America's Mixed Message
Thu., June 21, 11:19 AM
Thanks to Walt Handelsman for this picture. My newspaper usually publishes these cartoons a week or so after they were released. 
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I was brought up to believe that the United States welcomed immigrants. My father's family came here around 1900, and my mother's family in the 1920's. Did they enter legally? I know some of them did, but I can't document the rest. So what?
Our nation was built by immigrants; nevertheless, there has been discrimination in our country in the past. It is barely a hundred years since the Supreme Court decided that a child born here of Chinese immigrant parents was a U.S. citizen. (Other babies were automatically citizens, but Chinese babies needed an act of Congress.) Students of immigration law can name other instances, and I'm willing to bet that there was an economic cause at the bottom of all of them.
When people fear for what's most important to them — their livelihood, for example — they tend to move into a “we versus they” attitude. It really doesn't matter who “they” are; non-Christian, non-white, non-male — all who are different from us threaten us. (Yes, even women, which poses a real problem, because men can't survive without them.)
“They're after our jobs. ” (So what if we don't want to do those jobs.) “They're moving into our neighborhoods and lowering property values. ” (Hmm. “They” paid full price. Only those who sell in panic lower the property values.) As I sit here writing this, I'm hearing the same arguments from Husband's talk radio (aka jacki).
If you frighten people enough, you can produce hatred. The Nazis, citing the need for Lebensraum — living space — turned a religion into a race, so that the people couldn't even choose to renounce it. It is human nature, you say. Yes, it is, but that's a weak excuse. As rational human beings, we are supposed to be able to rise above our animal reflexes.
Of course, rationality cannot be legislated, so we legislated against hate crimes and discrimination. And then we look for loopholes. I guess that's human nature too.
Let me tell you a story that took place within my memory. The lady in question is a dear friend of our family. When we met her, more than fifty years ago, she was a pregnant [gasp] illegal immigrant.
She had come here to escape an abusive marriage, but she wanted her baby to be an American citizen. She didn't tell my mother about her status until after the baby was born.
Mother advised her to get legal advice, and the lawyer told her to leave the country and re-enter legally. She went to Cuba (this was pre-Castro), and came back to our community. She happens to be a well-educated woman, though her English was weak; but she worked as a domestic servant in homes where she could keep the baby with her.
Over time, as her son grew older and less dependent, she became a professional caterer. Eventually, she was able to go to school to become a nurse. Now in her eighties, she would be here in a flash if she thought my sister or I needed care. She is a kind and helpful woman, who has extended her hand to other immigrants — of multiple origins — over the years.
Eventually she became an American citizen, who champions her adopted country whenever someone speaks against it. Her son, incidentally, is a college graduate and an engineer. These are not people on the welfare rolls; they pull their own weight.
I know times have changed, but It is a sad comment on the “American way of life” when we can't figure out a way to continue to help our new neighbors.
