Happy New Year from the Somali cab driver who picked you up at the Minneapolis Airport at 4am with no other cabs around….
Happy New Year from the Sudanese seamstress, who repaired your torn trousers at 5:30 when you needed those pants that night…
…the Iranian cardiologist who might’ve saved your dad’s life in surgery…
Happy New Year from the Yemeni plumber who took time on a Saturday to solve your flooding sink…
Happy New Year from the Transgender soldier who saved his battalion by finding that IED on the radar 50 feet before it exploded…
Happy New Year from the Haitian orderly who changed your mothers bed pans and held her hand when they had to administer a painful procedure…
The gay medical tech who noticed something on the Cat scan and notified the oncologist…that gave your wife a quicker diagnosis for breast cancer and helped save her life…
Happy New Year from the Guatemalan , the El Salvadoran, The Honduran , the Syrian, the Libyan, who all have performed their jobs or services with integrity, hard work, and a cheerfulness. a gratitude that they can, for now, work in a free country and perform work that many would choose not to do.
But they will not be here for long.
Everyone on that list has either been ostracized , legally banned, ridiculed, marginalized, vilified…or just distrusted and hated…
We need one another.
We need THEM in THIS country and we need one another all over this planet.
We need them all..the people from foreign lands, with unfamiliar names and tongues, and cultures….
ALL OF THEM… to work with us.
We need them to comfort us, cheer us, be wise and smart and observant for us…and by the way….we could use the friends too….
Our humanity in this country and this planet is doomed when good and caring and talented and hard working people are divided from one another.
Stand up and give a hand…to someone you can’t stand…or fear..or distrust.
Wish them a Happy New Year…we need everyone in the family of man…while they are here.
