I missed two days of blogging; I hope you survived the crisis. I am finally going to write my immigration blog; I’ve been running it over and over in my head; not that it will make it any better. But first a word from our sponsor, my life.
I am no longer on City Island. I’m not sure what this area is called, Fordham Gardens perhaps. It is just northwest of the Botanical Gardens, a beautiful pre-war building. This is the rare case where doing something gave me anxiety but once it’s done I feel better. I love Jane and Bernie, but I love living by myself and the cats. I have still seen only one of them; Lefty demanded my attention yesterday. We had a nice conversation. All he said was meow, but he said it with meaning.
I had a conflict last night, Susan Werner in Hastings and Jacob Johnson at Rockwood. I did neither. I didn’t get enough sleep and I almost had a Crohn’s attack. I was stupid and ate peanuts. I didn’t even eat a real dinner, just peanut butter before I went to sleep. The TV screen is so big and so close that I can watch it in comfort. I wanted to watch Last Jedi but couldn’t figure out how to search Netflix on ROKU. I watched Luke Cage. Before I went to sleep I figured it out. Today I’ll use the Force. I know the big spoiler.
Now it’s time for the sermon on immigration I’ve been planning for weeks. I’m calling it a sermon despite the fact that god has no part of it. It has conviction and morals; I don’t believe in god, but I believe in right and wrong.
All four of my grandparents were not just immigrants but refugees. My paternal grandmother made her way from what’s now Belarus, to Rotterdam, where she boarded a ship to America. She was 12 years old. This is the American founding myth; our ancestors made a Herculean effort to come to America, whether they came across in the Mayflower or in steerage. As a kid I loved that all my grandparents were immigrants, immigrants built this country, and I was saddened that the Golden Door was closed in the 192 s. As I grew older I was saddened more when I discovered that it was closed because the descendants of the earlier immigrants didn’t want people from Eastern and Southern Europe coming here, as they earlier had barred the Chinese. The old immigrants have always looked askance at the new ones. Many of the Anglo-Dutch feared the Irish and other “Papists.” The American Party aka Know Nothings was founded to fight immigration by Catholics. Even the Sephardic Jews looked down on the latter arriving Ashkenazi. The new groups were seen as a threat to the American way of life and the immigrants as unclean, violent, and shiftless.
In the 196 s the country re-examined its racial attitudes, it was the start of the culture wars but then the accepters were ascendant, and we once again opened up America to immigrants, but this time to those from all over. In time preferences were made to make up for the past exclusion and people from the underrepresented parts of the world were given priority. I was delighted, this is what I always wanted.
Now the nativists are not ascendant but in power. These new immigrants, these people fleeing violence in Central America, war in the Mideast and Africa, natural disasters and famine are feared. They shouldn’t be. Those central American refugees are making the dangerous trip through deserts to reach the US. They are fulfilling the American founding myth, facing adversity and suffering just to reach the promised land. Many on the way are dying of heat, thirst, and murder. They are treated as smuggled contraband by those that help them across the border. They are abused and exploited. They are not rapists and murderers, they are raped and murdered. Trump said that they aren’t sending us their best; that is doubly wrong. Nobody is sending them; they are coming on their own initiative. More importantly, they are the best. They are brave and determined. They are exactly the kinds of people that “tamed a continent” and they are doing it without expelling and exterminating the native population.
We should be welcoming them with open arms out of pity for what they have fled and out of admiration of the effort it took to get here. Trump looks at the suffering in their home countries as a reason to exclude, he wants people from Sweden, not “shithole countries.” America is about accepting the tired, the poor, the wretched refuse yearning to breathe free. The homeless tempest are treasures.
Trump and his supporters see monsters, I see my grandparents. I see people that bring new ideas, new ways of thinking, new culture, new art, and new food. People that will build our homes, harvest our crops, and care for our infirm. People that will channel the determination it took to get here into building businesses. I see people that will get their children educated and those children will be building not just our homes and businesses but our future. Driven people get things done.
Those who oppose immigration are forced to lie, perhaps to themselves. Immigrants commit far fewer crimes than the native born, not more. You are in far greater danger of being killed by a white Christian male than by an immigrant.
Trump’s supporters often find themselves quoting the bible. They use it to justify discriminating against gays. Have they not read Matthew 25:21
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me food, I was thirsty, and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked, and you clothed me, I was sick, and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave me no food, I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Now it’s time for this grandchild of refugees to make bacon and eggs and coffee. I had no coffee yesterday? How did I survive? See, I know deprivation too.
As I was proofing I realized I was wrong before. Not only did I mention god I quoted from the New Testament. Even an atheist can quote scripture.
Wise Madness 