As a community advocate working in the complex field of policy, I constantly wrestle with striking a balance between my idealism and my pragmatism. How does one reconcile die-hard beliefs in what is best for one's community with hard-learned lessons in the art of political compromise?
To arm ourselves to the teeth and make self-protection our greatest value makes it harder to love, at least to love those most different from us. The result could be our inability to be swept into the breadth and fullness of love residing in the heart of God.
The need for fair and humane immigration reform is critical to achieving fair and sustainable food systems. With immigration reform moving very fast, what can people and organizations who care about food do?
Working poor and middle class are not free riders -- no matter where they are from. In an economy in which everyone is connected, nothing is free. Immigrants and lower income people are valuable contributors to the economy.
By addressing the immigration issue, we establish finally the human value of our regional interrelationship. Let us hope that Congress and the administration support their efforts and put in place a comprehensive immigration reform that will protect all whose journeys bring them to this great country.
One of the big challenges for senators, in particular, will be to bridge the chasm between their own economic circumstances and the lives of lower-income immigrants.
Media should stop distracting Americans with coverage about the political games being played around immigration reform, which reduces it to simply an "issue" and as a result divorces it from the people whose lives hang in the balance.
In April, Obama's numbers returned to a normal level, after experiencing a very short post-election "honeymoon period" with the public which bounced his numbers up to a peak, and then bounced them right back down again.
Separate is not now, and never has been, equal. It is time to treat all D.C. residents equally, and disband with the two-tier proposal that unfairly targets, stigmatizes and enables profiling of hard-working, undocumented D.C. residents.
Accountability is the key to reform: accountability to the American public in setting and meeting a strict standard for border security, accountability to border residents on how the law is enforced in their communities, and accountability to the highest law enforcement standards.
Americans of all backgrounds have a chance to work together in solidarity, and women must take the lead, not follow the naysayers or incrementalists.
One thing NAFTA has taught us is that, if we expect employment growth in Mexico to materialize as a result of trade agreements, investments must be targeted.
The DREAM Act may have been controversial before, but it is considered a safe bill on both sides of the aisle now: border security is where the controversy has migrated to after the DREAM Act has been so thoroughly accepted by the American public.
Too much emphasis has been put on immigration reform as a social policy that will benefit immigrants, and not enough has been done to highlight the positive economic impact that immigration reform will have on entire cities and regions.
For Democrats this is too good to be true. While Republicans continue to try to smear former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton over Benghazi, she long ago accepted her share of responsibility, and her popularity continues to tower above all national figures in American public life.
These human experiences are stories which we all can share and relate to. It is the human aspect of cultural understanding that is being drowned out in the conversation -- both on Capitol Hill and around our dinner tables.