Friend --
It’s been a busy year, and with all of the actions, petitions, and rallies, we sometimes get caught up in the moment and forget to reflect on what it’s all about.
What you may not know about America’s Voice is that behind every petition or fax campaign are leaders on the ground who need our help. One of the best parts of our job involves meeting amazing people around the country and coming up with strategies to help them, and all of us, win.
I was honored this fall to befriend Victor Palafox, one of the leaders of Alabama DREAMers for the Future and someone who has emerged as a highly respected voice of hope for his community.
At 19, Victor should be studying at one of the many colleges he was admitted to; he should be joining clubs, going to campus parties, and pursuing his passion--classical guitar. His immigration status, of course, makes that extremely difficult.
Instead, he’s become an organizer, working day and night to repeal Alabama’s HB 56, the nation’s harshest anti-immigrant law. In a recent blog post, Victor shared that:
“As an organizer, I have met immigrants from all different parts of the state. The pain here is something visible, something in the air, something in our hearts. You can be talking to someone, seeing them smile, hearing their laughter, and then watch that all dissipate as soon as you ask them about HB 56. This law doesn’t represent us, and it certainly doesn’t represent me.”
It’s important to remember that the pain is real, but Victor also reminds us what we gain in this struggle:
“I am not in university. Yet I still consider myself a student: over the past months, I have learned things that I could never have learned in university, and those lessons will never leave me... Fostering hope is the only way to maintain a direction of progress, to keep the wheels turning, and to keep the people moving forward.”
He’s right. I want to thank Victor and all the activists like him who’ve looked at this law that is designed to suppress people, and instead been emboldened by it. And I wanted to take this last opportunity to thank you for stepping up and supporting the courageous people of Alabama who are, right now, organizing to win.
I hope you have a great holiday season!
Adam Luna
America’s Voice
PS. Victor wrote a blog post for AV about his experiences on the ground in Alabama. You can read it here.
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Celebrando 10 anos "On Line"..2009
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