Tara Feil’s opinion on May 8th in the Tribune reminded me of an opinion I need to write. Tara’s well considered opinion pointed out the massive benefit to the giver and the receiver of kindness. I agree with her and I have been a recipient of the kindness of others. I was a year into working for Governor George Sinner when my father had a life-threatening stroke. Janis Cheney of the Governor’s office put together a letter signed by the Governor that was sent to my dad in the hospital in Bismarck. My dad mostly voted Republican and I am not sure he even understood that he had received a letter from the Governor. But I never forgot Janis’ kindness. Congress created a kindness program in 1952. It was called the Immigration and Nationality Act. It has been used 126 times since then to allow residents of foreign countries undergoing natural catastrophes, war, or economic collapse to temporarily live and work in the United States. Often those folks would be granted permanent residency and put on track for citizenship. Such was the case for 120,000 Vietnamese who had worked with Americans and who fled their home country when the United States withdrew from that war. Starting in 2022, the Biden administration offered humanitarian parole status to citizens of five countries. The program was all online, every applicant and every United States Citizen had to fill out exhausting details to qualify either as a sponsor or a beneficiary. When a sponsor and a beneficiary met online and formally agreed, U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services would authorize travel and permission to enter the United States. The sponsors provided a place to live, furniture, food, transportation, introduction to the community and help in finding employment. The kindness of Americans was overwhelming. Over 800,000 people from those five countries found sponsors, places to live and work in America. Perhaps 1,000 of those folks (750 Ukrainians) chose sponsors and are working in North Dakota. Trump paused immigration programs for 90 days. But he went beyond evaluating programs and attempted to terminate parole status the government had already agreed to. He sent letters to beneficiaries from four of the five countries telling them they had to leave the country. The courts have ruled against the President but he is appealing to the US Supreme Court. The trauma inflicted on beneficiaries is horrible. There is no public good served by rendering 800,000 people legally in America, working every day with kids in school, homeless. It is simply cruel. For some reason cruelty seems to be popular with the president. HomeLand Security director Christy Noem has become famous for shooting her dog cricket because the dog wasn’t a good hunter. The Trump administration and DOGE is slashing the Agency for International Development, AmeriCorps, Head Start, Humanities, health research, and illegally deporting people to a prison in El Salvador. It seems this administration is attacking kindness. The meme depicting the President as Pope is revealing because this cruel man is mocking Pope Francis, who was revered for his kindness. Tara Feil is right, it is time to try a little kindness. Tara joins Glen Campbell who said “If you see your brother standing by the road with a heavy load from the seeds he sowed, and if you see your sister falling by the way, just stop and say, you’re going the wrong way”. Campbell suggests that if you “try a little kindness then you’ll overlook the blindness of the narrow-minded people on the narrow-minded street”. Kindness is good for us. Let’s try it.
By: Bill Patrie, Published in the Bismarck Tribune- 2025
*Bill serves on the CATCH board of directors. The views and opinions in this article are his and do not necessarily convey the views and opinions of this organization, it board of directors as a whole, or its members.