Friends,
This week’s news
about two stowaway teens falling to their death got me thinking about geography
and the accident of birth. These young Ecuadorian men, were only a
couple of years younger than I was when I first came to study University in the
States. Like me, they hail from a mountain town –theirs smaller than mine, scenically
situated near an ancient Inca temple, where my grandfather once owned a bucolic
farm. We wanted the American dream, yet our fates are in stark contrast.
They got to the airport by cutting their way through a fence -I entered through
the main door. Their seat was to be the wheel well of the plane – my seat was…
a seat. They only made it 1,000 feet in the air and had $20 to their names -both these stats were at least an order of
magnitude greater for me. We may have grown-up 45 miles apart, but our access
to opportunity may as well have been a hemisphere apart. Through no merit of my
own, I was also a U.S. citizen and that arbitrary title gave me access to the
world. No extreme vetting for me. No expensive applications, HIV tests or
interviews with suspicious bureaucrats. No years of waiting to hear an
arbitrary answer. No walls built to keep me out. No level playing field. No
fair!
Of course this Friday, the accident of geography also means my
experiment with an arbitrary location to congregate is more accessible to some
than others. Those of you brave enough to venture out of your homes to Windstream’s north office temporary Friday hub (i.e .Caribou Coffee) are in for a treat: a dozen Dunkin’ donuts!
(and all the coffee you can afford). Those
of you working from home… keep up the good work and happy Friday!
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