No one needs to be reminded that, after killing off its Natives, our country was built by immigrants. Sometimes we forget, though, that those groups whose arrivals preceded other groups’ have historically ‘othered’ the later arrivals, and with the added intent to bar citizenship to people different in religion or country of origin or race, despite these characteristics are protected from discrimination under the law. Asylum seekers, too, have legal protection.
On The Daily Show withTrevor Noah (Sept 27, 2018) America Ferrera (actor, author --“American Like Me,” -- activist, and director) said “...women and people of color and all sorts of marginalized people in this country are feeling we should be able to walk into spaces with our whole selves. We shouldn’t have to strip away the pieces of us that aren’t accepted by the mainstream culture to exist and be accepted in spaces. For me that means I’m an actress, that means I’m a director, that means I’m a producer, that means I’m an engaged citizen and I get to be all of those things no matter what room I walk into.” [I have always liked this woman, in part because her immigrant parents so admired this country that they named her after it!]
The Second paragraph of our sacred Declaration of Independence says
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
Fortunately, for women the liberal interpretation now includes us, but, of course, we are not all created equal. Some of us are taller or faster or smarter or more symmetrical. What is unalienable is that we are all entitled to equal treatment and protection under the law. This latter truth is often circumvented. Those with money are, as we know, treated and protected better than those without money. If USA could remedy this and have equal treatment under the law, perhaps global citizens could better be recognized as deserving of human rights, no matter their country of origin. If America wants to spread its values around the world, perhaps it should start at home.
