If the caravan were next door

The migrant caravan moving through Mexico right now is the center of a lot of political debate. President Trump is sending unnecessary troops to the border to support his midterm election cases, but those troops are powerless. They cannot take any action against the migrants; if they dare, they can legally just walk right past the troops.

In Oak Park, we can very easily condemn this from behind a screen, a thousand miles away. However, I pose the question: What if the caravan were next door to use, walking through Minnesota, on to Wisconsin and then our front door? I find it incredibly hard to believe that people would be nearly as receptive as they are when the migrants are as far away as they are now. In Exit West, the nativist movement overwhelms London. This type of action would not be surprising in the northern areas of Great Britain, as immigrant hysteria was a major contributor to the overwhelming majority of voters in favor of Brexit in these areas. However, voters in London were far more liberal, voting at an almost identical majority to stay in the EU.

 It is easy to draw the parallel to Oak Park, where we vote liberally, talk liberally, and often vote to support liberal policies that, though they may help others, have no repercussions for ourselves. I am not questioning the presence of people like the girl on Mykonos, willing to extend arm, hand, and more to immigrants in our community, but while reading I found myself thinking the Londoners were harsh, ignorant, and cowardly. But would that be me? Would that many of us? I think it is very possible that, if faced with a crisis directly in front us, many liberal Oak Parkers would not be the Samaritans we like to think ourselves to be.