Just as the ugliness that Tim Myers wrote about descends on City Hall tomorrow courtesy of “adults”, across town at Ranch Pico Jr. High we’ll be teaching young people to empathize with people from different lands and cultures:
The City of Santa Clarita’s Human Relations Forum and ENCOMPASS will present the compassion play “Wheels” at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Rancho Pico Junior High School Auditorium.
Part of the City’s A Season of Diversity program, the play will explore the freedom, mobility and dreams associated with United States citizenship.
“Wheels” offers a perspective on immigration, as well as the privileges and responsibilities of United States citizenship, through the eyes of a 15-year-old Salvadorian-American youth named Oscar. Guests will watch as Oscar experiences the Department of Motor Vehicles in pursuit of his learner’s permit and driver’s license.
“The City’s A Season of Diversity program is devoted to empowering community members to eliminate all forms of discrimination,” said Santa Clarita Mayor Laurene Weste. “The ‘Wheels’ compassion play helps achieve this goal by offering residents a view of the immigration experience through a young person’s eyes.”
The event will include professionally-facilitated pre-show and post-show discussions, as well as the theatrical presentation of “Wheels.”
I’d suggest Bob Kellar attend this great show, but he’ll be at the City Council meeting, standing by his recent comments even as the support around him comes tumbling down.
I don’t want to get too preachy, so let me just offer this to those who have ears to hear: don’t be intimidated by the shouters who will likely show up tomorrow. Be proud of the diversity of our community, our region, our state. Show compassion for those who came here looking for a tiny piece of the freedom and prosperity we enjoy. Realize that they wouldn’t come here unless we gave them work to do, work we find unsavory and beneath us. Understand that our immigration system is deeply unfair, dysfunctional, and broken. Recognize that the shouters have a loud bark but no bite because their ideas, their tactics, and their hostility to others belongs to the mid 20th Century, not the second decade of the 21st.
They don’t speak for everyone in the Santa Clarita Valley, a valley that is changing year after year into a more progressive, more diverse, and more tolerant community. They are at the tail end of their influence and power, and we are at the beginning of our’s.
If the ignorance and hostility on display last week in Santa Clarita weren’t worth fighting, I wouldn’t waste time writing about it. But it is worth fighting, because this is our place as much as it is their’s. This blog has never shrunk from controversy or debate, and I’m not about to start now.
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