Today's MOZEN: Forgiveness In Broken English.

F LoBuono

Recently, while channel surfing, I stopped at a story being reported by our local news channel. Apparently, a women from New City, NY was accused of killing a pedestrian with her motor vehicle and then leaving the scene. In a teary-eyed confession before a judge, the woman was pleading guilty to the crime, expressing extreme remorse for her actions, and claiming that she would have certainly stopped had she realized that she had actually struck someone. Since driving while intoxicated could not be proven, it was deemed an accident. Therefore the crime, a misdemeanor, was for actually leaving the scene of accident without reporting it, not vehicular manslaughter, a felony. The names are unnecessary for this post. However, their ethnicity should be noted: the driver was White, the victim, Hispanic and an immigrant.

Leaving the scene of an accident without reporting it is a misdemeanor, not a felony.

Apparently, the judge felt her plea and contrition genuine and, since the crime was considered a misdemeanor, instead of jail time, he sentenced the woman to a year's probation, a $500 fine, and a 6 month suspension of her drivers license.

Of course, many saw this as a travesty of justice. How could a man's life only be worth probation and 500 bucks? Could it be that a white woman's freedom is worth more than a Latino man's life?

However, in a post sentencing interview with members of the victim's family, who apparently emigrated from Guatemala, one man who identified himself as the victim's cousin took no exception to the punishment. In fact, he actually applauded it. Responding to the reporter's question he said, in heavily accented, but completely understandable English:

No. I am not angry with the decision. I think it was just. Putting her in prison will not bring my cousin back. And, if she spends time in prison, who will take care of her children?

Think about that - WHO WILL CARE FOR HER CHILDREN?

With everything currently happening at our border, THIS is the type of person we should be in fear of? This man, who despite his own loss still looked to find the good in a horrible situation, should be discouraged from entering our Country?

Now, in fairness, I can't say whether or not the victim or any members of his family had entered the Country illegally. However, in a sense, that's besides the point. The mood created by the current Administration's draconian policy on immigration, particularly from those attempting to enter our Southern border, either illegally OR legally is one of abuse and exclusion.

I suppose that when we paint with such a broad brush, as the President regularly does (remember: they're rapists, etc.), we only look for the bad in people, never the good. And, when we do, we are doomed to wallow in mediocrity. It is our diversity, filled with people or character - like this man, that makes us great. It we lose that, we lose all.

The New Colossus

BY EMMA LAZARUS

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”