The issue I am going act on is the problem on the Southern border of the United States with all of the immigrants being held back from crossing, and how the president wants to build the wall causing problems in the country. This issue is cultural violence and direct violence. This is happening because Trump thinks that immigrants take jobs from people, and they take taxpayer’s money without contributing to society. On the Ladder of Tolerance, Trump is restricting people because they have the right to seek asylum and it is one of the laws in the United States. This conflict has a lot of factors when it is placed on the Iceberg Model of Conflict analysis. On the top of the iceberg, it looks like the president wants the wall to keep immigrants out. Underneath the surface, there are the reasons why these people want to come in is because they want a better life, follow their dreams, find asylum, escape their country that might be in poverty or have no government. A group that is nonviolently addressing this issue is Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights (ICIRR). They do lots of work about the rights of people who are immigrants or refugees. The things they do are helping people out like giving them access to healthcare, and a family support hotline where they can inform people on their rights or help them on any situation. According to their website, anyone can volunteer to be in ICIRR. They can be change makers and organize marches. They also do calls for action by contacting the government or other elected officials. The method I will be using for my intervention is a petition. This action is relevant because it will support the side that is against the construction of the wall, and it is a nonviolent method of protest. My method lines up with sarvodaya because it uplifts all the people that are against Donald Trump’s wall. It is swaraj because I am self-starting a petition being supported by people. This shows satyagraha because I am fighting for the truth and going against a big
change the president wants to make. This might show swadeshi because if immigrants get to know their rights, and it will benefit the local economy because of more businesses starting. This intervention was good, and I enjoyed doing the petition. What I did was go through my local area, and go into stores and restaurants. Most people signed my petition there where a couple people who didn’t, but that was okay. I would like to thank my girlfriend she accompanied me, and helped me get signatures. I learned that there are other people that know about Gandhi’s principles. I also learned that most people in my community do not want the wall to be built, and they support immigrants coming into the country so they can have a better life. I also learned that I can go out there and interact with people. At first I was debating on doing this or doing something else, but I decided to do the petition.
WORKS CITED Hicks, Josh. “How Much Did the Shutdown Cost the Economy?” The Washington Post, 18 Oct. 2013, accessed 1/17/19 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/federal-eye/wp/2013/10/18/how-much-did-the-shu tdown-cost-the-economy/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.f85626807fb9. “Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights.” Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, 1 Jan. 2018, accessed 1/17/19 https://www.icirr.org/.