Watching "The Journey" on TCM about Hungary 1956

And I am thinking of the millions of displaced persons the world over. Whatever has left them without a home: war, poverty, natural disaster, political oppression, there are simply too many people without a place to call home.

I am thinking of Aga- who walked hundreds of miles to safety with her family. A Czechoslovakian refuge, Aga came with the clothes on her back and her ballet slippers tucked inside her muff.

I am thinking of Sarom- who landed in the US via a refugee camp after her native Cambodia lost it's soul, and she lost most of her family to Pol Pot's killing fields.

I am thinking of the mass Irish immigration when people scraped together their steerage passage after the Great Hunger and made it here. To see "No Irish need apply" signs in the shop and factory windows.

I am thinking of European Jews who were scattered to the four winds after the Holocaust. My late great friend Randy was a well respected geneologist whose family tree had severed limbs that ended at Auschwitz and Dachau.

I am thinking of Palestinian children who have never known anything but forced internment in camps filled with poverty and rage.

I am thinking of the war veterans with their destroyed bodies and their addictions who have given everything and now have nothing.

I am thinking of the Mexican worker who sneaks across the border in a desperate attempt to find work with dignity.

I am thinking of how I would feel, leaving everything I know to face an uncertain future, to finally find home again. Or for the first time.

Such brave souls. Such patience. I wish blessings without limit on all who wander this earth in search of home. I wish them justice too.

Aga found home here, I worked with her in the 1980's. She was doing well and told wonderful stories, had a loving husband and children who thrived here.. Sarom had a more difficult path, I worked with her too. She was married with small children and a husband who treated her badly, I saw the bruises. She was trying to come up with the money to get her sister out of a refugee camp. I hope she succeeded and that her children have an easier life than their mom.

I am fortunate indeed to have a home.



edited to add: And I have just read here on DU in a post by ensho that the Iraq war has created 1 million orphans.