“Councils who expel strangers from the city are wrong to do so, particularly at a time when they should be giving them help. Both citizens and strangers share the earth as a parent, it is their common right and inheritance, and should not be denied. Wild animals do not drive each other away from food; only humans do that. Wild animals accept that food is to be shared, as a resource provided by the earth itself. They also give assistance to members of their own species; only humans, who ought to regard nothing else human as alien to themselves, offend against this principle.
There was an Urban Prefect once who was very different and acted much more nobly. He was already an old man, and the city suffered a famine. As usual, the citizens tried to have all strangers expelled. But this Prefect, showing a greater responsibility than the rest, summoned all the rich and well-born, and insisted on a debate. He said it was monstrous to expel all strangers, because it would involve denying food to those who were dying. 'We do not let the dogs by our table go unfed, and yet we are depriving human beings of food. The death of so many by famine is a terrible waste for the world and the city. These strangers from the countryside bring trade and produce. To let them die of famine will not help anyone. You may be delaying your own starvation, but you will not prevent it. The farmers will die, and our supplies of grain be lost. We are trying to expel the very people who would have brought us food. Why in times of famine are we trying to get rid of the very people who normally feed us? These people can do much for us even at this time. “Man does not live by bread alone” (Deut. 8:3). They are our families, our very parents. Let us repay what we have received.
'Maybe we are afraid their presence will make the famine worse. But mercy is never destitute, for it receives assistance. If we share our grain with these people, we can buy it back later. If we lose these people as the source of our food, we will have to pay for others. It will turn out much cheaper to share our food with them now. Otherwise it will be impossible for us to obtain food later. If we were to find others to farm for us, they would be unskilled, however numerous they were. What else? We can collect money and buy grain. Without diminishing the city's treasury we can provide financial support for the strangers.'
This old prefect was commended by both God and men. He could show to the emperor the people of the whole province, and truly say to him, 'All these I have saved for you, all these have survived by the kindness of your senate.'
All this is far preferable to what recently happened at Rome. People who had spent most of their lives in this magnificent city were thrown out weeping with their children (whose expulsion is no more acceptable than that of fully-grown citizens) and bewailing their broken relationships. Although the season was barren the city could have imported grain from those very Italian regions whose children were being expelled. Nothing is more disgraceful than to expel someone as a stranger, having demanded their resources for oneself. Why do you expel the person who has been eating what is their own food, and even giving some of it to you? You take their grain supplies and give them no love. You extort food from them and give them no gratitude.”
If it was true in the ancient times of the City-States, how much moreso is it true in the 21st Century web of globally interconnected Nation-States?
Why do we feel justified in excluding others from something which is only 'ours' by an accident of birth?
Who'll pick our crops if we expel all the "foreigners"?
Maybe you want to think about it the next time you want strawberries in January...
Peace
Originally posted 01/05/10
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