Perspective from the 19th Hole is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write. I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf. The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie. And it is where you want to be on a golf course.
I wrote this headline after returning from church yesterday where we heard members of the Salem Refugee Community sing about God in various languages, often their own.
Their participation illustrated a couple things:
- God is THE GOD of all people, not just those who happen to live in America or who look like us.
- Salem Alliance Church, the church we have attended in Salem, Oregon, for more than 30 years, has led an effort to welcome refugees to this country – and, of all places, these solid citizens live, figuratively at least, right next door to us in the Salem-Keizer area.
A third point is that what we saw at our church this morning creates a very different picture than some citizens propound, which is that immigration is evil and threatens our way of life.
Of course, the leader of that anti-immigrant message is one Donald Trump who wants to be president again. But, this blog is not about Trump.
It is about the REAL PEOPLE whom we call immigrants or refugees.
All of us need to welcome to America just as our forebears were welcomed in the past.
It was awe-inspiring to see and hear the refugees sing about God in their own languages – Swahili, French, Sango, Arabic, Spanish – as well as, for us, English.
It showed, to make my point again, that God is THE GOD OF ALL PEOPLE, not just those who look and act like us.
Perspective from the 19th Hole 
Amen, and well said, Dave.