Put Yourself in Their Shoes

Have you ever stopped to notice how much hate is actually surrounding us in our everyday lives? We may not realize it, but hate is everywhere we go. No matter where we may be, there is a lot of racial tension, political tension, religious tension, and many others in our society. A lot of people have the same views on these types of situations. This is where “hate groups” have originated from. What is a hate group? According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, hate groups are nothing more that a large social group of individuals who have the same view point on a certain situation or occurrence that may be happening currently in the United States. These groups portray hate, and or violence towards a particular race, religion, gender, etc. Examples of these groups would be the Ku Klux Klan or Neo-Nazi. These groups are considered a lot more extremity than most hate groups now.

Ron Parker, a thirty five old white male. Ron has been working for the American Border Patrol for almost fifteen years. The American Border began in the early 1830s and 1840s. The border was never a sign of hate until the Mexican Revolution occurred in 1910. During the conflict, most citizens of Mexico began migrating to the United States to avoid it. Fourteen years later, the United States established a border patrol to protect the country from immigration.

Ron Parker grew up on Long Beach in Los Angeles, California. During his time as a child, California had one of the highest, undocumented populations in the United States. Ron grew up in a school with many Hispanic-background students. At the time, Ron was just a ten year old kid who had no other intentions, besides going to school, being with his friends, and enjoying his childhood. During Ron’s freshman year of high school, he began to understand what illegal immigration was and took offense it. He was watching the news one morning with his father who has been an “anti-immigration” individual himself for years. His father never mentioned the topic to Ron until now. He believed now that Ron was old enough to understand how he thought it affected United States citizens. “Undocumented population sky rockets in Los Angeles, California” the news had stated. After Ron and his father began watching the news, Ron had many questions. “Why do they get to come in for free? Why are they able to get jobs and make money if they are not United States citizens? Is there not any way to stop it?” Ron seemed very overwhelmed by this. Ron began seeing the world differently, like it was unfair. Every Hispanic individual he saw, he immediately judged them as a bad individual with poor intentions. Ron began to stop talking to a couple of his Hispanic friends he had from school because of what he had heard on the news. After a couple of years of Ron supporting “anti-immigration,” it began to get worse. Protests began to break out where Ron lived. These protests were to stop immigrant family separations. This fueled the fire for Ron. Ron’s beliefs grew stronger and stronger each day. When Ron was twenty years old, he was sworn in to the American Border Patrol Agents where he began his career.

Throughout the years, Ron’s views remained the same, and that was to secure the United States border from illegal immigration. Ron’s job was not easy on him by any means. Ron has seen everything from families being separated to sick injured children trying to find a better life. The occurrences Ron has been through has affected him deeply. Ron patrolled the wall with many other agents, but the situation of immigration did not affect the others the way it affected Ron. One day, Ron and his fellow agents had to arrest and separate a family attempting to illegally cross the border. Although Ron had been working with the American Border Patrol for almost fifteen years, this was the very first time he experienced a family separation up close and personal. The family was a mother and a father with two small children no older than the age of five. The father was separated from his wife and children after being arrested. Ron witnessed the children in agony as their father was taken away. This struck Ron with pain and regret. He saw the look of fear and sadness in the family’s eyes. For the other agents, this was just another day on the job, but for Ron, it changed his life. Ron began losing sleep over what had happened. For many years, Ron knew he was labeled as a “bad guy” to everyone who had been against anti-immigration, but he never understood why that was until now. A year had passed and Ron had now been witnessing the same occurrences almost every day. For Ron, this was affecting every aspect of his life. His job, his family, his friends, and everything else around him was being negatively affected by his position as a border patrol agent. While Ron was on the job one day, he began to start breathing very heavily. His heart raced and sweat began to drip from his forehead. “What’s wrong?” One of his fellow agents asked. Ron began to lose his breathe. The agents quickly called the paramedics to address the situation. Ron had a severe panic attack while on the job. Quickly, he was rushed to the hospital where they treated him. When Ron was okay to speak on the topic, they asked him what had happened, but he did not quite remember. This panic attack was the first sign of PTSD Ron experienced from dealing with the everyday life of a patrol agent. After this, everyday on the job for Ron was depressing and caused anxiety. He began feeling guilt and loneliness on the job. He now understood why he was labeled as a “bad guy.”

A couple of months went by and Ron’s symptoms had begun to worsen. He experienced insomnia and brutal nightmares almost every night. He felt isolated from the world, his family, and loss of interest in life. On March 20th, 2010, Ron’s life changed forever. Ron took his patrol truck out by himself. While traveling, he began to pray, asking for forgiveness and strength. In Ron’s head, he was a horrible human being. He hated himself and what he became. Ron parked the car and began to cry in agony as he was about to end his life because it was too much to handle. He could not handle the guilt of separating families, children being taken. Just as Ron was about to make his final call, another agent ran up to the window of his truck. “Ron! Put it down, please” the agent said. Ron looked at him with tears rolling down his face. The agent slowly opened the door and hugged Ron. Ron was transported to the nearest facility where he was treated for his PTSD disorder. Ron began seeing therapists and his life started to become better. He no longer had a feeling of guilt, no longer lost sleep, and finally loved his life again.

In 2012, two years after Ron’s incident, his views had changed on the world. Instead of focusing on the bad, his main focus had now been on the good of the world. Ron began an “Immigrant and Refugee Assistance Program.” Within this program he began to help immigrants with citizenship. They were able to help them find employment, and get back on their feet. Ron’s greatest achievement from starting this program was that he was able to bring immigrant families back together. Ron realized that there is good in the world and you just have to find it.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

This writing took a lot of thought and research. I cannot say this piece was difficult to write, but more interesting. I do not like to share my views on political situations, so therefore I will not mention them. But this piece to me, was something special. I learned that people of this job really do go through hardships like PTSD and other disorders. Writing this essay made my views more neutral. I am the type of person to view something from both sides and writing this piece helped me do just that. Overall I found this piece interesting and more creative than the other pieces.

Works cited:

“American Border Patrol/American Patrol.” Southern Poverty Law Center, https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/group/american-border-patrolamerican-patrol.

Little, Becky. “The Violent History of the U.S.-Mexico Border.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 9 Apr. 2018, https://www.history.com/news/mexico-border-wall-military-facts.