August 8, 2024: London Democrats Abroad Reach Out!

Given the new context of speaking to US citizens abroad — and because Jim and I wanted to experiment with a new presentation banter — I took a more global approach this night with, I’m sorry to say, mixed results.

The crowd was engaged and left outraged, just as other groups were. But they did not necessarily leave compelled to devour my book.

In this reflection, I grapple with the possible reasons why.

This was the rare event when I did not share the stage with folks like Ray and Sam, who embody the human capacity for resilience and illustrate for us the power of hope; or with the first responders, like Camilo, Felicia, Deirdre, et al., who show us every day that there is a better way, who model for us that we can welcome with dignity those in need of our empathy and compassion.

CLICK THE IMAGE FOR INFORMATION RE: HOW TO ORDER CROSSING THE LINE

Additionally, global problems don’t lend themselves to actionable, local action. Especially when the Call to Action — as it was this night — is “vote as if democracy depended on it” — because it does — then hold the next administration accountable, demanding that they do better than the forty years worth of administrations before them — because on immigration the Democratic party has been indistinguishable from its counterpart.

Friends and colleagues gathered this night heard my messaging load and clear:

  • Human rights atrocities are being committed against the world’s most vulnerable people every day and the world’s richest and most powerful nations are complicit.

  • The same nations that created the root causes of forced human displacement and migration are not taking responsibility for the consequences of unjust and dehumanizing economic and foreign policy actions.

    • Rather than asking, Why are so many people on the run?, we instead are stuck in a cruel feedback loop of asking only,

    • How do we stop them?

  • The United Nations governing body seems unable to contain the violence and is, therefore, part of the problem. Because the top-line mandate of the UN is to protect the rights of sovereign nations, when nation-states fail to protect the rights of people rendered stateless and on the run, it is in direct conflict with its own sub-agencies comprising and International Refugee Protection Regime. Another negative feedback loop.

  • Because the hope of those rendered stateless and on the run knows no borders, our cruelty in the face of their plight is not okay. We can, we must do better.

So, edifying? Yes. But I did not propel my guests toward action.

In retrospect, I should have concluded the event with a creative brainstorm, asking How can we, as citizens of the world, work within our respective governmental as well as corporate and community organizations to raise awareness of the fact that we in the Global North have crossed the line, contributing to a grim reality history will not soon forgive, or forget?

But I didn’t.

As a result, while participant feedback betrayed that everyone felt their consciousness was raised, they did not feel fired up and ready to join the growing choir raising their voices for positive social change on the issue of global migration. One person expressed feeling “guilty.” Another said she felt helpless, in so many words. Recognizing the enormity of the problem, she wondered out loud what difference she could make.

So, as I resume the Beacon of Hope Book Tour for Crossing the Line, I must remember the mantra with which I began this journey back in June, 2024:

  • Accept: Meet your audiences exactly where they are;

  • Blend: Validate their understanding and seek to clarify their point of view, then show them a new facet to the diamond, reflecting back to them another way of thinking about and considering the multiple complexities of the issue; then

  • Transform: Provide them with many ways to take action, asking them to pick just one, assuring them that the power of change arising from the grassroots is that if we all sing our own note, persistently and confidently and without ceasing, our voices will knit together in glorious harmony, getting louder and louder until the powers that be hear our simple refrain:

    Their Hope Knows No Borders.

    Our Cruelty is Not Okay.

    There IS a Better Way.


Sarah Towle