The other day I was listening to Rush Limbaugh, and he mentioned the immigration debate. He said how one day back in the 1980s he talked to his grandfather about immigration, and his grandfather's response was "Oh, Lord, they're still talking about that? They've been talking about that since I was young." The pertinent point was that back in the day, people put up as big a fuss about Eastern non-WASP Europeans coming over the pond as we do today about Mexicans and other south-of-the-border types. Rush went on to make some silly point about something or other, but instead of absorbing what he said it merely reminded me of the fact that people are always predicting doomsday. Every day, we are told that our lives are in jeopardy, the issues before us are life-or-death, and the good ol' days were better. But the truth is that things are by and large much better -- and it has all been done before. Every problem we now have we have faced before, in some form or another, and immigration is no different.
People in the early 1900s despised immigrants -- such as my ancestors -- for being dirty Slavs, Italians and, perhaps worst of all, Catholic. My ancestors were going to ruin this nation's Anglo-Saxon, Protestant flavor. There were concerns that they did not speak English. And yet, here I am -- 100 years after my great-grandfather Ludwig jumped on a ship, lumped in as one of the "whites" in this generation's great battle of the races. I am now one of the privileged, with no attention paid to the fact that a century ago some of my ancestors were considered about as similar to the Founding Fathers as Africans to Indians.
The questions that beg asking are: What is the big deal in letting all Mexicans who want to come into this country? Why are we stopping them and others? Why do we turn away Cubans found in inner tubes in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico, yet we accept the ones who get a foot on American soil? What purpose does all of this serve other than to create an isolationist state, the likes of which have resulted in multiple wars, including the Great War itself? "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses," indeed.
Why are we so afraid of Mexicans coming to this country? We can't be expected to be thrilled about the prospect of a nation that is very different from the one we have right now which speaks a different language. But, past looks at immigration show that this probably isn't even how this will work out. Our nation is a nation of immigrants. We exist solely because some people tried to get away from persecution. It started with the Puritans, who came here attempting to establish their own theocracy, and it has continued for hundreds of years with people trying to find a better life.
They come here to find decent jobs and not worry about being dragged out into an alley by the SS and being shot in the head with no trial. They come here because life here is better than where they're coming from. The very existence of this nation is based upon gifted individuals finding their ways here through adversity to take advantage of the opportunity it offers. Why are we trying to deny that to Mexicans and other Latin Americans? Why are we limiting how many come in? Why are we not welcoming with open arms as many as want to come? They are seeking freedom -- freedom from a corrupt government and freedom to find a job and a life that doesn't suck. What's more American than that?
One hundred years ago people from the Establishment probably worried that America would become a group of combative populations, consisting of different European enclaves speaking different languages and refusing to give up their native customs. That's what we are afraid of now. After all, we don't want it to become the United States of Latin America. But that argument is terribly, horribly flawed -- the very decision to come here is the quintessential American decision. Once that choice is made, everything else follows. For a generation or two, the immigrants might seem pretty foreign, sure; but after that, they're just American. I'm white now; I'm not Polish. In fifty years, they'll be American, not South American, and speak English, not Spanish.
The reluctance to accept them is disheartening. All men are created equal, all right. I like where I grew up. I liked it the way it was and the way it is. But we made a commitment, and our ancestors have and will die for it, and we must live up to it despite what changes may come. Protectionism only exacerbates problems.
