My grandparents were immigrants. My grandmother could not read or write. She worked as an office cleaner at night. They shared the American dream with their children. My mother became a teacher. I became a research chemist.
Immigrants come to America for a better life for their children, and to escape intolerable conditions in their home countries. They have strengthened this country throughout its history with their energy and innovations and love and respect for America and its ideals.
The only thing that evolves is the countries that those immigrants come from. The haters in this country just change their focus to manufacture a new threat.
I have often wondered if the US was a powerhouse of innovation in the 19th and 20th Centuries at least in part because we were pooling expertise and perspectives from so many parts of the world.
Of course we were. Alexander Graham Bell and Andrew Carnegie, to name the first two from the 19th century who pop into my head, came from Scotland. Immigrants built this country, literally. I think of the Italian who came here and wrote to the folks back home, “Not only are the streets not paved with gold, they expect us to pave them.” I hope someone asked De Sanctimonious who he thinks will pick Florida’s oranges and sugar if there are no immigrants.
I looked it up. Oklahoma has a Cherokee Senator and a Cherokee Representative, both of whom are Republicans. There three other Representatives, who are Alaskan Native, Hawaiian Native, and Native American (Ho-chunk tribe, I think) who are Democrats, and then of course, the Secretary of Interior, Deb Haaland, from the Laguna Pueblo. Some of my ancestors came to this country before the Revolution from England, seeking religious freedom. They were Quakers. Some of my ancestors came to this country when the mines ran out of tin, seeking work. They were Welsh. Some of my family came to this country seeking land. They were Scottish. Some of my family came to this land seeking food. They were Irish. De Santis and most of the Republicans in Congress need to take a look into their back grounds. Do they not honor the bravery of their ancestors?Have they all forgotten their family stories?
Yes, they have all forgotten. It's "I've got mine, and to hell with you." Also, doesn't help that many of these new migrants have a different color skin.
I saw a clip on NBC news last evening of a woman being interviewed who wanted to see the people cleared out from her town in Texas, I think it was. She spoke with a heavy Spanish accent but was apparently a U.S. citizen. Yep, definitely a "I've got mine, and to hell with you" mentality.
I've not seen the particular interview you mention, but I've seen others. It seems like U.S. counties near the Mexican border have a real problem with lack of resources to deal with undocumented migrants. Statements about how we're a nation of immigrants don't address the issue. I know Democratic administration's have tried to deal with immigration in a rational and holistic way while Republicans have been nothing but obstructive. But the R's message of promising to keep "illegals" out of your town and my town has played well in majority-Hispanic border counties in TX.
From personal observation when I was at the border while canoeing on the Rio Grand (the border), one can simply wade across the river to get into the US. Once in, a migrant has to stay put near that border until they can find a smuggler to get them past the roadblocks put up by the US Border Patrol. The border is very long and remote. The roads leading out of the border are few and easier to monitor. In the meantime, migrants just try to survive in those border towns, straining the residents' patience.
I can bitch all I want about TX's Governot Abbot being an asshole about this situation (among many others), but the R's messaging plays well here ($#!%&).
How do we counter that? We need a Democratic governor and Democratic state legislature in TX before we can get coordinated efforts moving. That means, in TX, address people's actual worries first, and deal with cultural issues later. In TX, at least Dems just don't have it together. Labeling local residents as selfish is unhelpful.
I think it's not just a matter of "I've got mine" though certainly greed is part and parcel of of the syndrome. I think that "Conservatives" (as opposed to people who may be in a non-ideological sense conservative) convince themselves that they are the prototype for all "good" people; the Master Race, the Righteous, the Patriots. It is off the scale narcissism, frequently enforced by PTSD deliberately induced in those who stray from the narrative. I think we all carry a bit of narcissism, and it can flare, as it does for me, but ideally it is integrated and balanced by other personality traits. Trump embodies it, and the men who flew airplanes into the World Trade Center embodied it, in it's malignant form.
In the earlier waves it was dirty Irish, dirty Italians, dirty Eastern Europeans...The fear and hatred is stoked towards whoever is new and identifiably different because the haters see the "pie" as static in size so they will lose something if immigrants are let in. In reality the economy grows bigger with each new wave of immigrants and thte standard of living rises.
Japan is the counter example--it has always limited immigration and now it has few workers to care for and support with taxes the huge elderly population.
In 2021, people aged 65 years and older in Japan accounted for approximately 29.8 percent of the total Japanese population. Due to a low birth rate and high longevity, people aged 65 years and older were estimated to make up almost 38 percent of the population in Japan by 2060. If you think our social security system is on thin ice look at the Japanese demographics based on limited immigration.
With a shrinking population and more than 10 million abandoned properties, the country (Japan)is straining to match houses with curious buyers.
My professor of Medieval language and literature taught that Southern France and Northern Spain, the mix of peoples from the entire Mediterranean region was the most creative and productive area of the medieval period. That helped me understand why the American history of “mix” is so important. As someone wrote recently, everyone except native Americans is an immigrant.
And if the "theory of replacement" applies to anyone, it is the indigenous Americans who qualify as its target. Yet we have survived and now beginning to truly thrive. Our many cultures have had significant influence on European culture, including from the beginning a deep dive into democratic ideals. Euros talked about it but practiced the same kind of autocracy they sought to escape. Indigenous people lived democracy. Yet, somehow we are left out of nearly every discussion about the its development.
P.S. This is the first time I've seen Europeans referred to as "euros". I wonder how it would go down if Americans were referred to as "dollars", since (someone told me years ago that the word dollar is Czechia for flattened, dried, horse droppings, which were used as money in the old days, and could be used to ignight a cooking fire ).
Euro in this usage refers to Euro-American, to make clear that they also are a cultural group who immigrated. The "Euro" as a common European currency was named from the same root, only in this case alludes to the coming together of European nations as a unified economy and identity. Early immigrants from Europe and their progeny did not consider themselves "American", but considered themselves culturally part of the countries they came from. At that time, "Americans" was a generic term for the indigenous people here.
Euro-Americans began to refer to themselves as Americans in the mid1700s during the runup to the War of Independence. There is an increasing trend to use of the term "Euro-American" (Euro for short) because simply calling them "American" implies that somehow they are the template (particularly among those of British descent). That concept is changing, thank goodness: hence Euro-American.
As a child, I often wondered where the word "dollar" came from but only knew that it came into English from Spanish. Here is what NOAD says about it: "– origin from early Flemish or Low German daler, from German T(h)aler, short for Joachimsthaler, a coin from the silver mine of Joachimsthal (‘Joachim's valley’), now Jáchymov in the Czech Republic. The term was later applied to a coin used in the Spanish American colonies, which was also widely used in the British North American colonies at the time of the American Revolution, hence adopted as the name of the US monetary unit in the late 18th century. "
So one could imagine that perhaps there is some truth in the story you heard: perhaps it was picked up as slang by Czechians to apply to something they used as a kind of currency.
Thank you, Susan. I agree. There are some remarkable people here, and they expand my world and my understanding immensely. I'm so glad to be able to give back as I can, and glad I am still sometimes gobsmacked by a revelation sparked by someone else.
Yes, everyone here is a late comer in terms of comparison with Native Americans. I hate to say it, but a lot of the 19th century industrial revolution in New England and England was built on cotton slavery. I was glad to read that we are working to mitigate some of the chaos we helped to create south of the border. We should have had a sane policy long ago, but undocumented labor is a boon to certain employers. They can be exploited in all sorts of ways, but really can't complain without revealing their status. And the course, the smugglers are using the confusion to exploit more people. I personally love the mix because it offers so much to the society in terms of music, culture, food, etc. Our local classical station (all classical.org) in Portland makes a concerted effort to be inclusive with their music and now some of their hosts and guests. We have a long way to go to solve the problems and yes, history matters in how they are perceived and why they exist and continue to exist. And right now as far as I am concerned, it is the party of death which stands in the way of making any real progress.
Even the Native Americans were immigrants they just had a 13,000 year head start, by the time the Europeans first got here the entire continent was populated and had been for thousands of years. All of us that live here are lucky indeed, and none of us have the right to deny the opportunities we enjoy to others that are deserving.
We benefit certainly from the vast pool JL, but we also had industry as the enabling engines of ingenuity, trade / country secrets of the same engines, and decent jobs that supported hopeful livable wages, bright futures. We no longer have that... hell, a greater percentage of Americans, especially in the greater heartland of the country, now hollowed out, are working 2, 3 jobs and / or side gigs to just stay even. Mothers families can't afford for Mom's to stay home to raise their own children. These are the realities that are being ignored to defend past policies; someone must step up, own it, and find a better way forward. I think 'that' is what the greatest majority of Americans are looking for; leadership that acts fully to that end to restore some degrees of hopefulness.
“Someone must step up?” What is your suggestion? Do you know someone willing to run for office on this platform? That is how this will change? Republicans advocate for the Fascist solution-make a law stopping all immigration. Make another law that get women out of the workplace-presto! More jobs available for men! Democrats advocate for incremental improvements in fixing the outdated immigration laws, but Republican make much hay and many campaign donations off of railing against the current problems. They don’t want to fix it. Looks like De Santis may be making immigration a major plank in his campaign for thee Presidency. Ugh.
I would run for one, but without $ how would I even approach it Meredith ? A point I'm evading is that democrats have to quit speaking out of both sides of their mouths - speak all the truth even if that truth threatens their lofty positions of influence. Past mistakes - have the courage and humility to own past policy mistakes and change course. *edit in - Bottom line, in the absence of complete truth and humility, the democrats are still on the same course to lose the central heartland of America. Their silence gives the narratives and oxygen to the gop, who are glad to continue enjoying their conquests. Is that more clear Meredith ? Do answer if you will; I've read you before with interest. Thx ~
What you say is true to some extent. Without those immigrants, however, our economy would collapse. We do need an overhaul. Get money out of politics, put there by the Citizens United case and the so-called right-to-work laws. We need strong labor unions to offset the power of management. The common folk of this country have been outsmarted and manipulated.
Richard, capitalism only works if wealth is redistributed via mostly paying labor well and providing infrastructure, education and healthcare. Those cost are more of an investment than and an expense. Greedy companies don't realize that well paid, heathy and educated employees SPEND. Let us remember Henry Ford who paid his worker more than competitors saying he wants his employees to be able to buy his cars.
Yep.. but so have the allegedly 'smarter folks' Richard. Those 'smarter folks' were too busy living their lives content, fat and happy - ignorant or insensitive to the greater center of the country, between the 'coasts' where all attention is spent.
And in the mean time, maybe the free enterprises of the country -- the ones that need a variety of immigrant labor and expertise but don’t want to be heavily regulated -- could volunteer to fix the phone system so processing could happen rapidly and the backlog could be eliminated.
America's leadership in innovation continues to this day, much of it from immigrants. First two names coming to mind are Elon Musk and Sergei Brin, but that's only because they are household names. Granted, they didn't arrive after undertaking a dangerous trek from Hondures or Guatemala, but stories abound of 2nd-generation immigrants from Latin America, Asia, India etc. whose parents sought a better life for their children, who then availed themselves of an educational opportunity and have become successful.
In the U.S., a diminishing birth rate and an aging population create challenges for a robust labor force. Immigrants are needed, not only to harvest crops but to work as caregivers and medical staff, retail, shops and factories. They are a necessary part of our future, and we should be welcoming those who clear a vetting process. Many will go on to become business and political leaders, doctors, researchers, inventers and artists, contributing to an economic and cultural expansion.
“They are a necessary part of our future, and we should be welcoming those who clear a vetting process.” And citizenship and livable compensation and benefits must be part of the equation. Instead we use people. Exploit. Dreamers are an example. Or hiring undocumented workers in industry like agriculture and food processing. We should be asking repubs over and over and over? “Have you no shame?” Except we know the answer. No we/they have not enough shame. Exploitation as in corporations sending their business overseas, huge profits, lowest tax rates, no jobs or benefits here, low pay in other countries and windfall profits and greed an American trademark. And having enough money and profit to explore the universe to avoid the pain and suffering and danger caused by their greed. Circular arguments. Profit. Please excuse my rant.
There is no labor force problem and there wouldn't be, even if we weren't having a population explosion (due largely due to immigration). The Census Bureau projects an addtional 75 million over the next 40 years, nearly four New York State equivalents, 90% of that from immigration.
The average immigrant's greenhouse emissions rise threefold after arrival in the US, which is going to make it even harder for us to get to zero net emissions. And global warming reduces earth's, and the US's carrying capacity. The west is running out of water; towns in Arizona are fighting over diminishing water supplies, and a town in Utah has banned new housing construction due to lack of water. The two major reservoirs in the west have lost most of their water, and the Great Salt Lake may go dry within a handful of years, which would be an ecological disaster.
Meanwhile, the Ogallala Aquifer, which underlies the Great Plains from Canada to Texas, and which supplies the Great Plains with almost all of its water, is drying out.
According to Propublica's Abrahm Lustgarten, millions of Americans are going to be climate refugees in the next several decades. In light of this, it is stupid to grow the population by millions. If you have children or grandchildren, you should be very worried about their future.
AZ is fighting over water but have you seen the explosion of building in Phoenix? R legislators are not addressing it; they are addressing home schooling.
You are correct in pointing out that water is more precious than oil, abs that as a nation, we are squandering it. Yes, many citizens will become climate refugees within this country. There are many steps we could take to conserve water. However, our economy us built on and depends on population growth. Stopping immigration because of lack of water is a message that sounds good on the surface, but if followed and implemented bluntly will be cruel to migrants and citizens alike, though in different ways.
Perpetual economic growth is a Ponzi scheme that will doom civilization and quite possibly humanity. Don't you think we're smart enough to figure out how we can live well without perpetual growth? Our future depends on it.
If we don't stop the perpetual growth, we will kill the land that feeds the biosphere, including us. There are less than half as many insects as there were in my youth, which constitute much of the base of the food chain, and birds, mammals, and other creatures have been similarly decimated, not just on North America but on the other continents. Meanwhile, humans and our livestock constitute well over 90% of the biomass.
Have you ever heard of ecosystem services? Without them, we are doomed. Did you know that when virgin land, which holds about a quarter of the CO2 we've emitted, is developed, all that CO2 goes into the atmosphere where it heats the world.
Biomass includes all of the trees and plants and ocean life.
https://ourworldindata.org/life- says that humans make up 0.01% of the biomass. What they say that is totally shocking is that the biomass of livestock is 10X that of wild animals, but trees make up 82% of the total.
My grandparents were also immigrants from southern Italy where poverty was so bad, women scraped paint from the walls to mix what little flour they had to feed their families. I learned this from a PBS special on Italian immigrants, though I don't know that my families had to resort to this. My maternal grandmother was a school teacher in Gaeta. She came to New York's Little Italy in Lower Manhattan and opened a green grocery. My mom said even during the depression, they did not go hungry. From all my grandparents, the 2nd generation got advanced degrees, including myself. Immigrants have contributed greatly to this country through their hard work and determination.
And it is disgraceful Joanne that the grandchildren of these hardworking Italian immigrants like DeSantis & other Italian-American Republican descendants train their hateful racist gaze on the modern day immigrants. How can they be so divorced from their own personal histories?
Thank you, Jerry Carbone! As we forget that “If you don’t know the Latin [or Greeks], you have to do the hackin’ and the hewin’,” having had a bit (not enough) of both and a daughter who got an undergraduate degree in classics from Barnard because her mother continually said “If only I knew more Latin,” I am so grateful for every bit that appears in these replies.
Officer, on a different HCR topic, the John Hopkins Coronavirus Center
(Bloomberb Philanthropies) "stopped collecting data" on the 3/10/23 recording 6,881,955 confirmed or validly "reported" Worldwide deaths.
After 5/11/23, "Vulnersbles" will have go to the "National Registry & Enteric Virus Surveillance System " (NREVSS) to monitor demographic & other trends.
As of 5/11/23, the CDC Covid Data Tracker & other sources report that the Subvariant XBB.1.5 i tops 88% percent of all NEW infections. UCSF Health facilities still requiress "masks on" to protect "Others" , those in "remission" & yourself.
I can't tell you for sure, but the mandates have been lifted here in Oregon although medical facilities can still require masks if they choose. We still wear masks to grocery shop and I see a few people wearing masks in other places, so I assume they are vulnerable in some way.
Because that is the measure of who they are. Look at DeSantis. What does his face and what do his words tell you about him? All I see is that he wants to be politically powerful and will do or say anything that he thinks or is told to achieve power (and money).
Interesting - NOT A WORD about COVID implementation? How about the tremendous HARM done to America by the left?
1) The Biden Administration LIED about the efficacy of the Vaccine? They forced the American population to take a vaccine that was never tested and never worked. It was an experimental drug forced on Americans
2) The Biden Administration LIED about the efficacy about Booster. Booster efficacy was a joke.
3) The Biden Administration LIED about Natural Immunity.
4) The Biden Administration LIED about mask efficacy. The definitive Cochrane Study found
5) The Biden Administration LIED about the safety of Vaccine/Booster in children. The episodes of myocarditis especially in young men has estimated in 1 in 6600 in boys.
6) The Biden Administration FIRED government employees who refused to take the vaccine claiming the LIE that the pandemic was the pandemic was caused by the unvaccinated.
7) The Biden Administration CENSORED leading scientists and opponents of vaccinations/booster. This included people like Stanford Professor/Physician Jay Bhattacharya and former NY Times journalist Alex Berenson.
The harm caused to children - suicide rates, learning, and depression were disgraceful.
And yet...no one knows whether fewer lives would have been saved or lost without those directives. Please remember that the directives around the world - based on timely knowledge- was to mask and be vaccinated. And, this administration did not suggest you ingest horse worming medication...something I administered many times while wearing gloves to protect myself from getting it into my system!
Is this a joke? The amount of harm was staggering - Suicide rates skyrocketed, domestic abuse, alcoholism, drug usage, depression, all increased. Children learning suffered tremendously too.
If the vaccine didn't work, how you claim it saved lives. THE VACCINE was a joke. Infection rates in the vaccinated were virtually the same as the unvaccinated.
There was never proof that masks worked, in fact Fauci initially said masks didn't work until he got new march orders. The Harvard study that masks don't work was taken down. The Cochrane study destroyed any claim that masks worked.
What about all the sanctimonious leftists who screamed about everyone who disagreed. "You're killing people? What about the people who were fired from their jobs? Pilots, Hospital workers, soldiers? Who do they see to get their careers back?
Even more disgusting was the claim "We believe in science".
Carol, James cannot substantiate his hateful dribble. His is unfortunately an angry frustrated and hopeless soul. Even for him the sun will rise. He may be able to find joy by making a positive contribution which he feels would make us better. That is where hope begins.
They are invoking the fear factor of political salesmanship to create a distance that helps them appear the better choice. The actual needs of immigrants and this countries need to have them is not in their equation.
Jerry, great comment. To add to your point, Italians and Irish were reviled in the late 1800's and early 1900's when they arrived to this country. Immigration laws were written specifically to admit as few as possible, with many leaders here seeing them as undesirable for immigration. Now, we heartily embrace both cultures with a Little Italy in many major cities and St. Patrick's celebrations nationwide. Many coming here today are seeking asylum but very vocal politicians on the right don't want to process them. Our country denied Jews seeking asylum in the late 1930's too, to the peril of those who were denied.
Xenophobic, hateful rhetoric used against an immigrant population. Especially stringent admissions from a selection of countries. History does rhyme and today's xenophobes are on the wrong side of it.
Very similar story from my Hungarian grandparents. My Grandma Haluska sold moonshine to the coal miners so she and Grandpap could open the store. Grandma was educated by a Jewish family who sponsored her as a young woman to come from Hungary as a house keeper. They stayed close after she and Grandpap married. The store was quite diverse and sold a variety of items not found at the company store. All of their grandchildren went to colleges.
Georgia: "They have strengthened this country throughout its history with their energy and innovations and love and respect for America and its ideals."
Anyone who eats food in the USA has to be grateful to migrants. About 1 in 4 of our nations farm workers are migrants and a much higher fraction (I could not find it) work in slaughterhouses.
So, the next time you grill a chicken breast, think about the migrant who slaughtered it for you in a dingy, crowded, noisy smelly slaughterhouse.
During Covid, before vaccines, those migrants were "critical workers" as defined by the Trump administration. So, they packed into slaughterhouses and produced our meat and, became ill, and, died. If you look at the NY Times map of Covid deaths, those areas that are dark brown, in rural areas, are high death rates among migrant workers in slaughterhouses and some farm areas.
Instead of demonizing the folks who help support our food supply, we should be thanking and encouraging them. Americans would be a LOT less fat without them.
What would happen to Ted Cruz fat arse without migrants? How would he maintain that homongous posterior? Just imagine, Ted Cruz never goes hungry because of migrants.
now, MAYBE that might be a reason to keep some out......but....other than helping Ted Cruz lose weight, we should recognize migrants contributions.
Rubio has never set foot in Cuba and they hate him as they do Cruz. Rubies family left Cuba with their wealth 3 years before the revolution. Google it.
I believe his father was a U.S. diplomat working in Canada at the time of Cruz’s birth which made Cruz a citizen of the U.S. at the time of his birth. He should still be more compassionate towards immigrants but he’s Ted Cruz and I guess he forgot his father came from Cuba.
Why would any Republican bother with such silly things as laws and regulations? Those are for the "common man" like immigrants and, well, everyone but a Republican for whom laws are so passé.
In eastern NC where I live there are a number of industrial farms raising chickens and hogs. There are also processing plants that process the animals into the products you see in the grocery store. Some of the state legislators who pushed for these factory farms personally benefited from their growth. These facilities were touted as job creators for the area, which is predominantly rural and poor. The governor at the time agreed. But the farm and processing jobs were not taken by local people. They, for sure, did not want to work in a chicken processing plant. So Latino immigrants fill most of those jobs. They did not take a job away from a local already here. They took the hard, low wage jobs locals didn't want.
I grew up on a farm. Farming today is vastly different than it was 50-60 years ago. It is much more mechanized, and the jobs are mostly filled by Latino immigrants. There were were always migrant workers. Today's farm workers don't move with the crops as much. They are people working physically hard jobs to feed their families. They tolerate conditions that local people would not because conditions here are better than in their home countries.
The Republicans spin false narratives about the situation to keep the ignorant base stirred up and keep a supply of low wage workers that they can exploit. But the low wage workers have always been exploited; their color or country of origin is irrelevant.
Around 20 years ago I went to work for Jim Palmer Trucking, a refer freight hauler of controlled temperature foodstuffs among other types of freight as well. It was there I began to realize the demographics of the United States were changing to reflect immigrant cultures from around the world. On loading docks from sea to sea and border to border and all points in interior America the “American” worker, the hands on men and women and yes children who processed raw commodities spoke many languages other than English. Demographics had changed every state and the future was veritably in their hands. The jobs were laborious demeaning and beneath the status of Mike’s white populous at large. However when one ethnic group abandons such work another takes it up, rigors and all, and inherits the future. This has been happening generationally for as long as we have been a nation. Immigrants are the giants of the earth demographically and taking the good with the bad they are never static rather moving continuously upward in American society. They are inheriting the earth as they always have. It is pointless for politicians to put up the hue and cry of foul when their object is to raise scorn and ridicule in a system that sustains and feeds them. Bashing immigrants sells only propaganda for re-election. Meanwhile the demographics continue to evolve.
In 1980, meat packers were mostly Black, and they earned good middle class wages. By that decade's end, they were mostly immigrant, toiling under atrocious conditions for barely over minimum wage. Immigration is Big Business' way of keeping wages down. See: Back of the Hiring Line: A 200 Year History of Immigration Surges, Employer Bias, and Depression of Black Wealth, by Roy Beck.
After Black poultry workers were fired from their jobs to make way for immigrants, Beck met with them, and asked them if they'd take their old jobs back, if offered. No, they said, they didn't want to live in their cars, or many to a house.
Of course the workers here illegally are even easier to exploit than those here legally. That's why the US needs a national, mandatory E-Verify. That bill (HR 2) just passed the house, and if the Democrats (of which I am one; in fact my great uncle was a union lawyer who ran the Colorado Democratic Party for most of the first half of the last century, and gave the speech at the '32 convention recommending an end to prohibition) would support American workers like we used to do, that would solve the problems at the border, and help keep a tight labor market to give US workers decent wages.
You are so right David. And let us not forget our in house immigrations as populations within the nation moved in mass. And with that I hear horses demanding to immigrate from dry lot to pasture and who am I to keep them from their destiny.
Immigrants are what have always made this country great. Those who fear immigration are those who want to rest on what their foreparents built, and not do the work themselves. Great book from 20+ years ago is "The Millionaire Next Door" re: how by bequeathing money and opportunity to each succeeding generation, the original drive and talent of the original millionaire does not pass on to their heirs. It's replaced by an attitude of entitlement.
thanks for your share... how quickly in one or two generations , we can forget or are never told the story. We close the door and lock it and throw away the key. More nonsense and fear about zero sum games. believing If we give something away and share, we will lose out! so so not true. We have more than enough...
I am first generation on my mother's side (Polish) and second generation on my father's side (Hungarian). I've often wondered what the US would look like if immigration had been stopped at the turn of the twentieth century. My guess is most of the things we take for granted would not exist.
My paternal grandparents were from Scotland, then Canada, Prince Edward Island, then New London CT where some cousins still live, there or surrounding towns, Waterford, Niantic, Manchester, etc. My parents had good paying jobs and the good life including Saturday night home parties or for special occasions, dancing, eating and drinking at the Lighthouse Inn in New London.with friends and relatives. Their children graduated from college, 1 a teacher and 2nd a nonprofit administrator.
Think about what life has been like for many of the migrants, in Venezuela, for example, and the difficulties of then receiving asylum and passage to better life)
'Venezuela is in the midst of an unprecedented social and humanitarian collapse—the result of bad economic policies and political conflict—that has led to food insecurity, the second largest migration crisis in the world, and regional instability. The international community has responded with pressure against the regime coupled with support for elements of the opposition, but to date it has been unsuccessful in bringing about a positive change. ' (US Institute of Peace)
'Title 42 has ended. Here's what it did, and how US immigration policy is changing'
Here's a look at the new rules (and the old ones)
BY COLLEEN LONG | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 3 hrs ago
'WASHINGTON — The U.S. is putting new restrictions into place at its southern border to try to to stop migrants from crossing illegally and encourage them instead to apply for asylum online through a new process.'
'The changes come with the end of coronavirus restrictions on asylum that have allowed the U.S. to quickly turn back migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border for the past three years. Those restrictions are known as Title 42, because the authority comes from Title 42 of a 1944 public health law allowing curbs on migration in the name of protecting public health.'
'Disinformation has swirled and confusion has set in during the transition. A look at the new rules (and the old ones):'
'WHAT IS TITLE 42 AND WHAT DID IT DO?
Title 42 is the name of an emergency health authority. It was a holdover from President Donald Trump's administration and began in March 2020. The authority allowed U.S. officials to turn away migrants who came to the U.S.-Mexico border on the grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19.'
'Before that, migrants could cross illegally, ask for asylum and be allowed into the U.S. They were then screened and often released to wait out their immigration cases.'
'Under Title 42, migrants were returned over the border and denied the right to seek asylum. U.S. officials turned away migrants more than 2.8 million times. Families and children traveling alone were exempt.'
'But there were no real consequences when someone illegally crossed the border. So migrants were able to try again and again to cross, on the off chance they would get into the U.S.'
'President Joe Biden initially kept Title 42 in place after he took office, then tried to end its use in 2022. Republicans sued, arguing the restrictions were necessary for border security. Courts had kept the rules in place. But the Biden administration announced in January that it was ending national COVID-19 emergencies, and so the border restrictions have now gone away.'
'Biden has said the new changes are necessary, in part because Congress has not passed immigration reform in decades.'
'The Biden administration has put into place a series of new policies cracking down on illegal crossings. The administration says it's trying to stop people from paying smuggling operations to make a dangerous and often deadly journey.'
'Now there will be strict consequences. Migrants caught crossing illegally will not be allowed to return for five years and can face criminal prosecution if they do.'
'NEW ASYLUM RULES'
'Under U.S. and international law, anyone who comes to the U.S. can ask for asylum. People from all over the world travel to the U.S-Mexico border to seek asylum. They are screened to determine whether they have a credible fear of persecution in their homeland. Their case then goes to the immigration court system to determine if they can stay in the U.S., but that process can take years. Usually they are released into the U.S. to wait out their cases.'
'The Biden administration is now turning away anyone seeking asylum who didn't first seek protection in a country they traveled through, or first applied online. This is a version of a Trump administration policy that was overturned by the courts. Advocacy groups sued to block the new rule minutes before it took effect.'
'The lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Francisco by the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies and other groups, alleges the Biden administration "doubled down" on the policy proposed by Trump that the same court rejected. The Biden administration has said its new rule is substantially different.'
'WHO'S ALLOWED IN?'
'The U.S. has said it will accept up to 30,000 people per month from Venezuela, Haiti, Nicaragua and Cuba as long as they come by air, have a sponsor and apply online first. The government also will allow up to 100,000 people from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras into the U.S. who have family here if they, too, apply online. Border officials will otherwise deport people, including turning 30,000 per month from Venezuela, Haiti, Nicaragua and Cuba who will be sent back over the border to Mexico.'
'Other migrants also may be allowed in if they apply through the CBP One app. Right now, 740 people per day have been allowed in using the app, which is being increased to 1,000 per day.'
'WHAT ABOUT FAMILIES?'
'Families crossing the border illegally will be subject to curfews and the head of household will have to wear an ankle monitoring bracelet. Immigration officials will try to determine within 30 days whether a family can stay in the U.S. or be deported. Usually the process would take years.'
'The Biden administration considered detaining families until they cleared initial asylum screenings but opted instead for the curfews, which will run from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. and begin soon in Baltimore; Chicago; Newark, New Jersey; and Washington, D.C., according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information was not intended to be public. Families who do not appear for their screening interviews will be picked up by immigration authorities and deported.'
'OVERCROWDING'
'Border Patrol stations are meant to house migrants temporarily and don't have capacity to hold the volume of people coming. Some stations are already too crowded. As a result, agents began releasing migrants into the U.S. with instructions to appear at an immigration office within 60 days or face deportation.'
'Agents were told to begin releases in any area where holding facilities were at 125% capacity or the average time in custody exceeded 60 hours. They also were told to start releases if 7,000 migrants were taken into custody across the entire border in any one day.'
'That's already happened, with some 10,000 people taken into custody on Tuesday. This could create problems for Biden administration officials trying to crack down on those entering the country.'
'Florida filed a lawsuit claiming the releases violate an earlier court ruling. Late Thursday, a federal judge agreed and at least temporarily halted the administration's plan for releases. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement that it would comply with the court order, while also calling it a "harmful ruling that will result in unsafe overcrowding ... and undercut our ability to efficiently process and remove migrants."
'MIGRATION HUBS'
'U.S. officials plan to open 100 regional migration hubs across the Western Hemisphere, where people can seek placement in other countries, including Canada and Spain.'
'There will be hubs in Colombia and Guatemala, but it's not clear where others will be or when they will be up and running.'
___
Associated Press Writers Rebecca Santana in Washington and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report.
So well said. As an immigrant myself I salute you and your grandparents. it takes great resolve and determination and courage to follow the arduous even dangerous path of leaving one's birth country, leaving family and friends. Only the most resolute, the most driven, the true strivers choose to do so. Given the choice between a PhD and a striver, I would back the striver every time. The USA did not become strong because of its PhDs but because of its immigrant strivers. Today's immigration policies and thinking have lost sight of this sadly. This I have observed in my researches in New York City and elsewhere. BTW I cam here to study for a PhD!
Every single person in this country is a product of immigrants. None of mine could speak English either, it was a trial for all of them (members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they walked with handcarts over 1,000 miles to join the Church in what became the Utah territory...the Church members had left the country as they received NO protection for freedom of religion (homes and property burned, people..including the President and Prophet, murdered). Our country has always welcomed immigrants and must continue. Millions of jobs are available and if immigrants were welcomed, they could fill those positions.
On another topic, "Clarence Thomas Can’t Undermine the Legitimacy of the Supreme Court Fast Enough (Opinion piece by Jamelle Bouie in the New York Times) "Barring a Franklin Roosevelt-like run of election victories, the only option Democrats have to rein the court in as a tool of the most reactionary forces in our society is to try to change its size and structure. The necessary first step toward those and other reforms is to undermine the court’s legitimacy, to knock it off its pedestal and remove some of its mystique.
And if the final result is a court that is much weaker than it has been in recent history — a court that can’t claim total control over the meaning of the Constitution — then that is something to celebrate. The Supreme Court is imperious, a fickle friend to justice. It would be better, in the end, to remove it as much as possible from the decisions that shape our lives, rather than to leave it with a leading role in the affairs of we, the people." https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/12/opinion/clarence-thomas-supreme-court-legitimacy.html
The GOP : " We are & always have been, a God - ordained nation of White Protestant Christians, blah - blah - blah, yadda - yadda ". We want bridges, the GOP want walls, & walls to reinforce those walls. Guard towers, drones, ARMED GUARDS. Where would it end ?
For as long as there are "others" to blame Daniel. It's always "those others" you know. In those same tiny minds and anger motivation prone / susceptible types who do nothing more than to blame others for their irrational fears there will always be others ; Irish, Asians, Mexicans, Central American hordes, and of course the favorite whipping post, our beautifully tanned and much emulated Americans of African origin. Every single immigrant wave was met with high degrees of contempt, discrimination, and revulsion by some percentage of small minds and hearts, but never any determinate majority, to our ever credit, for the most part. It's not irrational to say we cannot open our borders to the entire world; we simply don't have the industry anymore to support decent jobs that provide for self sufficiency, *growth, decent standard of livings, and hopeful futures. The "free trade" lobby, crony capitalists, and chamber of commerce types gave away our industries, the engines and laboratories of innovation, decent jobs, and hopeful futures for short term profit satisfaction - ignoring completely the long term costs, which is precisely where we find ourselves the past two decades or more. Crony capitalism is a virus that consumes it's host and that is exactly what has played out and is still in play behind the scenes of much of the chaos we've been existing through. The "free traders" and allies who care only about short term profit, failed miserably in "playing out the whole film" so to speak, or long term scenarios/consequences (or didn't care to), said more plainly. When considered that way if you will, the short term money interest parties that lobbied and enabled politicians to buy in, become easier to see. Ask yourself who gained or stood to gain from wholesale, irresponsible 'free trade' for any and all policies ? Fast track free trade agreements failed us miserably and cratered out the greater center of our country and glorified and profited the coasts, east, west, and south. Consider that, and you've solved "why" mainly the greater center of the country is nearly in full revolt; anger, resentment, and despise of democrats and liberals in particular. The gop has harnessed that anger and resentment under their 'tents' and in their coded language, easily blamed all of it on democrats in general - despite whether it's true or not. Democrats avoid the discussion, but guess who's selling their version of facts ?
Pretty soon the " others " will be : Children borne out of wedlock, the working poor & middle class, people whose native language isn't English, senior citizens, secular humanists. ad infinitum. They remind me of another group who dealt in HATE SPEECHES, BOOK - BURNING, tribalism, & myriad other things. Likely while using their Evangelical faith to justify their deflections.
You describe the story well. We sent away the sources of jobs and income - setting the stage for an angry class of disenfranchised voters who now have become ultra whacko right wingers. Haters. Of others. People who demonize them. They are demoralized and furious. And I would be too. Sadly, you are also right about those responsible for this self destructive scenario - Democrats like Bill Clinton. NAFTA is his monstrous legacy.
Second, I appreciate what you write. But please consider using paragraphs with spacing. This old brain has difficulty processing a large black of print. But please keep writing!
Bill Alstrom - "D4N: Two things. ... You describe the story well. ... Second, I appreciate what you write. But please consider using paragraphs with spacing. "
I second that emotion.
(FWIW: it is done by the "shift/Enter" combination.)
On FB yes: you need to use shift/enter to make paragraphs, because enter=send. On Substack, it doesn't. Just hit enter twice to create a new paragraph as you go. Sometimes on a roll I tend to write en block. When I do, I try to remember to go back and find the paragraph breaking points. It does make reading easier to comprehend, especially online.
Unless you are Native American, or First Nation you come from immigrants or slaves. Some of might have a little Native American DNA but most do not. Both of my parents families came in the mid 1700's. Still immigrants, my father's family were Menomonie and came to avoid forced military service and for the good farm land. My mother 's family also came for the good farm land. It was really tough to own land in Europe (and most of Asia) but all you needed in the US was hard work and community. We often forget the community part but it was the social safety net of the day. In today's world we need hard work, education, community and an effective safety net. Basic to all of this is a system of laws.
Dave Smucker - "Both of my parents families came in the mid 1700's."
My family has also been a here for a good bit. They first came to North America in the early/mid 1600s as Fur traders/"Kings Daughters" to Quebec (New France) and to the Caribbean Plantations in chains as guests of Oliver Cromwell. The latest members arrived in the mid 1700s with the Scot/Irish migration.
It, therefore, is very difficult for me to understand the anti-immigration position.
There might be a little more to this. The agrarian myth based on land gave rights to folks that completely obscured the original inhabitants. A man with land was a voting man. A man with land was a rugged individualist, even before the cowboy. Capitalism took root, but many of the values of democracy were established with these first immigrants and their land, the communities they lived in, and the work they did.
The problem with modern immigration law is that it reflects an outdated concept of what a country is - a geographic area bounded by impenetrable borders and containing people who share a common culture, speak a common language, and are, for the most part, ethnically homogeneous. This is not the nature of the modern nation-state. With global travel, global commerce, and increased blurring of traditionally-defined ethnic groups, the idea that individual countries should be striving by force of law to keep outsiders out (and by extension, insiders in) is increasingly irrelevant.
And you have to wonder if we EVER had a nation-state like that. In the late 19th and 20th centuries Irish and Italian immigrants were scorned, not to mention how we locked out anyone Jewish and fleeing Hitler much longer than we should have. Some even claimed that all these people were not "white."
Just what I was thinking….add to that the Chinese who immigrated via the west coast, not to mention the forced “immigration” (snark) of African Americans, or those indentured servants from, as I understand it, mostly northern European countries/England. Some came willingly—even eagerly, some out of desperation and some by force. All these folks slammed into an already populated country and proceeded to overrun and root out the indigenous population…a shameful legacy. It is not easy to blend various cultures, mindsets, values and beliefs into a choherent—and ginormous!—country. And yet here we are squabbling over it still…. A week or so ago I stumbled across this org that is studying the cultural/value schisms in this country….I found it very interesting, ya’ll might too: https://nationhoodlab.org/
This an excellent, nuanced view of the United States, so thank you for sharing. A few years ago, we were in Pocatello, Idaho, near where the Transcontinental Railroad met, and I encountered a teacher from (I think) a community college who told me that the Chinese rail road workers lived underground in Pocatello. Looking for some Chinese food, we ventured into town and found that this was an a persistent local rumor. There was never an underground city there, although some workers may have hidden underground. It struck me as astonishing that the white folk legend persisted into the 21st century.
The transcontinental railroad met in my state, Utah. Promontory Point, where every year the placing of the golden spike which commemorated the completion of the railroad occurred. I've been there several times (live about 50 miles away). Utah also had camps where Asian-appearing people were incarcerated during WWII, sorry to say.
I didn't know that, but I think it's healthy that we acknowedge our history. When we were in Idaho, we saw ruts left by wagons on the Oregon Trail. It gave me chills.
Exactly! My Norwegian grandfather considered Italians to be non-white. When my mother told me that as a teenager, I was so shocked.
My father, raised in Texas by people that were former confederates, was actually less prejudiced than my first-generation Norwegian mother.
I remember my mother listening to radical right-wing radio even back then (anyone remember George Putnam and Joe Pine in L.A.??) and she'd rail against immigrants and my father would say in irritation, "Millie, your PARENTS WERE IMMIGRANTS!". :D
It was all too bizarre to me. Thank the gods I didn't inherit anyone's whack-a-doodle racial ideas.
This is true in many places. In France you have to be born French to be French. There's no hyphenated words like here Native-American, Black-American, Chinese-American, etc. If you're not born French, you don't belong. Hate and unacceptance is all over the world.
Friendly corrections: indigenous peoples are not hyphenates and there is no such designation as Black-American, though there are people who identify as African-American. As a colonizer, France has many citizens from other nations and heritages. There are few, if any, countries that deny people the right to become naturalized citizens, including the very homogeneous nation of Japan.
The difference between other countries and the US is that everyone other than the indigenous peoples is an immigrant.
Yes, we cannot be isolationists any longer and those here in the US who aspire to be a nation like Hungary need to get the message. Biden is doing a remarkable job in his foreign policy, with Kamala's help.
Republicans will NEVER agree to immigration reform. It is the albatross that they can hang around the neck of Dems til hell freezes over. MAGAts should do a little genealogy research and find out that their ancestry is rife with immigrants, including the head MAGAt, chump. Wish we had sent Frederick packing a second time, after he came and was deported.
Hi Jeri , The group you refer to and their wannabes are far too busy acquiring library cards, not to read research and learn something, but to scour the shelves for "offensive" material. If they won't accept their own histories which may be alluded to in law school CRT classes, they will deny the negative implications in their family trees or shrubs or ground cover, whichever applies. God bless the youngsters in the current turmoil, I hope their world isn't any darker.
fyi, I read recently that Gen A is now the moniker for the current , youngest generation - and no one knows the year of it's end date. I wonder? What will be the event(s) which will harken a Gen B.
Thankfully, they overwhelmingly oppose the reactionary conservative vitriol
I remember when it was basically hippies / flower - children & the Establishment. Nonconformists & " good kids " with short hair, churchgoing, flag - saluting, unquestioning, non - rebellious.
Yes, and you may remember that during the former president's term and the covid times,
"Our testing is so much bigger and more advanced than any other country (we have done a great job on this!) that it shows more cases. Without testing, or weak testing, we would be showing almost no cases. Testing is a double edged sword - Makes us look bad, but good to have!!!"
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 15, 2020
Turn your back on It, It disappears. Most children intuit this.
OMG! I just had a flashback of his presser during Covid about drinking bleach! As if the pandemic wasn't bad enough, this buffoon who was elected president made it even worse! Today I am more angry at the fools that voted for him.
Republicans put up walls of their own, be they physical or mental / psychological. & they couldn't give a wet slap about LEARNING, because they think that they know EVERYTHING when they are myopic.
And yet there are so, so many dead albatrosses with "GOP" address labels on them. We need to do some albatross hanging ourselves. And unlike the Democrats, they richly deserve it.
The Cubans have put several compensation proposals on the table for those who left Cuba during Castro’s revolution. Their descendants, who are now Florida Cubans, have so far refused to consider them. Rubio/Cruz et al prefer keeping the base riled up and voting Republican to resolving the issue and lifting the American imposed embargo on the Cuban people.
It is a bit astonishing to me that the Republicans can weaponize immigration in a country where an exceedingly vast majority are immigrants themselves. Do these people despise themselves?
Actually some are hungry, some are on drugs over-prescribed for pain, some refused to learn or went to inadequate schools, many had abusive parents, many got “indoctrinated” in maga churches, and all hate “Socialism” because of the bootstrap myth.
In spite of all that, many are generous, but incapable of thinking beyond their immediate acquaintances.
When we lost education and went for money as the national measure, we may have lost ourselves. The Koch brothers and their spawn haven’t worked hard to turn the middle class into serfs, but if our young voters manage to overcome and vote blue in 2024, there’s hope.
I want to add to your comment that for everyone of these folks that you mention: “Actually some are hungry, some are on drugs over-prescribed for pain, some refused to learn or went to inadequate schools, many had abusive parents, many got “indoctrinated” in maga churches, and all hate “Socialism” because of the bootstrap myth””
there are just as many from the same circumstances (except “maybe” the indoctrinated ones) that have not succumbed to fascism.
Introspection (being one of the most magnificent of abilities of the human brain) of ourselves and our tribe/culture and society might be a way out of the morass we’re in. Seeing oneself as a victim of circumstances out of our control is disempowering. Feeling powerless can create anger, which is often blinds us to the truth and, unattentuated can lead to violence. Democrats believe in empowering all people. The GOP need their guns.
Virginia and Christy, thank you for sharing your insights. I am disgusted that so many self-righteous people who think they are progressive persist in demeaning every person they think below their level. And that entire threads along that line keep reappearing here. I wonder why they indulge in the same behavior they look down on. As for the people who cling to a trumpian perspective, I seek to understand what's behind their needs, and keep open the possibility of connection where there are commonalities. Where that's not possible, at least not add to their sense of disenfranchisement- by focussing on what we ARE accomplishing, and what IS possible. We are making headway.
Your last two sentences trouble me, though. Though I recognize that you are trying to show the perception gap between extremes, it reads more like the tropes in the media. For one thing, it divides all of America into two camps with no nuances. Democrats are not saints and here are a good many of them who are just as interested in power and control and "empowering all people".
Then there is "The GOP need their guns." Who do you mean by "GOP"? Do you mean everyone on the conservative side of the political spectrum? Yet there are a number of Republicans who are working for gun control and who speak up for social goods. Or does your "GOP" only apply to the extreme right wing of something that can no longer be called "Grand Old Party", and probably doesn't even qualify to be called "Republican" as the term has been historically been understood?
Too often we fall back on the tropes fed us by social media as well as some MSM as much as the people we decry. It's one thing to try to understand, another to create labels and call it done. You mention the impact feeling powerless can have. Aren't we displaying some of those same traits when we keep dividing people into two neat halves?
The "GOP" no longer exists except as an outdated slogan, and the Republican party has fractured. What we see in WaDC does not necessarily reflect what is happening at the state and local level, where we meet real people, not media reflections of tropes.
My story is the story of America. In 1909 my grandmother and grandfather and families, peasants, think Fiddler on the roof, escaped the tzar and Cossacks in Ukraine/Russia and migrated through Ellis Island. My other grandmother from Lithuania who had poor vision and afraid she would not be allowed in, found her way to Canada and, so the story goes, walked across the border into Minnesota where my father was born in 1913. None spoke English or were educated. But the children born in USA were all educated and now are mostly college graduates. And employed. It’s a different world today and recognizing that we continue to be a safe haven is critical for our government. And this is critical: the USA is
responsible for some migration because of our own roles in central and South American countries’ wars and unrest. And Vietnam and the Middle East, including Afghanistan and Iraq. Countries we have a part in destruction and loss. And exploitation. It’s impossible to seal off borders. And irresponsible to ignore Dreamers. Part of the problem is how to humanely address the border crossings, asylum and post crossing. The key is Humanely and Humanity This is a world issue. In 2016 Madrid, Spain, a giant banner was erected across the city hall building, “Refugees Welcome.” By 2018, the banner was gone. As long as we have wars and poverty we will have migration. Start with compassion and kindness, address human needs of violence, disease, hunger (called food insecurity) stop exporting weapons and wars. There will never be a wall high enough and strong enough to stop the human needs that force people to seek safer and better lives through migration.
3 grandparents came from Europe. Paternal grandfather from the Ukraine & grandmother from Lithuania around 1918 to escape persecution but were not practicing Jews. My father fought in WW2 & now what our fathers fought against is being promoted by the GOP. What women have been fighting for is being banished by the GOP. Hopefully the grandchildren & great grandchildren will restore the promise of the USA
Similar stories, Carole. My ancestors were/are Jewish but not orthodox. That’s why they escaped. Not so much poverty as the historic antisemitism and violence against the Jews. Persecution. Most of those who stayed perished in the Holocaust. Some went to Israel. Still a few remain in Ukraine, but I’m not in touch.
Similar. My father never admitted to being Jewish until he was a very old man. He grew up poor in LA during the depression & fought in WW2. I am wondering given the antisemitism of the time if he was ashamed or wanted to hide his heritage. My mother was a baptist. How much did he want to fit in & how common was circumcision at that time.
Hiding. As a child I lived in suburban areas as a minority. I have always been a minority who can hide. It’s human to avoid pain, especially when we have no power to stop it. The human condition.
And so many minorities have come out of hiding are are bearing the pain made worst by fearful people making inhumane rules & regulations. Especially so here in MT.
Not sure where addiction fits into all this, but the US provides the "demand," and the "supply" comes from Mexico and other south-of -the-border countries.
We don't have enough people to do the jobs we have now.
Talk to farmers who want a path to citizenship for the immigrants they hire.
I have never understood why where you're from, what color your skin is or how much money you have, makes you less of a human being?
Maybe it's because I understand what it's like to have nothing. To be cold, scared and homeless.
Maybe it's because the people with the least helped me to survive.
Maybe because it only takes a few minutes of conversation to understand these people don't want anything but what we all want, a chance to live a life without having to worry about what's going to happen tomorrow.
"those same farmers will still vote for those that do nothing for them"
Not really true. Republicans, even now, are working to pass their TRILLION dollar "FARM BILL" while simultaneously whining and crying about "Biden's huge spending".
Just google "Farm Bill". Trump passed a HUGE one. And, Pubs are trying to pass another update.
When it comes to Welfare for White People (the Farm Bill) Republicans know better than to mess with it. Nearly 100% of recipients are white since there are a vanishingly small number of minority owned farms.
Just as we here in the U.K. need immigrants. We are, and always have been a 'melting pot' nation. But many people are scared of anyone who is 'other'. I have Irish in my family history, a great ,great, great grandfather who came from Ireland back in the 1840's. Our farmers too can't get enough workers to pick crops, and would benefit from ordered immigration which currently appears unavailable due to lack of government commonsense, because they(politicians) play to the unfounded fears of a vocal minority. We live in a strange world lacking in empathy for our fellow man.😥
I am reading Under the warmth of the Sun by Isabele Wilkerson now. So poignant is the migration of non white people from the south to the north the beginning of the 1900s. I wish this book was required reading for all.
Like most Americans my great grandparents on my fathers side came to America from Germany for a better life. It was the land of freedom and opportunity. My grandfather on my mothers side was an Irish orphan in America. The present day people at the border are doing the same looking for opportunities to better their situations. Trying to flee gangs, get their children away from the drugs etc. so why is it so hard for the gop to show some compassion and agree to work on some type of reform rather than just complaining?
It’s their fear of change in a world that is constantly expecting progress/change. We know plenty of people like that Christine and they have always been part of the fabric of America. What drove my grandparents to come to America was the dream of a better life. If you talk with any of the current new emigres they’ll say the same thing. Their pathway is fraught...too much so. Our country largely benefits from their presence. Why wouldn’t we welcome them with open arms? Why don’t we have a modern immigration program in place yet that is logical and responsive to the needs of our country and people who really want to come here? Who’s stopping this from happening and what are their reasons? This isn’t a difficult problem to solve. We need to keep electing more Democrats across the board because they’ll get this job done sooner and correctly.
If it weren't for immigration, our age demographic would look much closer to Japan, China, Italy. These countries are facing a much more urgent crisis of a top-heavy populace; too few workers supporting too many pensioners. The US is avoiding/postponing this social security crisis largely on the back of immigration. It's highly short sighted to pillory them for filling in the ranks that the native birthrate is failing to supply.
Exactly, Ally. “Justice” Alito’s opinion included a footnote regarding a CDC study…..” they were in demand for a child, whereas the domestic supply of infants relinquished at birth or within the first month of life and available to be adopted had become virtually nonexistent.”
Ally, I don't disagree with you: that is quite likely the unspoken driver, alongside the more obvious one of misogyny. The problem is that by and large the women most affected by this legislation are not white women- who often have access to the networks & resources to bypass the legislation. It is already black and brown women who are most affected, and will be more so.
So the legislators pushing these laws aren't thinking out the long-term consequences: there might be more white babies born than would be otherwise, but there will be way more non-white babies born.
The tragedy is that for both these groups, both child and mother mortality will increase. Society will end up picking up the costs, no matter how you define and measure those costs. Not least is the impact on the health of families, women in particular, on social infrastructure such as schools and access to medical care, housing, etc.
Given the fact that a substantial majority of Americans do not support this kind of legislation, those laws are not likely to last. But even a decade of disruption in reproductive rights will create problems that will affect American culture and economy for decades after that.
The best that can be said about this anti-woman legislation is that it is unbelievably short-sighted.
the reason is that immigration and border enforcement is too good of a wedge issue with which to rile up the base and make them angry and fearful so they will vote
“ Defeated on same-sex marriage, the religious right went searching for an issue that would re-energize supporters and donors. The campaign that followed has stunned political leaders across the spectrum.”
My understanding is that they refuse to work toward some kind of reasonable solution, because immigration is one of the ways they can keep their base riled up. If you don't want to govern, but only want to hold on to your power, you don't give up a talking point that keeps your supporters voting for you.
Christine - Compassion from the GOP ? that's like expecting to find stolen jewelry / pirate treasure in the wreck of a garbage scow. WHICH IS BEING OVERRUN BY CORAL.
There is more than a little irony in the Great Replacement fear. After all, the original inhabitants of this continent found themselves "replaced" by a flood of immigrants from Europe, many fleeing persecution back home. So today's conservatives are saying, "Don't let the new Huddled Masses do to us what we did to others. Justice and morality be damned."
Our nation has treated immigrants from all points on the globe frightfully and still they come, believing in the prospect of a better life and freedom from tyranny. And, look where we are a few hundred years later. There is not a single wave of immigrants that have weakened our nation. Some have integrated more seamlessly than others, probably related to the level of education they bring with them. I had a medical school classmate who arrived amongst the "boat people" from Vietnam in the 1970s as an early teen. In a short decade, she had reached the pinnacle of achievement in our higher educational system from a place where she did not even speak the language. First generation Americans enter the public school system and have a legitimate shot at achieving their dreams, even if their immigrant parents struggle to establish themselves. We know this rhetoric about "replacement theory" is nonsense and it's horribly insulting to those who arrived more recently than the rest of us. Remaining calm while they utter such bilious hatred takes every ounce of forbearance in me.
I would bet not one of the Republicans in Congress are true American. If my history learning serves me, this country was built on immigration, dating back to before 1776.
Columbus, Magellan, and all the others that sailed the ocean blue, came from England, France, and other European countries to the “land of opportunity”. The only difference now is the people coming to our southern border are walking from South America to this land of better opportunities for them, and their families.
Who are we, as Americans, to turn them away? Why are we turning them away? Why did TFG “build the wall”? (Supposedly).
We have no right turning anyone away! None! We are all immigrants. We all have ancestry that came from another country. My ancestry is from France, England, and Scotland. They were barrel-makers. Came to this country and became farmers, and I was born, and raised, on a farm.
Now, just a note in the COVID vaccinations. My late wife, and my daughter whom we were living with when COVID came into this country, refused to get the vaccine. They listened to all the negativity on Facebook and Twitter from all the “more knowledgeable than doctors” people, and refused to get the vaccines. I haven’t had the vaccine because I couldn’t get them to take me to get it.
My point here is that as long as people listen, and believe, all the crap they hear, and read, on all the negative social media platforms, and on television networks the likes of FOX Network, then we will never totally rid this country of this terrible killer.
Dan, I'm sorry for your losses. Despite the large drop in case numbers, COVID-19 remains the leading cause of death in the US for most age groups (for school-aged kids, it is gun violence). That said, most people have some form of immunity now, either from vaccination (by far the safest option), having COVID, or a combination of both. I attended a CDC call and learned that as of April, 2023, roughly 96.4% of all people who had genomically sequenced samples taken in US had some form of immunity to COVID. You can get vaccinated at most pharmacies. Most visiting nurse associations will do in-home vaccinations. Any unvaccinated person over 6 years old only needs one bivalent injection to be considered fully vaccinated now. If you are over 65, it is recommended you get an additional bivalent dose, as long as it has been at least 4 months since your last COVID-19 vaccination.
Cases were underreported from the get go and now that worldwide tracking has stopped it’s now impossible to get a grip on the true numbers of current cases. At least wastewater testing continues, but that provides me little assurance that it’s not going to slam us like before with a different variant and that the country is any better prepared to handle it. I agree vaccinations are crucial and everyone should continue getting them. I realize that falls on deaf ears for many people and I just don’t understand it. And I think there needs to be more acknowledgment and robust discussion about the mental toll this has taken on the world.
Unfortunately USA, Australia and Europe (and others) are between the proverbial rock and a hard place. We have been far too successful as a species, in temporarily overcoming the limits that nature would normally put on us. Our discovery and profligate use of fossil fuels, has permitted an massive leap in human population numbers. Now with the climatic changes, this use has caused, we have a "wicked" problem - a very "wicked" problem. It's not just the lifestyle opportunists, but the hordes who can't get enough food because of warming, and their number is increasing. For those in a state of terminal disbelief about this ... read Vaclav Smil's "How The World Really Works"
Oh, and bye the way .. that border fence screws up the movement and migration patterns of animals on the border. But, hey, why do we care .. they don't contribute to the economy (or do they??).
"Our discovery and profligate use of fossil fuels, has permitted an massive leap in human population numbers. Now with the climatic changes, this use has caused, we have a "wicked" problem - a very "wicked" problem. "
Hugh, two human inventions conspire to wipe us all out AND all of our forests.
1) Roughly 10,000 years ago farming was introduced. So began the large scale removal of forests in favor of dense human population centers supported by former forests. Just look at google earth view of the "Fertile Crescent", a formerly forested and lush area of the world that is now desert after having cleared all the trees in that region for farming. Aye!
2) Fossil fuels and tractors which ushered in even MORE clearing of forest and even LARGER human populations.
Back in the 1980's, when I first graduated from college, I went to work in Mobil's very nice "Dallas Research Lab". There, we worked on "enhanced oil production" techniques which, honestly, was really interesting stuff. We even patented a new method of getting formerly impossible to produce oil out of the Athabasca tar sands. I was a rock star! I left when oil price dropped to $8 per barrel and Mobil started firing all my friends. Figured, why wait around for the tap on the shoulder.......so......I went someplace more safe: Kodak (ah well, poor judgement cannot be blamed on my ability to see the future, which, is zero).
I thought I was HELPING the world at Mobil. But, now? Well, we cleared all that forest up there in Athabasca to, yep, produce oil. All that oil? Well, we produced it so that we could clear more forest in the Amazon to turn into farms with tractors running on diesel.
I figure that this will continue until the last drop of oil is produced and then?
Better be ready with a method of getting food. Because, the trucks won't run and neither will the tractors.
But? Good news, perhaps, slowly, our forests will return. IF we preserve some seeds and acorns.
Mother Earth may shrug us off as an immune response to a virus that is sickening its host….maybe there will be pockets of humans that survive, living close to and in rhythm with the Earth…and eventually all the technological wonders will just be tales passed down the future generations… Question is, would we learn and do better in our next iteration?
Yes, there are those communities world wide who do so already. A friend recently returned from So American and he spoke of the small villages along the major rivers & how they were true communities and mostly lived off/in harmony with the surrounding lands—at least as he observed in his time there. Where I live there are a number of tribal reservations—I know they are surviving, if not thriving, amidst the “dominant” culture. I know I am very aware that I live on ancestral Wiyot land. Locally there is a “land back” movement that has returned some lands back into the hands of the tribes and, for instance, if it is within the limits of our county’s largest city, they are using the properties ceded for use in community-wide supportive services. Here’s some info: https://nonprofitquarterly.org/an-indigenous-community-land-trust-rises-making-land-back-a-reality/
I'm second generation born in the U.S. All four of my grandparents came here in steerage from eastern Europe in the 1910s without two nickels to rub together. They got a foothold in a new country and with a new language by staying with relatives and then moving up the ladder. They learned English by reading the newspaper every day. Their children (my parents' generation) became doctors, lawyers, accountants. They fought in WWII. My dad went to college on the GI Bill. My generation continued the trend; taxpayers all. I went to CUNY and have been working and paying into Social Security since I was 14. So, I guess according to DeSantis, my family is a bunch of takers. Bless his heart. And you know what THAT means, right?
When my husband and I visited Cuba this past March, we saw hundreds of Cubans at the airport who, sadly and at great expense, were there to take a charter plane to Venezuela. They planed to walk from there through Mexico to the American border.
The United States has imposed the longest embargo in history (60 years) on the Cubans, making it impossible for them to stay in their own country and make a living. We forbid other countries to trade with Cuba. They are a desperately poor people.
This is purely political. The Cubans in Florida would not vote Republican if the Republicans lifted the embargo despite the fact that over 60% of Cubans living there today we’re not alive at the time of Castro’s revolution. Under Obama cruise ships were again allowed to return to Cuba and the economy there improved.
When Trump came into office, he not only replaced the embargoes that Obama had lifted, but imposed 30 more.
American policy is causing Cubans to leave their country and try to come to ours. We could end their emigration tomorrow by lifting the embargo and letting them make a living in their own country.
Cuba is 90 miles from the USA, but for some American lawmakers it could be on the Moon. For a short time, it was open to tourism, without a government guide. I was a member of the Federation of American Poets and attended the International Festival of Poetry in Havana Cuba in 2017, reading our poetry in Spanish and English. And experiencing and visiting amazing arts and artists. Adults and children. Poets from all over the world participated in the festival. Besides being an amazing experience, staying in “ Casa Particulares” bed and breakfasts, we traveled the city and countryside and met artists and creatives and farmers and entrepreneurs. And government officials. We witnessed the effects of years of deprivation and the boycotts of American trade. A broken toilet required a specific mechanism about $2, that could easily be imported from USA, but USA import not allowed. Instead a six month wait, imported from France. Water systems and utilities routinely malfunctioned or didn’t work because imported parts were on order. Crumbling buildings built with cement and sand stood next to older structures built before boycotts and shortages. How governments watch people suffer through boycotts and political posturing is unconscionable. Instead of exporting Democracy, we drove Cuba to rely on Russia for alliances in education and medicine. Compassion is not Americans’ strong suit.
I have often, and for a very long time, countered the right-wing garbage about “immigration” with the fact that, unless you are indigenous to this land (ie Native American), you were born of immigrants. So STFU with the anti-immigration rhetoric. “Pilgrim” is just another synonym for “Immigrant” as far as I’m concerned. I’m so tired of the right-wing garbage. My ancestors were Irish and German. Still immigrants…
Although my family and I emigrated from Europe to the New World, after WII, so we didn't face some of the hatred that immigrants from the Central and Southern hemispheres do, it was still quite a challenge for my parents to leave everyone and everything they knew behind and start a new life with two small children in tow. To embark on such a major journey takes determination and strength many Americans couldn't imagine mustering. It is usually larger social forces that make people have to leave their home countries, often caused by US policies. We not only need agreements between the countries involved in the immigration issue, we also, as a country have to rethink policies that cause the upheavals in our neighboring countries, such as drug policies. The US is largely responsible for the rise of drug cartels in other countries, because we insist on criminalizing substance use and addiction, instead of addressing the problem as a public health crisis.
Thank you, Dr. Heather, for another late night newsletter, mentioning the end of the Covid emergency designation, and providing simple explanations of Title 42 vs Title 8 immigration policies.
Hope that maybe you'll get to sleep in a bit later than typical! Rest well. 🍎
My grandparents were immigrants. My grandmother could not read or write. She worked as an office cleaner at night. They shared the American dream with their children. My mother became a teacher. I became a research chemist.
Immigrants come to America for a better life for their children, and to escape intolerable conditions in their home countries. They have strengthened this country throughout its history with their energy and innovations and love and respect for America and its ideals.
The only thing that evolves is the countries that those immigrants come from. The haters in this country just change their focus to manufacture a new threat.
I have often wondered if the US was a powerhouse of innovation in the 19th and 20th Centuries at least in part because we were pooling expertise and perspectives from so many parts of the world.
Of course we were. Alexander Graham Bell and Andrew Carnegie, to name the first two from the 19th century who pop into my head, came from Scotland. Immigrants built this country, literally. I think of the Italian who came here and wrote to the folks back home, “Not only are the streets not paved with gold, they expect us to pave them.” I hope someone asked De Sanctimonious who he thinks will pick Florida’s oranges and sugar if there are no immigrants.
I looked it up. Oklahoma has a Cherokee Senator and a Cherokee Representative, both of whom are Republicans. There three other Representatives, who are Alaskan Native, Hawaiian Native, and Native American (Ho-chunk tribe, I think) who are Democrats, and then of course, the Secretary of Interior, Deb Haaland, from the Laguna Pueblo. Some of my ancestors came to this country before the Revolution from England, seeking religious freedom. They were Quakers. Some of my ancestors came to this country when the mines ran out of tin, seeking work. They were Welsh. Some of my family came to this country seeking land. They were Scottish. Some of my family came to this land seeking food. They were Irish. De Santis and most of the Republicans in Congress need to take a look into their back grounds. Do they not honor the bravery of their ancestors?Have they all forgotten their family stories?
Yes, they have all forgotten. It's "I've got mine, and to hell with you." Also, doesn't help that many of these new migrants have a different color skin.
I saw a clip on NBC news last evening of a woman being interviewed who wanted to see the people cleared out from her town in Texas, I think it was. She spoke with a heavy Spanish accent but was apparently a U.S. citizen. Yep, definitely a "I've got mine, and to hell with you" mentality.
I've not seen the particular interview you mention, but I've seen others. It seems like U.S. counties near the Mexican border have a real problem with lack of resources to deal with undocumented migrants. Statements about how we're a nation of immigrants don't address the issue. I know Democratic administration's have tried to deal with immigration in a rational and holistic way while Republicans have been nothing but obstructive. But the R's message of promising to keep "illegals" out of your town and my town has played well in majority-Hispanic border counties in TX.
From personal observation when I was at the border while canoeing on the Rio Grand (the border), one can simply wade across the river to get into the US. Once in, a migrant has to stay put near that border until they can find a smuggler to get them past the roadblocks put up by the US Border Patrol. The border is very long and remote. The roads leading out of the border are few and easier to monitor. In the meantime, migrants just try to survive in those border towns, straining the residents' patience.
I can bitch all I want about TX's Governot Abbot being an asshole about this situation (among many others), but the R's messaging plays well here ($#!%&).
How do we counter that? We need a Democratic governor and Democratic state legislature in TX before we can get coordinated efforts moving. That means, in TX, address people's actual worries first, and deal with cultural issues later. In TX, at least Dems just don't have it together. Labeling local residents as selfish is unhelpful.
I think it's not just a matter of "I've got mine" though certainly greed is part and parcel of of the syndrome. I think that "Conservatives" (as opposed to people who may be in a non-ideological sense conservative) convince themselves that they are the prototype for all "good" people; the Master Race, the Righteous, the Patriots. It is off the scale narcissism, frequently enforced by PTSD deliberately induced in those who stray from the narrative. I think we all carry a bit of narcissism, and it can flare, as it does for me, but ideally it is integrated and balanced by other personality traits. Trump embodies it, and the men who flew airplanes into the World Trade Center embodied it, in it's malignant form.
Agree completely re skin color -- as well as a non-European culture. That makes them personae non gratae. 100% UNWANTED.
In the earlier waves it was dirty Irish, dirty Italians, dirty Eastern Europeans...The fear and hatred is stoked towards whoever is new and identifiably different because the haters see the "pie" as static in size so they will lose something if immigrants are let in. In reality the economy grows bigger with each new wave of immigrants and thte standard of living rises.
Japan is the counter example--it has always limited immigration and now it has few workers to care for and support with taxes the huge elderly population.
In 2021, people aged 65 years and older in Japan accounted for approximately 29.8 percent of the total Japanese population. Due to a low birth rate and high longevity, people aged 65 years and older were estimated to make up almost 38 percent of the population in Japan by 2060. If you think our social security system is on thin ice look at the Japanese demographics based on limited immigration.
With a shrinking population and more than 10 million abandoned properties, the country (Japan)is straining to match houses with curious buyers.
Worms and birds will pick the oranges. Lets see who complains about the higher cost of vegetables at the market.
Don’t forget Albert Einstein.
My professor of Medieval language and literature taught that Southern France and Northern Spain, the mix of peoples from the entire Mediterranean region was the most creative and productive area of the medieval period. That helped me understand why the American history of “mix” is so important. As someone wrote recently, everyone except native Americans is an immigrant.
And if the "theory of replacement" applies to anyone, it is the indigenous Americans who qualify as its target. Yet we have survived and now beginning to truly thrive. Our many cultures have had significant influence on European culture, including from the beginning a deep dive into democratic ideals. Euros talked about it but practiced the same kind of autocracy they sought to escape. Indigenous people lived democracy. Yet, somehow we are left out of nearly every discussion about the its development.
P.S. This is the first time I've seen Europeans referred to as "euros". I wonder how it would go down if Americans were referred to as "dollars", since (someone told me years ago that the word dollar is Czechia for flattened, dried, horse droppings, which were used as money in the old days, and could be used to ignight a cooking fire ).
Our American English is full of contributions from other languages to,: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://m.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3Drj_kCLEzoI0&ved=2ahUKEwjdtvfS4Pb-AhX3QvEDHSsLDaQQFnoECAQQBQ&usg=AOvVaw1o_qEyyQNDSNDd1TF0LbL4
Euro in this usage refers to Euro-American, to make clear that they also are a cultural group who immigrated. The "Euro" as a common European currency was named from the same root, only in this case alludes to the coming together of European nations as a unified economy and identity. Early immigrants from Europe and their progeny did not consider themselves "American", but considered themselves culturally part of the countries they came from. At that time, "Americans" was a generic term for the indigenous people here.
Euro-Americans began to refer to themselves as Americans in the mid1700s during the runup to the War of Independence. There is an increasing trend to use of the term "Euro-American" (Euro for short) because simply calling them "American" implies that somehow they are the template (particularly among those of British descent). That concept is changing, thank goodness: hence Euro-American.
As a child, I often wondered where the word "dollar" came from but only knew that it came into English from Spanish. Here is what NOAD says about it: "– origin from early Flemish or Low German daler, from German T(h)aler, short for Joachimsthaler, a coin from the silver mine of Joachimsthal (‘Joachim's valley’), now Jáchymov in the Czech Republic. The term was later applied to a coin used in the Spanish American colonies, which was also widely used in the British North American colonies at the time of the American Revolution, hence adopted as the name of the US monetary unit in the late 18th century. "
So one could imagine that perhaps there is some truth in the story you heard: perhaps it was picked up as slang by Czechians to apply to something they used as a kind of currency.
(edited a sentence slightly for clarity)
So many valuable comments here, susl as yours, Annie. I so appreciate everyone's input. It helps me a great deal!
Thank you, Susan. I agree. There are some remarkable people here, and they expand my world and my understanding immensely. I'm so glad to be able to give back as I can, and glad I am still sometimes gobsmacked by a revelation sparked by someone else.
Well, there was France.
Yes, everyone here is a late comer in terms of comparison with Native Americans. I hate to say it, but a lot of the 19th century industrial revolution in New England and England was built on cotton slavery. I was glad to read that we are working to mitigate some of the chaos we helped to create south of the border. We should have had a sane policy long ago, but undocumented labor is a boon to certain employers. They can be exploited in all sorts of ways, but really can't complain without revealing their status. And the course, the smugglers are using the confusion to exploit more people. I personally love the mix because it offers so much to the society in terms of music, culture, food, etc. Our local classical station (all classical.org) in Portland makes a concerted effort to be inclusive with their music and now some of their hosts and guests. We have a long way to go to solve the problems and yes, history matters in how they are perceived and why they exist and continue to exist. And right now as far as I am concerned, it is the party of death which stands in the way of making any real progress.
Even the Native Americans were immigrants they just had a 13,000 year head start, by the time the Europeans first got here the entire continent was populated and had been for thousands of years. All of us that live here are lucky indeed, and none of us have the right to deny the opportunities we enjoy to others that are deserving.
"...everyone except native Americans is an immigrant." Yes, Virginia. Funny that people conveniently forget that.
I wonder what the climate was like in those places then?
We benefit certainly from the vast pool JL, but we also had industry as the enabling engines of ingenuity, trade / country secrets of the same engines, and decent jobs that supported hopeful livable wages, bright futures. We no longer have that... hell, a greater percentage of Americans, especially in the greater heartland of the country, now hollowed out, are working 2, 3 jobs and / or side gigs to just stay even. Mothers families can't afford for Mom's to stay home to raise their own children. These are the realities that are being ignored to defend past policies; someone must step up, own it, and find a better way forward. I think 'that' is what the greatest majority of Americans are looking for; leadership that acts fully to that end to restore some degrees of hopefulness.
“Someone must step up?” What is your suggestion? Do you know someone willing to run for office on this platform? That is how this will change? Republicans advocate for the Fascist solution-make a law stopping all immigration. Make another law that get women out of the workplace-presto! More jobs available for men! Democrats advocate for incremental improvements in fixing the outdated immigration laws, but Republican make much hay and many campaign donations off of railing against the current problems. They don’t want to fix it. Looks like De Santis may be making immigration a major plank in his campaign for thee Presidency. Ugh.
I would run for one, but without $ how would I even approach it Meredith ? A point I'm evading is that democrats have to quit speaking out of both sides of their mouths - speak all the truth even if that truth threatens their lofty positions of influence. Past mistakes - have the courage and humility to own past policy mistakes and change course. *edit in - Bottom line, in the absence of complete truth and humility, the democrats are still on the same course to lose the central heartland of America. Their silence gives the narratives and oxygen to the gop, who are glad to continue enjoying their conquests. Is that more clear Meredith ? Do answer if you will; I've read you before with interest. Thx ~
I would like the government to pay for women to nurse their babies just as WIC pays for formula.
Wonderful idea.
2, 3, jobs? Pay slave wages, get cheap labor. Those poor immigrants are cheap labor, great for corporate profits.
What you say is true to some extent. Without those immigrants, however, our economy would collapse. We do need an overhaul. Get money out of politics, put there by the Citizens United case and the so-called right-to-work laws. We need strong labor unions to offset the power of management. The common folk of this country have been outsmarted and manipulated.
Richard, capitalism only works if wealth is redistributed via mostly paying labor well and providing infrastructure, education and healthcare. Those cost are more of an investment than and an expense. Greedy companies don't realize that well paid, heathy and educated employees SPEND. Let us remember Henry Ford who paid his worker more than competitors saying he wants his employees to be able to buy his cars.
Yep.. but so have the allegedly 'smarter folks' Richard. Those 'smarter folks' were too busy living their lives content, fat and happy - ignorant or insensitive to the greater center of the country, between the 'coasts' where all attention is spent.
I don't understand your point. Are you familiar with Thomas Franks' book, "What's the Matter with Kansas?" published in 2004?
And in the mean time, maybe the free enterprises of the country -- the ones that need a variety of immigrant labor and expertise but don’t want to be heavily regulated -- could volunteer to fix the phone system so processing could happen rapidly and the backlog could be eliminated.
America's leadership in innovation continues to this day, much of it from immigrants. First two names coming to mind are Elon Musk and Sergei Brin, but that's only because they are household names. Granted, they didn't arrive after undertaking a dangerous trek from Hondures or Guatemala, but stories abound of 2nd-generation immigrants from Latin America, Asia, India etc. whose parents sought a better life for their children, who then availed themselves of an educational opportunity and have become successful.
In the U.S., a diminishing birth rate and an aging population create challenges for a robust labor force. Immigrants are needed, not only to harvest crops but to work as caregivers and medical staff, retail, shops and factories. They are a necessary part of our future, and we should be welcoming those who clear a vetting process. Many will go on to become business and political leaders, doctors, researchers, inventers and artists, contributing to an economic and cultural expansion.
“They are a necessary part of our future, and we should be welcoming those who clear a vetting process.” And citizenship and livable compensation and benefits must be part of the equation. Instead we use people. Exploit. Dreamers are an example. Or hiring undocumented workers in industry like agriculture and food processing. We should be asking repubs over and over and over? “Have you no shame?” Except we know the answer. No we/they have not enough shame. Exploitation as in corporations sending their business overseas, huge profits, lowest tax rates, no jobs or benefits here, low pay in other countries and windfall profits and greed an American trademark. And having enough money and profit to explore the universe to avoid the pain and suffering and danger caused by their greed. Circular arguments. Profit. Please excuse my rant.
There is no labor force problem and there wouldn't be, even if we weren't having a population explosion (due largely due to immigration). The Census Bureau projects an addtional 75 million over the next 40 years, nearly four New York State equivalents, 90% of that from immigration.
The average immigrant's greenhouse emissions rise threefold after arrival in the US, which is going to make it even harder for us to get to zero net emissions. And global warming reduces earth's, and the US's carrying capacity. The west is running out of water; towns in Arizona are fighting over diminishing water supplies, and a town in Utah has banned new housing construction due to lack of water. The two major reservoirs in the west have lost most of their water, and the Great Salt Lake may go dry within a handful of years, which would be an ecological disaster.
Meanwhile, the Ogallala Aquifer, which underlies the Great Plains from Canada to Texas, and which supplies the Great Plains with almost all of its water, is drying out.
According to Propublica's Abrahm Lustgarten, millions of Americans are going to be climate refugees in the next several decades. In light of this, it is stupid to grow the population by millions. If you have children or grandchildren, you should be very worried about their future.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/09/15/magazine/climate-crisis-migration-america.html
AZ is fighting over water but have you seen the explosion of building in Phoenix? R legislators are not addressing it; they are addressing home schooling.
You are correct in pointing out that water is more precious than oil, abs that as a nation, we are squandering it. Yes, many citizens will become climate refugees within this country. There are many steps we could take to conserve water. However, our economy us built on and depends on population growth. Stopping immigration because of lack of water is a message that sounds good on the surface, but if followed and implemented bluntly will be cruel to migrants and citizens alike, though in different ways.
Perpetual economic growth is a Ponzi scheme that will doom civilization and quite possibly humanity. Don't you think we're smart enough to figure out how we can live well without perpetual growth? Our future depends on it.
If we don't stop the perpetual growth, we will kill the land that feeds the biosphere, including us. There are less than half as many insects as there were in my youth, which constitute much of the base of the food chain, and birds, mammals, and other creatures have been similarly decimated, not just on North America but on the other continents. Meanwhile, humans and our livestock constitute well over 90% of the biomass.
Have you ever heard of ecosystem services? Without them, we are doomed. Did you know that when virgin land, which holds about a quarter of the CO2 we've emitted, is developed, all that CO2 goes into the atmosphere where it heats the world.
Can you provide references?
Biomass includes all of the trees and plants and ocean life.
https://ourworldindata.org/life- says that humans make up 0.01% of the biomass. What they say that is totally shocking is that the biomass of livestock is 10X that of wild animals, but trees make up 82% of the total.
"...a diminishing birth rate...."
Uh, I'd say that'd be a yes, JL.
My grandparents were also immigrants from southern Italy where poverty was so bad, women scraped paint from the walls to mix what little flour they had to feed their families. I learned this from a PBS special on Italian immigrants, though I don't know that my families had to resort to this. My maternal grandmother was a school teacher in Gaeta. She came to New York's Little Italy in Lower Manhattan and opened a green grocery. My mom said even during the depression, they did not go hungry. From all my grandparents, the 2nd generation got advanced degrees, including myself. Immigrants have contributed greatly to this country through their hard work and determination.
And it is disgraceful Joanne that the grandchildren of these hardworking Italian immigrants like DeSantis & other Italian-American Republican descendants train their hateful racist gaze on the modern day immigrants. How can they be so divorced from their own personal histories?
"To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child." Marcus Tullius Cicero, Orator, chapter 34
Thank you, Jerry Carbone! As we forget that “If you don’t know the Latin [or Greeks], you have to do the hackin’ and the hewin’,” having had a bit (not enough) of both and a daughter who got an undergraduate degree in classics from Barnard because her mother continually said “If only I knew more Latin,” I am so grateful for every bit that appears in these replies.
Okay, Virginia, what's "hackin' and hewin''? I looked for it but only found a reference to a machete. Please expand!
Ditto, Lynell!
Hope you’re doing well. Just noticing you have a Substack!
Because they don’t want to acknowledge it. When they’re pointing their finger at the “other”
They need to remember that with one finger pointing out, three more are pointing back at themselves.
Officer, on a different HCR topic, the John Hopkins Coronavirus Center
(Bloomberb Philanthropies) "stopped collecting data" on the 3/10/23 recording 6,881,955 confirmed or validly "reported" Worldwide deaths.
After 5/11/23, "Vulnersbles" will have go to the "National Registry & Enteric Virus Surveillance System " (NREVSS) to monitor demographic & other trends.
As of 5/11/23, the CDC Covid Data Tracker & other sources report that the Subvariant XBB.1.5 i tops 88% percent of all NEW infections. UCSF Health facilities still requiress "masks on" to protect "Others" , those in "remission" & yourself.
Oregon?
Masks no longer required, occasionally encourage, and frequently mocked.
I continue to mask most places; our housemate cannot be vaccinated (prior allergic reactions) so we’re still careful.
I can't tell you for sure, but the mandates have been lifted here in Oregon although medical facilities can still require masks if they choose. We still wear masks to grocery shop and I see a few people wearing masks in other places, so I assume they are vulnerable in some way.
I love this, Ally! So true!
Good one to remember, Ally...morning!
Morning, Lynell!
Because that is the measure of who they are. Look at DeSantis. What does his face and what do his words tell you about him? All I see is that he wants to be politically powerful and will do or say anything that he thinks or is told to achieve power (and money).
Interesting - NOT A WORD about COVID implementation? How about the tremendous HARM done to America by the left?
1) The Biden Administration LIED about the efficacy of the Vaccine? They forced the American population to take a vaccine that was never tested and never worked. It was an experimental drug forced on Americans
2) The Biden Administration LIED about the efficacy about Booster. Booster efficacy was a joke.
3) The Biden Administration LIED about Natural Immunity.
4) The Biden Administration LIED about mask efficacy. The definitive Cochrane Study found
5) The Biden Administration LIED about the safety of Vaccine/Booster in children. The episodes of myocarditis especially in young men has estimated in 1 in 6600 in boys.
6) The Biden Administration FIRED government employees who refused to take the vaccine claiming the LIE that the pandemic was the pandemic was caused by the unvaccinated.
7) The Biden Administration CENSORED leading scientists and opponents of vaccinations/booster. This included people like Stanford Professor/Physician Jay Bhattacharya and former NY Times journalist Alex Berenson.
The harm caused to children - suicide rates, learning, and depression were disgraceful.
And yet...no one knows whether fewer lives would have been saved or lost without those directives. Please remember that the directives around the world - based on timely knowledge- was to mask and be vaccinated. And, this administration did not suggest you ingest horse worming medication...something I administered many times while wearing gloves to protect myself from getting it into my system!
Carol, join me in reporting james (… under his comments).
That's the claim by every AUTHORITARIAN - I'm doing what's best for.
No I'm an adult and free human, tell me the truth, and I'm make my own decision.
The government can't lie to me for my protection.
These people are too stupid and corrupt to be trusted.
You are pedaling another leftist lie. No one pedaled horse wormers.
Is this a joke? The amount of harm was staggering - Suicide rates skyrocketed, domestic abuse, alcoholism, drug usage, depression, all increased. Children learning suffered tremendously too.
If the vaccine didn't work, how you claim it saved lives. THE VACCINE was a joke. Infection rates in the vaccinated were virtually the same as the unvaccinated.
There was never proof that masks worked, in fact Fauci initially said masks didn't work until he got new march orders. The Harvard study that masks don't work was taken down. The Cochrane study destroyed any claim that masks worked.
What about all the sanctimonious leftists who screamed about everyone who disagreed. "You're killing people? What about the people who were fired from their jobs? Pilots, Hospital workers, soldiers? Who do they see to get their careers back?
Even more disgusting was the claim "We believe in science".
James, one of the things I love about these letters is their supporting resources. Since you are reading these letters, I assume you like that also.
I always like to learn more, so I would appreciate you posting data that supports your comments. Looking forward to learning from you!
Carol, James cannot substantiate his hateful dribble. His is unfortunately an angry frustrated and hopeless soul. Even for him the sun will rise. He may be able to find joy by making a positive contribution which he feels would make us better. That is where hope begins.
They are invoking the fear factor of political salesmanship to create a distance that helps them appear the better choice. The actual needs of immigrants and this countries need to have them is not in their equation.
Jerry, great comment. To add to your point, Italians and Irish were reviled in the late 1800's and early 1900's when they arrived to this country. Immigration laws were written specifically to admit as few as possible, with many leaders here seeing them as undesirable for immigration. Now, we heartily embrace both cultures with a Little Italy in many major cities and St. Patrick's celebrations nationwide. Many coming here today are seeking asylum but very vocal politicians on the right don't want to process them. Our country denied Jews seeking asylum in the late 1930's too, to the peril of those who were denied.
Xenophobic, hateful rhetoric used against an immigrant population. Especially stringent admissions from a selection of countries. History does rhyme and today's xenophobes are on the wrong side of it.
They became divorced from their histories as soon as they became "white."
Very similar story from my Hungarian grandparents. My Grandma Haluska sold moonshine to the coal miners so she and Grandpap could open the store. Grandma was educated by a Jewish family who sponsored her as a young woman to come from Hungary as a house keeper. They stayed close after she and Grandpap married. The store was quite diverse and sold a variety of items not found at the company store. All of their grandchildren went to colleges.
Georgia: "They have strengthened this country throughout its history with their energy and innovations and love and respect for America and its ideals."
Anyone who eats food in the USA has to be grateful to migrants. About 1 in 4 of our nations farm workers are migrants and a much higher fraction (I could not find it) work in slaughterhouses.
https://www.migrationpolicy.org/content/essential-role-immigrants-us-food-supply-chain#:~:text=While%20immigrants%20accounted%20for%2017,the%20U.S.%20food%20supply%20chain.
So, the next time you grill a chicken breast, think about the migrant who slaughtered it for you in a dingy, crowded, noisy smelly slaughterhouse.
During Covid, before vaccines, those migrants were "critical workers" as defined by the Trump administration. So, they packed into slaughterhouses and produced our meat and, became ill, and, died. If you look at the NY Times map of Covid deaths, those areas that are dark brown, in rural areas, are high death rates among migrant workers in slaughterhouses and some farm areas.
Instead of demonizing the folks who help support our food supply, we should be thanking and encouraging them. Americans would be a LOT less fat without them.
What would happen to Ted Cruz fat arse without migrants? How would he maintain that homongous posterior? Just imagine, Ted Cruz never goes hungry because of migrants.
now, MAYBE that might be a reason to keep some out......but....other than helping Ted Cruz lose weight, we should recognize migrants contributions.
Cruz was born in Canada and his father was Cuban. And then there's Mark Rubio whose parents were from Cuba. How quickly they shed their heritage.
Rubio has never set foot in Cuba and they hate him as they do Cruz. Rubies family left Cuba with their wealth 3 years before the revolution. Google it.
My point is that these people have histories similar to those immigrants they would refuse entrance into the U.S..
Pulling up the ladder behind them…
exactly 😶
Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio don’t shed their heritage, only their origin stories.
According to Wiki, his birth name is, "Rafael Edward Cruz. Cruz began going by Ted at age 13"
really? If this is true, why did Cruz run for president in 2016? You have to be born on US soil to qualify for election to the presidency.
I believe his father was a U.S. diplomat working in Canada at the time of Cruz’s birth which made Cruz a citizen of the U.S. at the time of his birth. He should still be more compassionate towards immigrants but he’s Ted Cruz and I guess he forgot his father came from Cuba.
How convenient to forget.
Just,
Why would any Republican bother with such silly things as laws and regulations? Those are for the "common man" like immigrants and, well, everyone but a Republican for whom laws are so passé.
C'mon. This is AMURKA.
:-)
Can we deport them??????
Please?!!!!
😆
In eastern NC where I live there are a number of industrial farms raising chickens and hogs. There are also processing plants that process the animals into the products you see in the grocery store. Some of the state legislators who pushed for these factory farms personally benefited from their growth. These facilities were touted as job creators for the area, which is predominantly rural and poor. The governor at the time agreed. But the farm and processing jobs were not taken by local people. They, for sure, did not want to work in a chicken processing plant. So Latino immigrants fill most of those jobs. They did not take a job away from a local already here. They took the hard, low wage jobs locals didn't want.
I grew up on a farm. Farming today is vastly different than it was 50-60 years ago. It is much more mechanized, and the jobs are mostly filled by Latino immigrants. There were were always migrant workers. Today's farm workers don't move with the crops as much. They are people working physically hard jobs to feed their families. They tolerate conditions that local people would not because conditions here are better than in their home countries.
The Republicans spin false narratives about the situation to keep the ignorant base stirred up and keep a supply of low wage workers that they can exploit. But the low wage workers have always been exploited; their color or country of origin is irrelevant.
Around 20 years ago I went to work for Jim Palmer Trucking, a refer freight hauler of controlled temperature foodstuffs among other types of freight as well. It was there I began to realize the demographics of the United States were changing to reflect immigrant cultures from around the world. On loading docks from sea to sea and border to border and all points in interior America the “American” worker, the hands on men and women and yes children who processed raw commodities spoke many languages other than English. Demographics had changed every state and the future was veritably in their hands. The jobs were laborious demeaning and beneath the status of Mike’s white populous at large. However when one ethnic group abandons such work another takes it up, rigors and all, and inherits the future. This has been happening generationally for as long as we have been a nation. Immigrants are the giants of the earth demographically and taking the good with the bad they are never static rather moving continuously upward in American society. They are inheriting the earth as they always have. It is pointless for politicians to put up the hue and cry of foul when their object is to raise scorn and ridicule in a system that sustains and feeds them. Bashing immigrants sells only propaganda for re-election. Meanwhile the demographics continue to evolve.
Apples oranges potatoes beans
America grows by immigrant means.
In 1980, meat packers were mostly Black, and they earned good middle class wages. By that decade's end, they were mostly immigrant, toiling under atrocious conditions for barely over minimum wage. Immigration is Big Business' way of keeping wages down. See: Back of the Hiring Line: A 200 Year History of Immigration Surges, Employer Bias, and Depression of Black Wealth, by Roy Beck.
After Black poultry workers were fired from their jobs to make way for immigrants, Beck met with them, and asked them if they'd take their old jobs back, if offered. No, they said, they didn't want to live in their cars, or many to a house.
Of course the workers here illegally are even easier to exploit than those here legally. That's why the US needs a national, mandatory E-Verify. That bill (HR 2) just passed the house, and if the Democrats (of which I am one; in fact my great uncle was a union lawyer who ran the Colorado Democratic Party for most of the first half of the last century, and gave the speech at the '32 convention recommending an end to prohibition) would support American workers like we used to do, that would solve the problems at the border, and help keep a tight labor market to give US workers decent wages.
You are so right David. And let us not forget our in house immigrations as populations within the nation moved in mass. And with that I hear horses demanding to immigrate from dry lot to pasture and who am I to keep them from their destiny.
I think the horses are migrating. Along with the frogs, the salamanders, the birds, and numerous other critters that I love so much.
Support United Farm Workers, the union they have formed to try to get better working conditions.
The haters must have their scapegoats & straw - men.
Immigrants are what have always made this country great. Those who fear immigration are those who want to rest on what their foreparents built, and not do the work themselves. Great book from 20+ years ago is "The Millionaire Next Door" re: how by bequeathing money and opportunity to each succeeding generation, the original drive and talent of the original millionaire does not pass on to their heirs. It's replaced by an attitude of entitlement.
thanks for your share... how quickly in one or two generations , we can forget or are never told the story. We close the door and lock it and throw away the key. More nonsense and fear about zero sum games. believing If we give something away and share, we will lose out! so so not true. We have more than enough...
I am first generation on my mother's side (Polish) and second generation on my father's side (Hungarian). I've often wondered what the US would look like if immigration had been stopped at the turn of the twentieth century. My guess is most of the things we take for granted would not exist.
My paternal grandparents were from Scotland, then Canada, Prince Edward Island, then New London CT where some cousins still live, there or surrounding towns, Waterford, Niantic, Manchester, etc. My parents had good paying jobs and the good life including Saturday night home parties or for special occasions, dancing, eating and drinking at the Lighthouse Inn in New London.with friends and relatives. Their children graduated from college, 1 a teacher and 2nd a nonprofit administrator.
Quite a path!
Think about what life has been like for many of the migrants, in Venezuela, for example, and the difficulties of then receiving asylum and passage to better life)
'Venezuela is in the midst of an unprecedented social and humanitarian collapse—the result of bad economic policies and political conflict—that has led to food insecurity, the second largest migration crisis in the world, and regional instability. The international community has responded with pressure against the regime coupled with support for elements of the opposition, but to date it has been unsuccessful in bringing about a positive change. ' (US Institute of Peace)
'Title 42 has ended. Here's what it did, and how US immigration policy is changing'
Here's a look at the new rules (and the old ones)
BY COLLEEN LONG | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 3 hrs ago
'WASHINGTON — The U.S. is putting new restrictions into place at its southern border to try to to stop migrants from crossing illegally and encourage them instead to apply for asylum online through a new process.'
'The changes come with the end of coronavirus restrictions on asylum that have allowed the U.S. to quickly turn back migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border for the past three years. Those restrictions are known as Title 42, because the authority comes from Title 42 of a 1944 public health law allowing curbs on migration in the name of protecting public health.'
'Disinformation has swirled and confusion has set in during the transition. A look at the new rules (and the old ones):'
'WHAT IS TITLE 42 AND WHAT DID IT DO?
Title 42 is the name of an emergency health authority. It was a holdover from President Donald Trump's administration and began in March 2020. The authority allowed U.S. officials to turn away migrants who came to the U.S.-Mexico border on the grounds of preventing the spread of COVID-19.'
'Before that, migrants could cross illegally, ask for asylum and be allowed into the U.S. They were then screened and often released to wait out their immigration cases.'
'Under Title 42, migrants were returned over the border and denied the right to seek asylum. U.S. officials turned away migrants more than 2.8 million times. Families and children traveling alone were exempt.'
'But there were no real consequences when someone illegally crossed the border. So migrants were able to try again and again to cross, on the off chance they would get into the U.S.'
'President Joe Biden initially kept Title 42 in place after he took office, then tried to end its use in 2022. Republicans sued, arguing the restrictions were necessary for border security. Courts had kept the rules in place. But the Biden administration announced in January that it was ending national COVID-19 emergencies, and so the border restrictions have now gone away.'
'Biden has said the new changes are necessary, in part because Congress has not passed immigration reform in decades.'
'The Biden administration has put into place a series of new policies cracking down on illegal crossings. The administration says it's trying to stop people from paying smuggling operations to make a dangerous and often deadly journey.'
'Now there will be strict consequences. Migrants caught crossing illegally will not be allowed to return for five years and can face criminal prosecution if they do.'
'NEW ASYLUM RULES'
'Under U.S. and international law, anyone who comes to the U.S. can ask for asylum. People from all over the world travel to the U.S-Mexico border to seek asylum. They are screened to determine whether they have a credible fear of persecution in their homeland. Their case then goes to the immigration court system to determine if they can stay in the U.S., but that process can take years. Usually they are released into the U.S. to wait out their cases.'
'The Biden administration is now turning away anyone seeking asylum who didn't first seek protection in a country they traveled through, or first applied online. This is a version of a Trump administration policy that was overturned by the courts. Advocacy groups sued to block the new rule minutes before it took effect.'
'The lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Francisco by the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies and other groups, alleges the Biden administration "doubled down" on the policy proposed by Trump that the same court rejected. The Biden administration has said its new rule is substantially different.'
'WHO'S ALLOWED IN?'
'The U.S. has said it will accept up to 30,000 people per month from Venezuela, Haiti, Nicaragua and Cuba as long as they come by air, have a sponsor and apply online first. The government also will allow up to 100,000 people from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras into the U.S. who have family here if they, too, apply online. Border officials will otherwise deport people, including turning 30,000 per month from Venezuela, Haiti, Nicaragua and Cuba who will be sent back over the border to Mexico.'
'Other migrants also may be allowed in if they apply through the CBP One app. Right now, 740 people per day have been allowed in using the app, which is being increased to 1,000 per day.'
'WHAT ABOUT FAMILIES?'
'Families crossing the border illegally will be subject to curfews and the head of household will have to wear an ankle monitoring bracelet. Immigration officials will try to determine within 30 days whether a family can stay in the U.S. or be deported. Usually the process would take years.'
'The Biden administration considered detaining families until they cleared initial asylum screenings but opted instead for the curfews, which will run from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. and begin soon in Baltimore; Chicago; Newark, New Jersey; and Washington, D.C., according to a U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information was not intended to be public. Families who do not appear for their screening interviews will be picked up by immigration authorities and deported.'
'OVERCROWDING'
'Border Patrol stations are meant to house migrants temporarily and don't have capacity to hold the volume of people coming. Some stations are already too crowded. As a result, agents began releasing migrants into the U.S. with instructions to appear at an immigration office within 60 days or face deportation.'
'Agents were told to begin releases in any area where holding facilities were at 125% capacity or the average time in custody exceeded 60 hours. They also were told to start releases if 7,000 migrants were taken into custody across the entire border in any one day.'
'That's already happened, with some 10,000 people taken into custody on Tuesday. This could create problems for Biden administration officials trying to crack down on those entering the country.'
'Florida filed a lawsuit claiming the releases violate an earlier court ruling. Late Thursday, a federal judge agreed and at least temporarily halted the administration's plan for releases. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement that it would comply with the court order, while also calling it a "harmful ruling that will result in unsafe overcrowding ... and undercut our ability to efficiently process and remove migrants."
'MIGRATION HUBS'
'U.S. officials plan to open 100 regional migration hubs across the Western Hemisphere, where people can seek placement in other countries, including Canada and Spain.'
'There will be hubs in Colombia and Guatemala, but it's not clear where others will be or when they will be up and running.'
___
Associated Press Writers Rebecca Santana in Washington and Elliot Spagat in San Diego contributed to this report.
Thank you Fern for the light you shed on complicated immigration issues. You bring a lot to the table, always.
Good to see you, Pat. Thank you.
So well said. As an immigrant myself I salute you and your grandparents. it takes great resolve and determination and courage to follow the arduous even dangerous path of leaving one's birth country, leaving family and friends. Only the most resolute, the most driven, the true strivers choose to do so. Given the choice between a PhD and a striver, I would back the striver every time. The USA did not become strong because of its PhDs but because of its immigrant strivers. Today's immigration policies and thinking have lost sight of this sadly. This I have observed in my researches in New York City and elsewhere. BTW I cam here to study for a PhD!
Every single person in this country is a product of immigrants. None of mine could speak English either, it was a trial for all of them (members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, they walked with handcarts over 1,000 miles to join the Church in what became the Utah territory...the Church members had left the country as they received NO protection for freedom of religion (homes and property burned, people..including the President and Prophet, murdered). Our country has always welcomed immigrants and must continue. Millions of jobs are available and if immigrants were welcomed, they could fill those positions.
On another topic, "Clarence Thomas Can’t Undermine the Legitimacy of the Supreme Court Fast Enough (Opinion piece by Jamelle Bouie in the New York Times) "Barring a Franklin Roosevelt-like run of election victories, the only option Democrats have to rein the court in as a tool of the most reactionary forces in our society is to try to change its size and structure. The necessary first step toward those and other reforms is to undermine the court’s legitimacy, to knock it off its pedestal and remove some of its mystique.
And if the final result is a court that is much weaker than it has been in recent history — a court that can’t claim total control over the meaning of the Constitution — then that is something to celebrate. The Supreme Court is imperious, a fickle friend to justice. It would be better, in the end, to remove it as much as possible from the decisions that shape our lives, rather than to leave it with a leading role in the affairs of we, the people." https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/12/opinion/clarence-thomas-supreme-court-legitimacy.html
Thank you Heather.
“We are…a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws.”
The GOP : " We are & always have been, a God - ordained nation of White Protestant Christians, blah - blah - blah, yadda - yadda ". We want bridges, the GOP want walls, & walls to reinforce those walls. Guard towers, drones, ARMED GUARDS. Where would it end ?
"We are......a nation of ... Christians".
Oh Yeah. Family Values.
Grab 'em by the P*****Y to show your obedience to the Lord and your loyalty to the Republican Party.
Mike - I'll go you one better : Bang an underaged child to bring 'em closer to GAWWWWWWD. Extra points if they're related. Keep it in the family
Daniel, I couldn’t “like” it, but the rough country humor (black), while it made me flinch, made me smile at your precision.
I've been exposed to redneck culture more than I REALLY care to admit. I still prefer George Carlin & Richard Pryor to stuff like Hee Haw.
George Carlin wrote the bible I read.
You must be referring to Matt Goetz. Yep.
For as long as there are "others" to blame Daniel. It's always "those others" you know. In those same tiny minds and anger motivation prone / susceptible types who do nothing more than to blame others for their irrational fears there will always be others ; Irish, Asians, Mexicans, Central American hordes, and of course the favorite whipping post, our beautifully tanned and much emulated Americans of African origin. Every single immigrant wave was met with high degrees of contempt, discrimination, and revulsion by some percentage of small minds and hearts, but never any determinate majority, to our ever credit, for the most part. It's not irrational to say we cannot open our borders to the entire world; we simply don't have the industry anymore to support decent jobs that provide for self sufficiency, *growth, decent standard of livings, and hopeful futures. The "free trade" lobby, crony capitalists, and chamber of commerce types gave away our industries, the engines and laboratories of innovation, decent jobs, and hopeful futures for short term profit satisfaction - ignoring completely the long term costs, which is precisely where we find ourselves the past two decades or more. Crony capitalism is a virus that consumes it's host and that is exactly what has played out and is still in play behind the scenes of much of the chaos we've been existing through. The "free traders" and allies who care only about short term profit, failed miserably in "playing out the whole film" so to speak, or long term scenarios/consequences (or didn't care to), said more plainly. When considered that way if you will, the short term money interest parties that lobbied and enabled politicians to buy in, become easier to see. Ask yourself who gained or stood to gain from wholesale, irresponsible 'free trade' for any and all policies ? Fast track free trade agreements failed us miserably and cratered out the greater center of our country and glorified and profited the coasts, east, west, and south. Consider that, and you've solved "why" mainly the greater center of the country is nearly in full revolt; anger, resentment, and despise of democrats and liberals in particular. The gop has harnessed that anger and resentment under their 'tents' and in their coded language, easily blamed all of it on democrats in general - despite whether it's true or not. Democrats avoid the discussion, but guess who's selling their version of facts ?
Pretty soon the " others " will be : Children borne out of wedlock, the working poor & middle class, people whose native language isn't English, senior citizens, secular humanists. ad infinitum. They remind me of another group who dealt in HATE SPEECHES, BOOK - BURNING, tribalism, & myriad other things. Likely while using their Evangelical faith to justify their deflections.
"When they came for the trade unionists . . ."
D4N: Two things.
You describe the story well. We sent away the sources of jobs and income - setting the stage for an angry class of disenfranchised voters who now have become ultra whacko right wingers. Haters. Of others. People who demonize them. They are demoralized and furious. And I would be too. Sadly, you are also right about those responsible for this self destructive scenario - Democrats like Bill Clinton. NAFTA is his monstrous legacy.
Second, I appreciate what you write. But please consider using paragraphs with spacing. This old brain has difficulty processing a large black of print. But please keep writing!
Bill Alstrom - "D4N: Two things. ... You describe the story well. ... Second, I appreciate what you write. But please consider using paragraphs with spacing. "
I second that emotion.
(FWIW: it is done by the "shift/Enter" combination.)
On FB yes: you need to use shift/enter to make paragraphs, because enter=send. On Substack, it doesn't. Just hit enter twice to create a new paragraph as you go. Sometimes on a roll I tend to write en block. When I do, I try to remember to go back and find the paragraph breaking points. It does make reading easier to comprehend, especially online.
Thanks for that. I have just hit the space bar to the end of the line to try to make a break. I'll try this.
Great Walls Of Text tend to be off putting, even if they jibe with my worldview almost 200 %.
I voted for Ross Perot.
He could hear that “sucking” sound of jobs going to Mexico” and everyone thought he was nuts.
But?
He was right.
Heather, as usual, gives out incredibly powerful and true words.
Unless you are Native American, or First Nation you come from immigrants or slaves. Some of might have a little Native American DNA but most do not. Both of my parents families came in the mid 1700's. Still immigrants, my father's family were Menomonie and came to avoid forced military service and for the good farm land. My mother 's family also came for the good farm land. It was really tough to own land in Europe (and most of Asia) but all you needed in the US was hard work and community. We often forget the community part but it was the social safety net of the day. In today's world we need hard work, education, community and an effective safety net. Basic to all of this is a system of laws.
Dave Smucker - "Both of my parents families came in the mid 1700's."
My family has also been a here for a good bit. They first came to North America in the early/mid 1600s as Fur traders/"Kings Daughters" to Quebec (New France) and to the Caribbean Plantations in chains as guests of Oliver Cromwell. The latest members arrived in the mid 1700s with the Scot/Irish migration.
It, therefore, is very difficult for me to understand the anti-immigration position.
Yep. Back when there were fur bearing animals left in NA.
Mostly gone now.
Mike S, isn't that how Capitalism is supposed to work?
Very efficiently, yes...
There might be a little more to this. The agrarian myth based on land gave rights to folks that completely obscured the original inhabitants. A man with land was a voting man. A man with land was a rugged individualist, even before the cowboy. Capitalism took root, but many of the values of democracy were established with these first immigrants and their land, the communities they lived in, and the work they did.
The problem with modern immigration law is that it reflects an outdated concept of what a country is - a geographic area bounded by impenetrable borders and containing people who share a common culture, speak a common language, and are, for the most part, ethnically homogeneous. This is not the nature of the modern nation-state. With global travel, global commerce, and increased blurring of traditionally-defined ethnic groups, the idea that individual countries should be striving by force of law to keep outsiders out (and by extension, insiders in) is increasingly irrelevant.
And you have to wonder if we EVER had a nation-state like that. In the late 19th and 20th centuries Irish and Italian immigrants were scorned, not to mention how we locked out anyone Jewish and fleeing Hitler much longer than we should have. Some even claimed that all these people were not "white."
Just what I was thinking….add to that the Chinese who immigrated via the west coast, not to mention the forced “immigration” (snark) of African Americans, or those indentured servants from, as I understand it, mostly northern European countries/England. Some came willingly—even eagerly, some out of desperation and some by force. All these folks slammed into an already populated country and proceeded to overrun and root out the indigenous population…a shameful legacy. It is not easy to blend various cultures, mindsets, values and beliefs into a choherent—and ginormous!—country. And yet here we are squabbling over it still…. A week or so ago I stumbled across this org that is studying the cultural/value schisms in this country….I found it very interesting, ya’ll might too: https://nationhoodlab.org/
This an excellent, nuanced view of the United States, so thank you for sharing. A few years ago, we were in Pocatello, Idaho, near where the Transcontinental Railroad met, and I encountered a teacher from (I think) a community college who told me that the Chinese rail road workers lived underground in Pocatello. Looking for some Chinese food, we ventured into town and found that this was an a persistent local rumor. There was never an underground city there, although some workers may have hidden underground. It struck me as astonishing that the white folk legend persisted into the 21st century.
The transcontinental railroad met in my state, Utah. Promontory Point, where every year the placing of the golden spike which commemorated the completion of the railroad occurred. I've been there several times (live about 50 miles away). Utah also had camps where Asian-appearing people were incarcerated during WWII, sorry to say.
I didn't know that, but I think it's healthy that we acknowedge our history. When we were in Idaho, we saw ruts left by wagons on the Oregon Trail. It gave me chills.
Looks like an interesting link. I had a friend send me a part of that lead article.
Exactly! My Norwegian grandfather considered Italians to be non-white. When my mother told me that as a teenager, I was so shocked.
My father, raised in Texas by people that were former confederates, was actually less prejudiced than my first-generation Norwegian mother.
I remember my mother listening to radical right-wing radio even back then (anyone remember George Putnam and Joe Pine in L.A.??) and she'd rail against immigrants and my father would say in irritation, "Millie, your PARENTS WERE IMMIGRANTS!". :D
It was all too bizarre to me. Thank the gods I didn't inherit anyone's whack-a-doodle racial ideas.
That concept of a country has NEVER applied to the United States.
This is true in many places. In France you have to be born French to be French. There's no hyphenated words like here Native-American, Black-American, Chinese-American, etc. If you're not born French, you don't belong. Hate and unacceptance is all over the world.
Friendly corrections: indigenous peoples are not hyphenates and there is no such designation as Black-American, though there are people who identify as African-American. As a colonizer, France has many citizens from other nations and heritages. There are few, if any, countries that deny people the right to become naturalized citizens, including the very homogeneous nation of Japan.
The difference between other countries and the US is that everyone other than the indigenous peoples is an immigrant.
You're right, this idea of keeping outsiders out by force of law doesn't seem relevant at all anymore.
Yes, we cannot be isolationists any longer and those here in the US who aspire to be a nation like Hungary need to get the message. Biden is doing a remarkable job in his foreign policy, with Kamala's help.
Republicans will NEVER agree to immigration reform. It is the albatross that they can hang around the neck of Dems til hell freezes over. MAGAts should do a little genealogy research and find out that their ancestry is rife with immigrants, including the head MAGAt, chump. Wish we had sent Frederick packing a second time, after he came and was deported.
Hi Jeri , The group you refer to and their wannabes are far too busy acquiring library cards, not to read research and learn something, but to scour the shelves for "offensive" material. If they won't accept their own histories which may be alluded to in law school CRT classes, they will deny the negative implications in their family trees or shrubs or ground cover, whichever applies. God bless the youngsters in the current turmoil, I hope their world isn't any darker.
Ed : A lot of Gen X, Y & Z ( ? ) want to leave the conservative BS that their parents gulped down behind.
fyi, I read recently that Gen A is now the moniker for the current , youngest generation - and no one knows the year of it's end date. I wonder? What will be the event(s) which will harken a Gen B.
Thankfully, they overwhelmingly oppose the reactionary conservative vitriol
I remember when it was basically hippies / flower - children & the Establishment. Nonconformists & " good kids " with short hair, churchgoing, flag - saluting, unquestioning, non - rebellious.
Hmm. Good point. “They won’t accept their own histories” adds substance to my premise they must hate themselves, so denial is their protection.
Yes, and you may remember that during the former president's term and the covid times,
"Our testing is so much bigger and more advanced than any other country (we have done a great job on this!) that it shows more cases. Without testing, or weak testing, we would be showing almost no cases. Testing is a double edged sword - Makes us look bad, but good to have!!!"
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 15, 2020
Turn your back on It, It disappears. Most children intuit this.
OMG! I just had a flashback of his presser during Covid about drinking bleach! As if the pandemic wasn't bad enough, this buffoon who was elected president made it even worse! Today I am more angry at the fools that voted for him.
Yep.
The problem with America is Americans.
No doubt.
All bitten by faux news...rabid.
Rabid and poisonous. Rattle rattle bite and slither.
Republicans put up walls of their own, be they physical or mental / psychological. & they couldn't give a wet slap about LEARNING, because they think that they know EVERYTHING when they are myopic.
Ha!! Perhaps by chance you saw Brian Klaas’ substack today?
https://open.substack.com/pub/brianklaas/p/knowingness-and-the-politics-of-ignorance?utm_source=direct&r=2xpfg&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Excellent read! Thanks!
PS I had to look up “wet slap” idiom. Urban dictionary meaning is the first to pop up 😳
Thank you, Christy. I'll look at that later. My soul is still hovering roughly 3 feet above me. 👻
😂🤣
And yet there are so, so many dead albatrosses with "GOP" address labels on them. We need to do some albatross hanging ourselves. And unlike the Democrats, they richly deserve it.
The Cubans have put several compensation proposals on the table for those who left Cuba during Castro’s revolution. Their descendants, who are now Florida Cubans, have so far refused to consider them. Rubio/Cruz et al prefer keeping the base riled up and voting Republican to resolving the issue and lifting the American imposed embargo on the Cuban people.
It is a bit astonishing to me that the Republicans can weaponize immigration in a country where an exceedingly vast majority are immigrants themselves. Do these people despise themselves?
Actually some are hungry, some are on drugs over-prescribed for pain, some refused to learn or went to inadequate schools, many had abusive parents, many got “indoctrinated” in maga churches, and all hate “Socialism” because of the bootstrap myth.
In spite of all that, many are generous, but incapable of thinking beyond their immediate acquaintances.
When we lost education and went for money as the national measure, we may have lost ourselves. The Koch brothers and their spawn haven’t worked hard to turn the middle class into serfs, but if our young voters manage to overcome and vote blue in 2024, there’s hope.
Virginia, thank you for replying to my comment.
I want to add to your comment that for everyone of these folks that you mention: “Actually some are hungry, some are on drugs over-prescribed for pain, some refused to learn or went to inadequate schools, many had abusive parents, many got “indoctrinated” in maga churches, and all hate “Socialism” because of the bootstrap myth””
there are just as many from the same circumstances (except “maybe” the indoctrinated ones) that have not succumbed to fascism.
Introspection (being one of the most magnificent of abilities of the human brain) of ourselves and our tribe/culture and society might be a way out of the morass we’re in. Seeing oneself as a victim of circumstances out of our control is disempowering. Feeling powerless can create anger, which is often blinds us to the truth and, unattentuated can lead to violence. Democrats believe in empowering all people. The GOP need their guns.
Virginia and Christy, thank you for sharing your insights. I am disgusted that so many self-righteous people who think they are progressive persist in demeaning every person they think below their level. And that entire threads along that line keep reappearing here. I wonder why they indulge in the same behavior they look down on. As for the people who cling to a trumpian perspective, I seek to understand what's behind their needs, and keep open the possibility of connection where there are commonalities. Where that's not possible, at least not add to their sense of disenfranchisement- by focussing on what we ARE accomplishing, and what IS possible. We are making headway.
Your last two sentences trouble me, though. Though I recognize that you are trying to show the perception gap between extremes, it reads more like the tropes in the media. For one thing, it divides all of America into two camps with no nuances. Democrats are not saints and here are a good many of them who are just as interested in power and control and "empowering all people".
Then there is "The GOP need their guns." Who do you mean by "GOP"? Do you mean everyone on the conservative side of the political spectrum? Yet there are a number of Republicans who are working for gun control and who speak up for social goods. Or does your "GOP" only apply to the extreme right wing of something that can no longer be called "Grand Old Party", and probably doesn't even qualify to be called "Republican" as the term has been historically been understood?
Too often we fall back on the tropes fed us by social media as well as some MSM as much as the people we decry. It's one thing to try to understand, another to create labels and call it done. You mention the impact feeling powerless can have. Aren't we displaying some of those same traits when we keep dividing people into two neat halves?
The "GOP" no longer exists except as an outdated slogan, and the Republican party has fractured. What we see in WaDC does not necessarily reflect what is happening at the state and local level, where we meet real people, not media reflections of tropes.
My story is the story of America. In 1909 my grandmother and grandfather and families, peasants, think Fiddler on the roof, escaped the tzar and Cossacks in Ukraine/Russia and migrated through Ellis Island. My other grandmother from Lithuania who had poor vision and afraid she would not be allowed in, found her way to Canada and, so the story goes, walked across the border into Minnesota where my father was born in 1913. None spoke English or were educated. But the children born in USA were all educated and now are mostly college graduates. And employed. It’s a different world today and recognizing that we continue to be a safe haven is critical for our government. And this is critical: the USA is
responsible for some migration because of our own roles in central and South American countries’ wars and unrest. And Vietnam and the Middle East, including Afghanistan and Iraq. Countries we have a part in destruction and loss. And exploitation. It’s impossible to seal off borders. And irresponsible to ignore Dreamers. Part of the problem is how to humanely address the border crossings, asylum and post crossing. The key is Humanely and Humanity This is a world issue. In 2016 Madrid, Spain, a giant banner was erected across the city hall building, “Refugees Welcome.” By 2018, the banner was gone. As long as we have wars and poverty we will have migration. Start with compassion and kindness, address human needs of violence, disease, hunger (called food insecurity) stop exporting weapons and wars. There will never be a wall high enough and strong enough to stop the human needs that force people to seek safer and better lives through migration.
I have a friend whose grandfather came into the US via the Canada/Minnesota route. It took him 3 tries.
Persistence. I didn’t know about the different entry points. People emigrate from their own countries because of need. And survival.
3 grandparents came from Europe. Paternal grandfather from the Ukraine & grandmother from Lithuania around 1918 to escape persecution but were not practicing Jews. My father fought in WW2 & now what our fathers fought against is being promoted by the GOP. What women have been fighting for is being banished by the GOP. Hopefully the grandchildren & great grandchildren will restore the promise of the USA
Similar stories, Carole. My ancestors were/are Jewish but not orthodox. That’s why they escaped. Not so much poverty as the historic antisemitism and violence against the Jews. Persecution. Most of those who stayed perished in the Holocaust. Some went to Israel. Still a few remain in Ukraine, but I’m not in touch.
Similar. My father never admitted to being Jewish until he was a very old man. He grew up poor in LA during the depression & fought in WW2. I am wondering given the antisemitism of the time if he was ashamed or wanted to hide his heritage. My mother was a baptist. How much did he want to fit in & how common was circumcision at that time.
Hiding. As a child I lived in suburban areas as a minority. I have always been a minority who can hide. It’s human to avoid pain, especially when we have no power to stop it. The human condition.
And so many minorities have come out of hiding are are bearing the pain made worst by fearful people making inhumane rules & regulations. Especially so here in MT.
Thankyou for such a thoughtful reply
Great story. Thanks for sharing.
Not sure where addiction fits into all this, but the US provides the "demand," and the "supply" comes from Mexico and other south-of -the-border countries.
We need immigrants.
We don't have enough people to do the jobs we have now.
Talk to farmers who want a path to citizenship for the immigrants they hire.
I have never understood why where you're from, what color your skin is or how much money you have, makes you less of a human being?
Maybe it's because I understand what it's like to have nothing. To be cold, scared and homeless.
Maybe it's because the people with the least helped me to survive.
Maybe because it only takes a few minutes of conversation to understand these people don't want anything but what we all want, a chance to live a life without having to worry about what's going to happen tomorrow.
those same farmers will still vote for those that do nothing for them
k.paschal,
"those same farmers will still vote for those that do nothing for them"
Not really true. Republicans, even now, are working to pass their TRILLION dollar "FARM BILL" while simultaneously whining and crying about "Biden's huge spending".
Just google "Farm Bill". Trump passed a HUGE one. And, Pubs are trying to pass another update.
When it comes to Welfare for White People (the Farm Bill) Republicans know better than to mess with it. Nearly 100% of recipients are white since there are a vanishingly small number of minority owned farms.
Are you kidding! Do you see the government subsidies these wealthy farmers are getting? Of course they vote for them.
Just as we here in the U.K. need immigrants. We are, and always have been a 'melting pot' nation. But many people are scared of anyone who is 'other'. I have Irish in my family history, a great ,great, great grandfather who came from Ireland back in the 1840's. Our farmers too can't get enough workers to pick crops, and would benefit from ordered immigration which currently appears unavailable due to lack of government commonsense, because they(politicians) play to the unfounded fears of a vocal minority. We live in a strange world lacking in empathy for our fellow man.😥
I am reading Under the warmth of the Sun by Isabele Wilkerson now. So poignant is the migration of non white people from the south to the north the beginning of the 1900s. I wish this book was required reading for all.
That book, “The Warmth of Other Suns” changed my entire thinking and life.
Like most Americans my great grandparents on my fathers side came to America from Germany for a better life. It was the land of freedom and opportunity. My grandfather on my mothers side was an Irish orphan in America. The present day people at the border are doing the same looking for opportunities to better their situations. Trying to flee gangs, get their children away from the drugs etc. so why is it so hard for the gop to show some compassion and agree to work on some type of reform rather than just complaining?
It’s their fear of change in a world that is constantly expecting progress/change. We know plenty of people like that Christine and they have always been part of the fabric of America. What drove my grandparents to come to America was the dream of a better life. If you talk with any of the current new emigres they’ll say the same thing. Their pathway is fraught...too much so. Our country largely benefits from their presence. Why wouldn’t we welcome them with open arms? Why don’t we have a modern immigration program in place yet that is logical and responsive to the needs of our country and people who really want to come here? Who’s stopping this from happening and what are their reasons? This isn’t a difficult problem to solve. We need to keep electing more Democrats across the board because they’ll get this job done sooner and correctly.
If it weren't for immigration, our age demographic would look much closer to Japan, China, Italy. These countries are facing a much more urgent crisis of a top-heavy populace; too few workers supporting too many pensioners. The US is avoiding/postponing this social security crisis largely on the back of immigration. It's highly short sighted to pillory them for filling in the ranks that the native birthrate is failing to supply.
I firmly believe that the anti woman legislation that we're seeing is to forcibly produce more white babies.
Exactly, Ally. “Justice” Alito’s opinion included a footnote regarding a CDC study…..” they were in demand for a child, whereas the domestic supply of infants relinquished at birth or within the first month of life and available to be adopted had become virtually nonexistent.”
Agreed. I have thought that from the beginning. No one wants to say it out loud.
Ally, I don't disagree with you: that is quite likely the unspoken driver, alongside the more obvious one of misogyny. The problem is that by and large the women most affected by this legislation are not white women- who often have access to the networks & resources to bypass the legislation. It is already black and brown women who are most affected, and will be more so.
So the legislators pushing these laws aren't thinking out the long-term consequences: there might be more white babies born than would be otherwise, but there will be way more non-white babies born.
The tragedy is that for both these groups, both child and mother mortality will increase. Society will end up picking up the costs, no matter how you define and measure those costs. Not least is the impact on the health of families, women in particular, on social infrastructure such as schools and access to medical care, housing, etc.
Given the fact that a substantial majority of Americans do not support this kind of legislation, those laws are not likely to last. But even a decade of disruption in reproductive rights will create problems that will affect American culture and economy for decades after that.
The best that can be said about this anti-woman legislation is that it is unbelievably short-sighted.
the reason is that immigration and border enforcement is too good of a wedge issue with which to rile up the base and make them angry and fearful so they will vote
This is exactly why the anti abortion issue was manufactured. They needed a cause to bind their people.
Another wedge issue:
“ Defeated on same-sex marriage, the religious right went searching for an issue that would re-energize supporters and donors. The campaign that followed has stunned political leaders across the spectrum.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/16/us/politics/transgender-conservative-campaign.html?
My understanding is that they refuse to work toward some kind of reasonable solution, because immigration is one of the ways they can keep their base riled up. If you don't want to govern, but only want to hold on to your power, you don't give up a talking point that keeps your supporters voting for you.
Yes - add that to guns and abortion, and they’ve got a trifecta.
Because complaining is so much more satisfying.
And so easy.
Yes. It's so much easier to sit in the peanut gallery lobbing insults and threats, than to get into the game and play.
Applies to some folks on this side too.
It's much easier to destroy something than to create something!
Christine - Compassion from the GOP ? that's like expecting to find stolen jewelry / pirate treasure in the wreck of a garbage scow. WHICH IS BEING OVERRUN BY CORAL.
...a million miles below the oceans floor!
There is more than a little irony in the Great Replacement fear. After all, the original inhabitants of this continent found themselves "replaced" by a flood of immigrants from Europe, many fleeing persecution back home. So today's conservatives are saying, "Don't let the new Huddled Masses do to us what we did to others. Justice and morality be damned."
The new Golden Rule is "Don't let others do unto you what you did unto others."
My ex-husband's motto was, "Do unto others before they do unto you." - part of the reason he became my "Ex."
Our nation has treated immigrants from all points on the globe frightfully and still they come, believing in the prospect of a better life and freedom from tyranny. And, look where we are a few hundred years later. There is not a single wave of immigrants that have weakened our nation. Some have integrated more seamlessly than others, probably related to the level of education they bring with them. I had a medical school classmate who arrived amongst the "boat people" from Vietnam in the 1970s as an early teen. In a short decade, she had reached the pinnacle of achievement in our higher educational system from a place where she did not even speak the language. First generation Americans enter the public school system and have a legitimate shot at achieving their dreams, even if their immigrant parents struggle to establish themselves. We know this rhetoric about "replacement theory" is nonsense and it's horribly insulting to those who arrived more recently than the rest of us. Remaining calm while they utter such bilious hatred takes every ounce of forbearance in me.
I would bet not one of the Republicans in Congress are true American. If my history learning serves me, this country was built on immigration, dating back to before 1776.
Columbus, Magellan, and all the others that sailed the ocean blue, came from England, France, and other European countries to the “land of opportunity”. The only difference now is the people coming to our southern border are walking from South America to this land of better opportunities for them, and their families.
Who are we, as Americans, to turn them away? Why are we turning them away? Why did TFG “build the wall”? (Supposedly).
We have no right turning anyone away! None! We are all immigrants. We all have ancestry that came from another country. My ancestry is from France, England, and Scotland. They were barrel-makers. Came to this country and became farmers, and I was born, and raised, on a farm.
Now, just a note in the COVID vaccinations. My late wife, and my daughter whom we were living with when COVID came into this country, refused to get the vaccine. They listened to all the negativity on Facebook and Twitter from all the “more knowledgeable than doctors” people, and refused to get the vaccines. I haven’t had the vaccine because I couldn’t get them to take me to get it.
My point here is that as long as people listen, and believe, all the crap they hear, and read, on all the negative social media platforms, and on television networks the likes of FOX Network, then we will never totally rid this country of this terrible killer.
Dan, I'm sorry for your losses. Despite the large drop in case numbers, COVID-19 remains the leading cause of death in the US for most age groups (for school-aged kids, it is gun violence). That said, most people have some form of immunity now, either from vaccination (by far the safest option), having COVID, or a combination of both. I attended a CDC call and learned that as of April, 2023, roughly 96.4% of all people who had genomically sequenced samples taken in US had some form of immunity to COVID. You can get vaccinated at most pharmacies. Most visiting nurse associations will do in-home vaccinations. Any unvaccinated person over 6 years old only needs one bivalent injection to be considered fully vaccinated now. If you are over 65, it is recommended you get an additional bivalent dose, as long as it has been at least 4 months since your last COVID-19 vaccination.
Cases were underreported from the get go and now that worldwide tracking has stopped it’s now impossible to get a grip on the true numbers of current cases. At least wastewater testing continues, but that provides me little assurance that it’s not going to slam us like before with a different variant and that the country is any better prepared to handle it. I agree vaccinations are crucial and everyone should continue getting them. I realize that falls on deaf ears for many people and I just don’t understand it. And I think there needs to be more acknowledgment and robust discussion about the mental toll this has taken on the world.
Steve, how many people had genomic sequenced samples taken?
Unfortunately USA, Australia and Europe (and others) are between the proverbial rock and a hard place. We have been far too successful as a species, in temporarily overcoming the limits that nature would normally put on us. Our discovery and profligate use of fossil fuels, has permitted an massive leap in human population numbers. Now with the climatic changes, this use has caused, we have a "wicked" problem - a very "wicked" problem. It's not just the lifestyle opportunists, but the hordes who can't get enough food because of warming, and their number is increasing. For those in a state of terminal disbelief about this ... read Vaclav Smil's "How The World Really Works"
Oh, and bye the way .. that border fence screws up the movement and migration patterns of animals on the border. But, hey, why do we care .. they don't contribute to the economy (or do they??).
Hugh,
"Our discovery and profligate use of fossil fuels, has permitted an massive leap in human population numbers. Now with the climatic changes, this use has caused, we have a "wicked" problem - a very "wicked" problem. "
Hugh, two human inventions conspire to wipe us all out AND all of our forests.
1) Roughly 10,000 years ago farming was introduced. So began the large scale removal of forests in favor of dense human population centers supported by former forests. Just look at google earth view of the "Fertile Crescent", a formerly forested and lush area of the world that is now desert after having cleared all the trees in that region for farming. Aye!
2) Fossil fuels and tractors which ushered in even MORE clearing of forest and even LARGER human populations.
Back in the 1980's, when I first graduated from college, I went to work in Mobil's very nice "Dallas Research Lab". There, we worked on "enhanced oil production" techniques which, honestly, was really interesting stuff. We even patented a new method of getting formerly impossible to produce oil out of the Athabasca tar sands. I was a rock star! I left when oil price dropped to $8 per barrel and Mobil started firing all my friends. Figured, why wait around for the tap on the shoulder.......so......I went someplace more safe: Kodak (ah well, poor judgement cannot be blamed on my ability to see the future, which, is zero).
I thought I was HELPING the world at Mobil. But, now? Well, we cleared all that forest up there in Athabasca to, yep, produce oil. All that oil? Well, we produced it so that we could clear more forest in the Amazon to turn into farms with tractors running on diesel.
I figure that this will continue until the last drop of oil is produced and then?
Better be ready with a method of getting food. Because, the trucks won't run and neither will the tractors.
But? Good news, perhaps, slowly, our forests will return. IF we preserve some seeds and acorns.
Just a "Ray of Sunshine" for your morning.
:-)
Mother Earth may shrug us off as an immune response to a virus that is sickening its host….maybe there will be pockets of humans that survive, living close to and in rhythm with the Earth…and eventually all the technological wonders will just be tales passed down the future generations… Question is, would we learn and do better in our next iteration?
Barbara,
Perhaps we should spend some time on a Native American reservation to learn how to live without oil and in harmony with our natural surroundings?
IF they still have those skills after years of persecution, murder and death. Who knows?
Yes, there are those communities world wide who do so already. A friend recently returned from So American and he spoke of the small villages along the major rivers & how they were true communities and mostly lived off/in harmony with the surrounding lands—at least as he observed in his time there. Where I live there are a number of tribal reservations—I know they are surviving, if not thriving, amidst the “dominant” culture. I know I am very aware that I live on ancestral Wiyot land. Locally there is a “land back” movement that has returned some lands back into the hands of the tribes and, for instance, if it is within the limits of our county’s largest city, they are using the properties ceded for use in community-wide supportive services. Here’s some info: https://nonprofitquarterly.org/an-indigenous-community-land-trust-rises-making-land-back-a-reality/
Barbara. Thank you for the link. Aye. I see another reference to genocide here. 😳
I'm second generation born in the U.S. All four of my grandparents came here in steerage from eastern Europe in the 1910s without two nickels to rub together. They got a foothold in a new country and with a new language by staying with relatives and then moving up the ladder. They learned English by reading the newspaper every day. Their children (my parents' generation) became doctors, lawyers, accountants. They fought in WWII. My dad went to college on the GI Bill. My generation continued the trend; taxpayers all. I went to CUNY and have been working and paying into Social Security since I was 14. So, I guess according to DeSantis, my family is a bunch of takers. Bless his heart. And you know what THAT means, right?
Why, yes I do, good sir.
When my husband and I visited Cuba this past March, we saw hundreds of Cubans at the airport who, sadly and at great expense, were there to take a charter plane to Venezuela. They planed to walk from there through Mexico to the American border.
The United States has imposed the longest embargo in history (60 years) on the Cubans, making it impossible for them to stay in their own country and make a living. We forbid other countries to trade with Cuba. They are a desperately poor people.
This is purely political. The Cubans in Florida would not vote Republican if the Republicans lifted the embargo despite the fact that over 60% of Cubans living there today we’re not alive at the time of Castro’s revolution. Under Obama cruise ships were again allowed to return to Cuba and the economy there improved.
When Trump came into office, he not only replaced the embargoes that Obama had lifted, but imposed 30 more.
American policy is causing Cubans to leave their country and try to come to ours. We could end their emigration tomorrow by lifting the embargo and letting them make a living in their own country.
Cuban emigration is a problem of our own making.
Cuba is 90 miles from the USA, but for some American lawmakers it could be on the Moon. For a short time, it was open to tourism, without a government guide. I was a member of the Federation of American Poets and attended the International Festival of Poetry in Havana Cuba in 2017, reading our poetry in Spanish and English. And experiencing and visiting amazing arts and artists. Adults and children. Poets from all over the world participated in the festival. Besides being an amazing experience, staying in “ Casa Particulares” bed and breakfasts, we traveled the city and countryside and met artists and creatives and farmers and entrepreneurs. And government officials. We witnessed the effects of years of deprivation and the boycotts of American trade. A broken toilet required a specific mechanism about $2, that could easily be imported from USA, but USA import not allowed. Instead a six month wait, imported from France. Water systems and utilities routinely malfunctioned or didn’t work because imported parts were on order. Crumbling buildings built with cement and sand stood next to older structures built before boycotts and shortages. How governments watch people suffer through boycotts and political posturing is unconscionable. Instead of exporting Democracy, we drove Cuba to rely on Russia for alliances in education and medicine. Compassion is not Americans’ strong suit.
I have often, and for a very long time, countered the right-wing garbage about “immigration” with the fact that, unless you are indigenous to this land (ie Native American), you were born of immigrants. So STFU with the anti-immigration rhetoric. “Pilgrim” is just another synonym for “Immigrant” as far as I’m concerned. I’m so tired of the right-wing garbage. My ancestors were Irish and German. Still immigrants…
Although my family and I emigrated from Europe to the New World, after WII, so we didn't face some of the hatred that immigrants from the Central and Southern hemispheres do, it was still quite a challenge for my parents to leave everyone and everything they knew behind and start a new life with two small children in tow. To embark on such a major journey takes determination and strength many Americans couldn't imagine mustering. It is usually larger social forces that make people have to leave their home countries, often caused by US policies. We not only need agreements between the countries involved in the immigration issue, we also, as a country have to rethink policies that cause the upheavals in our neighboring countries, such as drug policies. The US is largely responsible for the rise of drug cartels in other countries, because we insist on criminalizing substance use and addiction, instead of addressing the problem as a public health crisis.
Thank you, Dr. Heather, for another late night newsletter, mentioning the end of the Covid emergency designation, and providing simple explanations of Title 42 vs Title 8 immigration policies.
Hope that maybe you'll get to sleep in a bit later than typical! Rest well. 🍎