precisely the sort of victory all of us need. Not to mention that unauthorized migrants will have the backing of some of the biggest new media companies out there, like change.org and myspace.com.
If that isn't enough to convince you to vote for the DREAM Act on change.org, I don't know what is. Please vote and digg this post to get others to vote.
I mean how ridiculous is it that you can get the best grades in U.S. schools, graduate from the best U.S. colleges, and still not be able to work or live in the U.S.? That's what unauthorized migrant youth frequently have to go through, but still they fight on. They fight to make a country better, even though that country doesn't even believe they have the right to exist. That is the essence of what it means to do good in this world. To fight on and do the right thing even if everything around you is against you doing it.
What is most exciting about unauthorized migrant youth is that because they are marginalized and afraid to speak up even to their closest friends about the fact that they are undocumented, new media is one of the best outlets for them to be heard. It's this convergence of fighting for the soul of a country that doesn't believe they have a right to exist and the internet being one of the only places of refuge for unauthorized migrant youth that makes me passionate about supporting them.
That's why you should vote for the DREAM Act on change.org. Support unauthorized migrant youth. I will be the first to admit that there are problems with the DREAM Act, but it's not my place to tell unauthorized migrants what's best for them. At this point, unauthorized migrants need a victory, and getting into the top 10 of this change.org contest is precisely the sort of victory all of us need. Not to mention that unauthorized migrants will have the backing of some of the biggest new media companies out there, like change.org and myspace.com.
If that isn't enough to convince you to vote for the DREAM Act on change.org, I don't know what is. Please vote and digg this post to get others to vote.
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