香港三级片

ST. LOUIS 鈥� In one sentence, Bill Bradley offered the advice that could fix America.

He was on stage in downtown St. 香港三级片 this month, at the , that annual celebration of sportsmanship and humanity put on by the St. 香港三级片 Sports Commission. Bradley was born and raised in Crystal City and would become an NBA champion as a member of the New York Knicks and then a three-term U.S. Senator from New Jersey. He was being honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

As Bradley spoke about his career, and how the award鈥檚 namesake, baseball Hall of Famer Stan Musial, was his hero as a child, he offered words of advice for the packed house at the Stifel Theatre.

鈥淣ever look down on people you don鈥檛 understand,鈥� he said.

Bradley spoke these words just four days after some elected officials in nearby St. Charles County really could have used the thoughtful advice. The County Council was considering a resolution that condemned a program sponsored by the nonprofit International Institute of St. 香港三级片 to try to make the St. 香港三级片 metro area a destination for a certain population of Hispanic immigrants.

The resolution 鈥� which was tabled 鈥� broke both tenets of Bradley鈥檚 advice. It looked down on a group of people by improperly labeling them as 鈥渋llegal aliens.鈥� And it did so in part because the sponsors of the resolution failed to understand who those people are and why so many business and labor leaders want to welcome them to our region.

This week, the Hispanic Bar Association of St. 香港三级片 put the St. Charles County Council in its place, passing its own resolution that explains that the immigrants St. 香港三级片 is trying to attract are very specifically not 鈥渋llegal.鈥� Business leaders want them here, the association said, because our community needs them to fill jobs, start businesses and help the economy thrive 鈥� as generations of immigrants have done in this community for more than a century.

The program created by the federal government helped attract people fleeing Ukraine after its invasion from Russia and then was expanded to help people escape Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela. The migrants under this program must have a 鈥減rivate financial sponsor鈥� in the U.S., must pass a background check, and could then come to the U.S. to live and work legally.

鈥淔ACT: Regional business organizations, including Hispanic businesses from St. Charles County, have expressed concern about the decreasing population in the Region and their ability to attract qualified workers,鈥� read the resolution passed by the Hispanic Bar Association. 鈥淔ACT: It is in the interests of the Region to receive and welcome these people as they flee extreme hardship and political oppression in their Country of Origin.鈥�

In the past few years, St. 香港三级片 has welcomed immigrants from Afghanistan, Ukraine and multiple Latin American countries. Previously, our immigrants came from Bosnia and, long before that, Germany, Italy and Ireland.

In fact, that鈥檚 the story of St. Charles. There鈥檚 a beautiful historic Catholic Church there, , that was founded in 1791 by French Canadian immigrants, with permission from the Spanish lieutenant governor. That church has served waves of immigrants from century to century, many of whom the current St. Charles County Council might have labeled as 鈥渋llegal.鈥�

A few years back, I was blessed to be invited into that church. There, a full basement of working families of Hispanic descent were being offered legal help by volunteers. The parents were being taught what to do if they were deported and separated from their children, many of whom were American citizens.

It is heartbreaking that officials would now look down on such immigrants 鈥� the latest chapter in another generation of an American journey.

Once a year, the Musial Awards help remind us that it is our shared humanity that makes us great.

This year, a big man from a small town in Missouri gave us the words that should echo in our heads, as we move from one political crisis to another. The solution that escapes us is more often than not to treat those with whom we disagree with respect and understanding.

Never look down on people you don鈥檛 understand, Bradley said.

That鈥檚 a lifetime of advice boiled down to eight simple words.