He dedicated his life in the United States to giving his family the American dream. . . . He worked hard to protect and provide for our family, to put me and my siblings through college. . . . She taught us that good things come to those who work hard. . . . I brought my son from Guatemala so that he could have a better life here in the United States. . . . I long for peace and the chance for my family to live and work in the United States without the constant fear of deportation.
Behind each of these statements is the same refrain: the longing for something else. Each of us, undoubtedly, have at some time longed for something else. Perhaps it was for dignity and respect, peace and security, freedom from fear and violence, or simply the opportunity for a better life. Longing is one of the deepest aspects of being human. It is what moves people to leave behind what is familiar in pursuit of what religion scholar Ashon Crawley calls an “otherwise possibility.” It is what inspires people to hope for a different future for themselves and their loved ones.
This nation’s founding began with people who longed for something else: religious liberty, political freedom, opportunity, the possibility of building lives unlike the ones they had left behind across the ocean. That longing helped to bring this nation into being. From its beginning, the United States has been animated by people convinced—for better and for worse—that another future was possible.
