While we were having dinner with our daughter and son in law, the conversation drifted to Dolly Parton. We found ourselves talking about her extraordinary generosity, especially her Imagination Library, which has placed more than three hundred million free books into the hands of children.
Laurie paused for a moment, then said, “Some people are givers. Others are takers.” It was a simple remark, but a deeply perceptive one, and worth exploring.
Of course, most of us don’t have the financial ability to give as abundantly as Dolly Parton has done. But we can share the same spirit she embodies. Kindness isn’t just a feeling—it’s a deliberate choice. Even small acts, like letting the person with only a few items go ahead of us in the grocery checkout line, are kindness in action.
We carry a special warmth for the people who stepped in when we needed help. Sometimes it was a simple word of encouragement; other times it was the day the car would not start and a stranger paused to help.
Some people move through life with open hands, always ready to give, while others hold tightly to whatever they can grasp, taking as much as they’re able.
Those incidents when someone has been greedy, selfish, and hurtful toward us tend to be fixed in our memories. We also reflect on examples of people who abuse others.
The ongoing cruelty of I.C.E. agents towards immigrants is something that history will look back on and compare it to other dark days in our nation. Theirs is a ruthlessness of national and international proportions.
Here is the fact that surprises most people: international law and U.S. federal statute both explicitly allow any person physically present in the U.S. to apply for asylum, regardless of how they entered. That legal right exists even if entry was unauthorized (legallyexplained. com/is-it-illegal-to-come-tothe- us-undocumented).
Entering the U.S. illegally for the first time is a civil violation, not a felony. I.C.E. treats those immigrants as criminals and denies them their rights guaranteed by our Constitution. Amend- ment IV states, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath of affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
Please take note the words, “The right of the people….” Amendment IV does not limit this to citizens only. It specifies “people.” Immigrants are “people,” and must be protected by law.
Our government’s history of other abuses of national proportions includes The Trail of Tears. This resulted from President Andrew Jackson’s forced removal policy regarding Native Americans. It was a terrible treatment of people who were true original Americans. At least 3,000, possibly up to 4,000, deaths occurred during a cold winter of the worst of the forced long marches (teachinghistory. org/history-content/aska- historian/a-trail-of-4000--tears/).
The forced internment of about 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II remains one of the most heartbreaking betrayals of our Constitution. Seventeen thousand of these were children. Families were given only a short time to gather what they could carry before being herded onto buses, leaving behind homes and businesses built with decades of sacrifice. They watched their lives disappear as furniture, heirlooms, photographs, appliances, and even commercial fishing boats were plundered. Opportunistic White Americans swept in and stripped those houses and businesses bare. Very little was left of lives uprooted by fear and prejudice because of that mass deportation (history. com/articles/japaneseamerican- relocation).
To me, the abuses described in this article show a mindset. Cruelty is a choice and stems from a lack of kindness. Individually, and as a nation, we are measured by how our weakest and most vulnerable are treated. We honor others’ worth when we choose to be kind and generous givers rather than grasping takers.