By Kiersten Rosetto

Published in the Daily News Record on November 9, 2013

On Oct. 5, a group of around 200 people gathered at Court Square to celebrate The Na­tional Day of Dignity and Respect. During this march, we wanted to call attention to the past, present, and fu­ture as a city, state, and na­tion. With much conversa­tion towards inclusion, our hopes in marching that Sat­urday was to create that space. As the United States is experiencing growth of population and ideas, it brings a lot of change with­in our politics, communi­ties, conversations, and de­mographics. It also brings more opportunity for mis­understanding the move­ment — a movement that supports earned citizen­ship, not amnesty.

Participants in Har­risonburg began a pilgrim­age across town starting at Lucy Simms School. We walked in silence and par­ticipants were encouraged to remember family and friends who have either been deported or have passed away trying to cross the border. Each person carried a flower and had the ability to write a mes­sage about the loved one(s) they were remembering. We ended our march at Court Square.

We wanted to keep the program short. But we also wanted to educate and en­courage dialogue in set­tings around town. With dedicated people, immi­grants who are part of our community, giving an in­troduction to what all dig­nity signifies, the crowd became aware of one an­other in ways they might not have ever seen before. Through this experience, we were not only support­ing and affirming dignity; we were strengthening Harrisonburg as a whole.

The point of the march was simply to converse and to welcome everyone to a space of common ground and respect. We recognize that the political sphere has re­duced humans and their sto­ries of struggle and triumph into numbers and statistics, and our goal was to bring neighbors together to begin disassembling our differing perspectives and see human­ity in all of us equally.

We walked in unity for remembrance, and for a push for comprehensive immigration reform, but we did not march for amnesty. Our government, at all levels has the ability to grant millions of immi­grants a pathway to citi­zenship. The pathway pro­posed by Congress would take at least 13 years for those currently living and working in the U.S. to earn citizenship. This policy is far from amnesty, and it is a compromise supported by both major political par­ties. Our goal is not to de­mand amnesty or disre­gard of the law, but to come up with and agree upon, stipulations for those rules and regulations to be fol­lowed in a way that is in­clusive of those already contributing to the U. S. economy without the hope of obtaining citizenship in the current system.

Almost everyone agrees our immigration system is broken. The activists marching for dignity and respect in Harrisonburg want to find a solution that works for everyone.

The march for dignity and respect was an attempt to have that conversation about what it means to en­gage with our neighbors, regardless of immigration status, political stance, or where in this world you happened to be born.

Just as we work hard at respecting our immigrant population, we must also respect persons who think differently than us. This day was an invitation to all of Harrisonburg to put dif­ference aside and celebrate our town and the human stories that everyone has encountered regardless of political viewpoints.

Change begins with con­versation and understand­ing of what everyone brings to the table, including the people that don’t necessari­ly agree or understand. This place to educate, to communicate with one an­other, and hear ourselves and value opinions and sto­ries is what we long to cul­tivate through our commu­nities here in Harrisonburg and throughout the nation.

Amnesty is not what we seek, but we do yearn for our communities to converse, learn together, and struggle through our differences in order to respect all who are affected and participating in our community, including the undocumented immigrants of our nation.

Kiersten Rossetto is a graduate of Eastern Men­nonite University and lives in Mechanicsburg, Pa.