BACK IN SAN DIEGO... Back from Washington with questions... about citizenship... about who the people are for whom I should feel empathy... about who are the people in the world for whom I should feel a sense of responsibility.

A few days ago I met a man who was/is obviously in “my country” without the appropriate documents to show that he is living and working legally in the United States. He is married with a wife and three children whom he left behind in a Central American country three-and-a-half years ago. He told me the names of his country and his city, but it isn’t necessary in this writing for me to say what they are. In his own country he worked full-time in a factory. The factory produces goods that are sold in the United States. He couldn’t earn enough in his job in his country to make it possible for him to feed, clothe, house, and meet other basic needs of his family; so he came to America, the land of opportunity. It took him six weeks to make the dangerous trip, the last part of his journey was a trek through a strange and dangerous border area. At one point he went sixteen hours without food or water. He thought he might die, but he kept going because he knew he had to take care of his family. In the U.S. he has worked for three years being careful to stay “under the radar.” He is obviously a gentle, good man who is devoted to his wife and children. He sends most of the money he earns to his wife in Honduras. He doesn’t complain. He doesn’t beg. He worries about the teenage daughter. He misses his wife and worries about her. The youngest son, whom he hasn’t seen since the child was a toddler, is six-and-a-half.

Of course, I know that laws regulating immigration are important... and necessary. I am aware. I read. I think. Immigration laws in the United States are very much the same as comparable laws in most other countries. The laws are not unreasonable and cruel. So, what is my responsibility to my country... and to the man? I am not his employer; therefore, I am not breaking the law by not betraying him to the Department of Immigration.

The clearest and most consistent guideline from great prophets and philosophers, we may think of them as avatars, over the years of human histories is clear. I should project myself into the other person. I should do for him what I would like him to do for me if I were in his circumstance. I should see myself in him.