Newcomers

The immigration issues facing America have been part of our national history from its beginning. They are not new. Nor are the struggles to accept new people in our lives. The new neighbor – Will they fit in? Will they accept me? Will they be noisy? So many questions and fears of the negative.

Picture a proud American Indian, sitting stoically silent, iron-gaze forward, muttering these words:

“You say a bunch of immigrants are refusing to assimilate to your culture and are threatening your way of life?

            Man, that sucks!”  ~Anonymous

Yesterday’s blog posting talked about the ten commandments of the American Indians. Think of their culture thousands of years before the Europeans came to North America to settle it. They ‘discovered’ the New World without thinking that it was not lost, was not in need of discovering, and was not a blank slate empty of human life. There were others already here. They were the natives. Europeans were the intruders, the immigrants. They did not ask for permission to be here. They assumed the right to be here and to control the future of this place. And they did.

Each swell of incoming population from off shore is a challenge, to the newcomers and to those already here. Accepting one another. Providing space to live. Even more important, providing a procedure that offers smooth infiltration of newcomers to our midst. It is what we ought to do. It should not be fought against. That would be unnatural to the order of things: we benefited from that order; now it is the newcomer’s turn. We are the host of our land; let us be gracious and welcoming!

But no; our history has been and continues to be fraught with the opposite. We may welcome visitors among us, but not newcomers, new citizens. We are gracious to our guests but not when they become permanent. Then it is our nature to expect to define how these people will live among us, maybe even discourage them to live among us.

How rude! How unlike the Indian Commandments. And thousands of years later the commandments of the Torah, the Bible, the Koran.

What even seems more odd to me is this: Asia and Africa and South America – those huge land masses were populated by peoples for long epochs. What about them and their story? How did they treat newcomers? How are they the same or different from Europe and North America? How centrist are we in our thinking? How subtle is our upbringing that produces such self-centered results?

Something to think about. Something to deal with positively.

The American Congress says it will not deal with the immigration issue in 2014. Where do they get this idea that they are in control of this natural issue? Oh sure, they can make edicts and laws, rules and regulations. But they are not the ones who must live with the issue.

No; they do not. We do. You and I.

What should we do about it? What do you think is the right thing to do?

February 12, 2014