by Dennis Dalman
news@thenewsleaders.com
There are immigrants and there are immigrants, and sometimes immigrants are home-grown, moving physically or psychologically from a known home to an unknown one, even among those who move to a different state in America.
That is an insight shared by Kaylee McGovern, a College of St. Benedict student studying elementary education and peace studies who plans to become a fifth- or sixth-grade teacher. Since moving from her home state of Washington to St. Joseph two years ago, she developed a new outlook. Her eyes, her mind and her heart opened after associating with Somali immigrants in the greater St. Cloud area.
McGovern’s major inspiration is a Somali woman whose name is Liin Guure, affectionately known by many as “Maama Liin.” McGovern met her through a program known as Cultural Bridges. After interviewing Guure, she wrote an essay about her for a peace-studies class, a paper that was recently published as a guest submission in the St. Joseph Newsleader.
After her article was published, McGovern received a flood of warm thanks from people who admire Guure – people of all races. And McGovern was not surprised at the outpouring of acclamation for the Somali woman. In her talk with Guure, McGovern learned about the horrific violence that caused Somalis to flee to refugee camps and then, for some of them, to new homes elsewhere. Guure, said McGovern, typifies the “enormous courage” it takes to try to establish a home in a new country like the United States. But even more than that, McGovern learned about how Guure carries memories of her homeland in her heart. especially the beauties of Somali – the mountains, the rivers, the lush green countryside, the ocean, the animals. McGovern related to every word, every description because she too, a newcomer to Minnesota, often misses the landscapes of her home in Lynnwood, Washington, north of Seattle. As Guure talked, McGovern flashed back to her “own brothers and little blue house” where she grew up.
“She (Maama Liin) was a teacher for 10 years in Somalia, and she explained that the chance to read and write and speak in English is so important to her here. She is exactly the kind of lifelong learner I want to be.”
McGovern quickly learned that Liin is a “gift to the community,” a warm-hearted giver, a contributor and an inspiration to so many.
Some months ago, the New York Times published a feature story about hostile anti-immigrant attitudes in St. Cloud, due mainly to objections to Somalis immigrating to Central Minnesota. McGovern is well aware of those hostilities.
“One Somali woman I met said her 19-year-old daughter is fearful of living here, and her mother has to keep reminding her of all the kind and welcoming people who are living here,” McGovern said. “Her mother knows there are some really intolerant people, but she constantly reminds her daughter there are far more welcoming people than intolerant ones.”
McGovern said she understands the fears that can drive hateful rhetoric – fear of “foreigners” taking “our” jobs, fear of displacement, fear of losing one’s cultural dominance.
“My own family experienced economic troubles,” she said. “It was sometimes hard to get by.”
However, McGovern likes to remind people that immigrants, like the immigrants before them, are not takers but givers. They contribute to the economy, they help create jobs, they pay taxes and they enrich the culture by their diversity, McGovern noted. Learning a new language and constant adaptations to a new country can be very stressful for Somalis and others, she said, and it is a process that takes “enormous courage.”
The tragedy, she added, happens when people driven by irrational fears choose to dwell on the few “bad” people and then brand all of the rest with the same suspicion and hostility. As an example, she mentioned the young Somali man who went on a stabbing rampage at a St. Cloud mall several years ago – an incident that instilled fear and hostility in many.
“There are people who do bad things in every race and culture,” McGovern said. “Some people in every population make bad choices, like white school shooters for example, but we should not demonize all people of a race because of the actions of the few.”
What is needed, what McGovern is passionate about doing, is to introduce peace studies lessons into classrooms when she becomes a teacher: lessons in social justice, equity, compassion, respect and understanding. Conflict resolution, she added, is a big part of the whole picture – helping people get together and solve problems that arise from differences rather than letting those problems fester to later erupt into hatred and violence.
People, she said, also need to take an honest look within themselves. Many Americans, McGovern said, often bemoan the poverty and social injustices in other countries while forgetting that those same things are happening right among marginalized groups “right here at home.”
McGovern is going to study in South Africa next year, a country with a longtime legacy of destructive apartheid (forced socio-economic separation of whites and blacks). That policy ended finally with the moral triumph of great leader Nelson Mandela.
“What we tend to forget is that this country (United States) had that same kind of separation for so long (slavery),” McGovern said. “We are not so different as we think. And there is still injustice and terrible poverty right here that we tend not to ‘see’.”
McGovern is a facilitator for a group called Circles of Understanding, which meets at the St. Joseph Catholic Church and the St. Cloud Public Library. She also volunteers to tutor Somali children and give homework help to them via a group called Arrive Ministries.
When not working, McGovern said she likes to go hiking in the great outdoors, and she also loves music. She plays the flute and recently just learned to play the ukulele.
The beauties of nature and music, she said she believes, can facilitate peace and understanding among all people.
“What we most need,” she said, “is a world that doesn’t rely on war and violence.”
Kaylee McGovern
