This morning before sunrise I was out and about to a breakfast meeting event called Immigration Matters. This was sponsored by ECHO, a service here in the Minnesota to provide Emergency and Community Health Outreach to our immigrant and refugee populations. No other place in the United States has such a service. One immigrant said, "We didn't know what winter flu was anymore than we knew winter tires are." We really thought about the vitality of the new people in our state and how Minnesota is better place because of the new Americans we have.
This event was hosted by the Wilder Foundation, a foundation that works in social service areas such as mental health treatment, residential homes for emotionally disturbed children, and other usually unmet needs in communities. As the sun lighted the outdoor courtyard I could see the words on the wall of the nearby parking ramp.
A man sitting beside me, himself an immigrant, spoke with me after the formal program and said one of the best things of Minnesota is that this is place where people care about relationships, not just statistics. I was quite surprised at this observation and grateful that he shared it with me.
I found this beautiful scene outdoors as I left to return home.
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