Rev. Kathleen Owens's Remarks at the Border Wall Press Conference

Text of the speech delivered by Rev. Kathleen Owens at the San Diego Organizing Project's Border Wall Press Conference in San Ysidro. 
"Good afternoon, I’m the Rev. Kathleen Owens, Lead Minister at First Unitarian Universalist Church of San Diego answering the call of Love. We are here to speak the truth – that unless we are of Indigenous Native American or Mexican heritage, we are all immigrants on this land. We’re here to name the truth that immigrants have always made this country better…that we need bridges, not walls."

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"Walls divide people, interrupt the nature flow of water, of animals – walls divide and we know that divisions never add to an environment, a country, or a people…walls and division only bring less…division encourages fear, only serves the elite in power, never the people. Today, as a member of San Diego’s faith community I speak against walls and separating families.

Scripture says we are to welcome the foreigner, we are to be kind, treat all well. My faith tells me that we are all connected, that what happens in Tijuana and San Ysdiro, affects us all in CA, in the United States. We live in an interconnected web of life and dividing that web means the web will not survive. My faith tells me that we are one human family.

We want the money spent to build the wall to instead be put into building up the local economies in all communities along both sides of the border. If the government wants fewer immigrants, then stop raping other countries of their natural resources, creating the road that leads right back to the United States. Stop creating poverty conditions in other countries and then be angry that people are migrating for a better life. That makes no sense.

We want government to do its job: create a clean DREAM ACT for Dreamers and their parents; repair our cruel, broken immigration system now, and create a worker program that allows for a temporary work force for the betterment of the people and our businesses.

​We people of faith call on our elected leaders to LEAD – with action; stop with words that go nowhere…bravely act so that our country’s ideals become a reality." 
- Rev. Kathleen Owens