Seemingly innocuous, a census question was proposed for inclusion in the 2020 Census. It asked the respondent if he or she were a citizen. It would help identify how many non-citizens live among us. This datum would help marketers, researchers and demographers with a host of interesting information.
Others felt otherwise. Immigrants, for one, might feel preyed upon. Those immigrants who have come from nations of intrusive governments would feel fear and the threat of deportation. Whether they had a basis for that fear or not – lack of documentation? – they would withdraw from the census taking activity. Our nation’s population would be undercounted. Representation in our legislatures and Congress would be misaligned with the true population counts.
Now documents are available that point to a republican party strategy to deliberately undercount population to hurt democrats. Pure politics. Worse; pure party politics.
Never mind that data is inexact as to the full nature of our immigration problem, or that people need help to make healthy adjustment to a new land. Those adjustments will help them prosper and by their success, our success as a people, nation, community and economy will prosper as well.
This tawdry affair of the census is alarming. It demonstrates how self-interested ideologues continue to misrepresent and misgovern our country. The Constitution is all about a form of government that benefits all and secures all. It is about sharing the bounty of our communities, not about selfish misappropriation.
Peace on Earth and Goodwill Toward All Men.
That’s the age old objective of most societies. Yes, it is embedded in ancient religious texts, but that does not detract from its objective or its language or its purpose. Don’t we all hope for Peace on Earth? Don’t we all yearn for Goodwill Toward All Men (humankind)?
I hope so. America has long been a symbol of that hope. Immigrants come to us for security and opportunity. They have not found it in their native land. They have suffered violence, illness, poverty and humiliation at home. They seek better. They seek us.
Hopefully the tale of the ‘good Samaritan’ of the Bible will guide our nation forward? Welcome the newcomer. Show them respect and love that will make us all strong together.
To make the immigrant an enemy of America is to denude our sensibility of our own history. We are all immigrant stock. Our forefathers came here from other lands. As long as each family has been in America, it still had its first family member arrive on American soil from somewhere else. They began our family’s history here. Like others that followed for over 300 years.
Our doors are still open. Our need for this remains true to the first day of the ratified Constitution.
Lest we forget, the Constitution requires a census of all souls living within our borders every 10 years. That’s an open count for an open people. It will guarantee our open future of vast potential from all of us living here.
Shame on those who would manipulate the Constitution or the Census. Let the count begin. A true count.
June 4, 2019
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