ICE: How did we get here?

When I was in grade school, my oldest sister was involved in a foreign exchange student club called AFS while she was in high school.

I will never forget this one weekend that students involved with the AFS program from around the globe came to Niles West High School in Skokie, IL.

My entire hometown welcomed these foreign students with open arms, including those who were from Latin America. It was a unique educational experience for both parents and their children. It was an event that had a great impact on my life. 

My family, along with all the family members of high school students involved in the AFS club, hosted students to stay in their homes for a weekend. My family hosted a teenage girl from Ecuador. I’ll call her “Maria.”

“Maria” was the first person I ever met from a different country who was bilingual. Maria spoke both English and Spanish fluently. I remember being so intrigued.

I remember Maria sharing what life was like in Quito, and how different and similar it was to the United States. 

As a grade-schooler, I had been clueless how the world operated until that weekend. I was young and naive. I thought the entire world was just like Skokie. I had no idea what it was like living on a farm, on the ocean, in mountains, etc. It was my first real exposure to the concept of cultural diversity.

The last night of the weekend, all the families that sponsored students, along with the foreign exchange students, gathered in the “Oakton Street Lobby” at Niles West. We all sat by the fireplace. Together, all the students connected to AFS sang the song “Guantanamera.”

It was the first time I ever heard a song sung totally in Spanish. That moment has been embedded in my brain for over 50 years.

It was the early 1970s. It was a time of unrest in the United States. The song, and the experience of meeting so many foreign exchange students for the first time, started me thinking outside my sheltered little box. 

When learning the words to “Guantanamera,” I started to understand the concept that politics, racism and political terrorism had on our universe.

The song “Guantanamera” opened my eyes up to much more than racism and segregation in the United States. It made me think on a global level for the first time in my life. Even though the song was written in the 1920’s, it became one of the protest songs of the 1970s.

Flashing forward to the unrest in the world today, I just can’t comprehend how the grandchildren of the hippie generation, the grandchildren of flower children — turned into people unable to utilize their own ability to critically think. So many of these young people have become extremely self-centered, prejudiced individuals, who are unable to think for themselves.

How is it that this new generation never learned the concepts of “Peace, Love and Rock and Roll?” What happened to the concept of saving our planet and creating a utopian society? Or a world in which peace, love and understanding prevailed?

I just can’t comprehend how my generation allowed our nation to be brainwashed to the degree that it has. How is it that voters ignored the warning signs of a dictator wanna be?

Twice our nation elected an individual to become President who is a known sexual predator, a person who filed bankruptcy numerous times, a man who has spewed hate against just about every ethnicity, and has made fun of those with physical challenges, along with individuals who risked their lives serving our nation.

How is it so many of today’s politicians grew up during a time in which we all strived for social change? We strived to make the world a better place, and NOT one in which a sociopathic dictator wannabe would use Gestapo-like tactics on innocent people, like what he is doing with ICE.

It’s time to stop this insanity and start singing songs like “Guantanamera” again.