Upholding Founding American Values

I will remember the summer of 2010 as the season when our New Routes model became my personal touchstone for what is important to me about the work we do. These days, when I look at our model, formulated four years ago, I see it as a reflection of what I love best about the United States. Our program offers both a hopeful and patriotic vision. We see immigration as a positive process that brings vigor to our civic life. We embrace the core American story of immigrants seeking the freedom and opportunity our nation offers, creating whole fabric out of the varied threads of culture and beliefs that immigrants bring with them to the United States.

Our grantees are creating media about the immigrant experience that can be used as a tool in community engagement, advancing immigrant health and integration. Our collective work stands as an antidote to anti-immigrant American politics and pandering as reported in mainstream media in the summer of 2010. Do we want to live in a country where foreigners must carry papers on their person, as has been legislated in Arizona? Do we want to live in a country where equal protection under the law and rights to citizenship are altered to exclude some? Do we want to live in country where freedom of religion has certain caveats about where we can worship? Do we want to live in a country where we rescind rights enshrined in the constitution?

In our work, we seek to uphold founding American values, including the right to free speech, equity and opportunity for all. We know absolutely where we stand in relationship to the first and fourteenth amendments to the U.S. constitution. We see the U. S. consitution as the ultimate model for assuring personal and political tolerance and freedom.

Here is our vision of the New Routes model.

New Routes partnerships bring together media-makers, immigrant organizations, and community institutions to improve the health and well-being of immigrants. These partnerships create media and community engagement initiatives that build leadership and promote integration as a reciprocal process that benefits immigrants and the larger community. 

All New Routes grantees: 

• Create media – local media, multi-media and new media – as a powerful tool for immigrants to use in improving the health of immigrants and in calling attention to their health care needs.

• Forge partnerships among immigrants, local media makers and established community institutions to address community health concerns.

• Build the skills of immigrant leaders to communicate with immigrants and the larger community about community health issues.

• Promote immigrant integration as a reciprocal process that benefits immigrants and the larger community.

• Reinforce founding American values, including the right to free speech, equity and opportunity for all.

Tags: 14th amendment, Bill of Rights, citizenship, First Amendment, tolerance
Topics: Bill of Rights, Citizenship, Civic Life, Ending Racism, Founding American Values