Maybe Change Isn’t So Bad After All…
Frequently you hear stories of immigrants coming to America for the first time and being treated poorly. Usually unable to find work, not knowing customs and laws, and easily taken advantage of, they are incredibly vulnerable and in an unfamiliar area. There are many people in America who believe these people have no positive attributes to contribute to society (I’m looking at you, Donald Trump) and that keeping them out are in our best interests. This has become a huge topic of conversation within American society, especially in politics, and regularly has a negative light surrounding it.
However, there are some places such as Clarkston, Georgia, that remind us all that we can be kind. While there are some people that resist change by leaving, there are more that are trying to make a difference. Whether it be integrating the local Baptist church to create a space for different kinds of international worship, training the police force to help new arrivals as opposed to punish them, or having the local, independent grocery store cater to their needs and tastes, Clarkston is slowly but surely adapting to their increased immigrant population. But this change isn’t happening due strictly to kindness or empathy — it’s also due to the fact that citizens need to. As the owner of the independent grocery store, Thriftown, said in an interview: “[he] feels the same way about Hong, who he says taught him a valuable lesson about running his store — and life. ‘If you don’t change,’ Mehlinger said, ‘You’re gone.’” (175)
Not only is Thriftown catering to new immigrant populations, it’s also employing them at an incredible rate, using them to help determine what kinds of food would be best for immigrants like them. “These days, thirty-five of Thriftown’s forty-three employees are resettled refugees, from twenty different nations” (174). While this was an amazing tool for the immigrant population, it also ended up saving the store. Before the switch to international food items, the owners were sinking into debt as less and less people shopped at the local store, instead traveling 30 minutes to get to other international markets. With the switch, and despite keeping costs low, the owners are able to keep the store going with an ever increasing selection of food.
The grocery store wasn’t the only thing to change. The local Baptist church, after seeing many members move out with the new influx of immigrants, was slowly dying due to lack of congregation. In a time of crisis, the elders of the church took a usual course of action, which resulted in something quite extraordinary.
“They looked to the Bible for guidance, and read a passage in which Jesus described heaven as a place for people of all nations” (176).
Once in a while, people really get the Bible. Sometimes, it’s bad interpretations such as the Westborough Baptist Church. Other times, it’s the neighborhood soccer mom who refuses to accept gay marriage because it violates an out-of-context passage. But sometimes, rarely it seems these days, people forget the hatred and the exclusion and focus on the meaning behind it all: love. By creating a space for people of all nations, and following what they saw as God’s word, the congregation of Clarkston forfeited their traditional Baptist church in favor of welcoming new people to their town. This was not an easy decision for them to make. “But as [they] witnessed the slow-motion death of his church, [they]began to believe that God was punishing the congregation for not living by the way Jesus had prescribed” (176). This revelation lead to a creation of a space where all could be included instead of forcing newcomers to borrow spaces around town while pews at church became increasingly empty. By creating a melting pot, they were able to help all instead of only some.
The idea of helping all in Clarkston resonates thoroughly within this piece. It serves as a reminder that, instead of judging and rejecting, we should help those around us, and that in turn, they will help us. This is the mentality behind NGS; to pay it forward so that they, one day, can achieve and help others. I’ve found that at NGS it is more about helping those around you and adjusting to the circumstances, like the grocery store owner, so that you don’t get left behind while simultaneously helping others. There, people do not help for their own benefit. Instead, people realize that in order to help themselves and move society in a positive direction, they must help these kids.
