We are celebrating Citizenship Day with a full week of events and actions. This year Citizenship Day, which is celebrated on Thursday September 17th, will draw hundreds of diverse community members from across the country to celebrate “Unity in Movement”.
Led by NAKASEC, this week’s events are to celebrate the contributions of diverse communities to the United States and to celebrate “Unity in Movement”. We are kicking off the week by asking you to submit your “Citizenship Stories”. What is your story of contribution? What is your experience of being a part of America? Regardless of status, creed, background or age, this is an opportunity for Americans to stand united and call for meaningful social change. For more on Citizenship Day events, visit NAKASEC’s website.
- jim james works for justice in her community.
Each day this week, we will be featuring a different “Citizenship Story” to celebrate our diversity and our united strength. First up is jim james, a resident of Sedro-Woolley, WA, a primarily agricultural county with a large population of native farmworkers from Oaxaca, Mexico.
As host of a local radio program, Speak Up, Speak Out, and as Chair of the Skagit Immigrant Rights Council, jim is a leading voice in this rural community on the need for comprehensive immigration reform and for passage of the AgJobs and DREAM Acts. A retired middle school ESL teacher, jim witnessed ICE raids in her community and their devastating effects on her students. She knew she couldn’t just walk away and took on the mantle of being a powerful advocate for peace and justice. Since then, she has mobilized post card and petition campaigns to stop the raids, facilitated community dialogues to address Border Patrol practices of detaining and profiling ferry passengers, and has changed the community perceptions of immigration with a focus on how our immigration system is broken by recognizing how current laws and quotas break apart families.
jim believes that we need comprehensive immigration reform because otherwise, people remain in the shadows out of fear of being deported when they have a right to be participating members in our democracy since they already make contributions in taxes and in supplying us with food from their work in our agricultural industries.
jim represents the best in Citizenship:
Citizenship is about assuming social responsibility by contributing to the prosperity of America and by holding elected officials accountable on the tough challenges of the day. It is about realizing the promise of change.
jim is doing just that. How are you working towards the promise of change? Or what does your vision of change look like?
Submit your stories by commenting on this post!
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