A lot of this is a great ramble.... so ramble along.....and subject to revising.. SO - if you quote -- be sure to get a timestamp.... although this is not a wiki or a google doc so going back to previous versions is not possible, I think.
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I feel a passion for this issue. An urgency... As 2018 nears its end on December 31st... Immigration and caravans of immigrants and drownings in the Mediterranean .. are issues in the news... real and even fake... It is everywhere... with judgements and assumptions and evidence and truths and opinions... Everywhere and everywhichway...
Am I a New immigrant or an Old immigrant? Immigration - a great issue for the world with all the comings and goings of people... freely or under duress. This is about the USA -- the United States of America. My country and my place here.
Immigration has many causes and categorizing the several causes could be helpful in determining solutions.
What is an old immigrant?
What is a new immigrant?
As for the question what kind of immigrant am I, the answer is a Moderately Old immigrant from the early 1900's as distinct from an Old immigrant from the Colonial/Revolutionary period, not a person, often African, forced here to be a slave, and not a Native American. A Native American may be considered either a REALLY OLD immigrant. In this country, on this land... sometimes called a melting pot or the land of immigrants the basic reality is immigrants RULE! Certain immigrants.
It seems the United States of America with all its wonders and greatness is THE land of immigrants unlike any other country. There have been many waves of immigrants and some have been melted into "americans" and some have been less malleable. Some have chosen to remain outside the melted american... and some have been kept outside.
Whether or not we are among the melted or distinct in this radically essential "land of the immigrant" the movement of people in the world today are of the following sorts:
Pull'd
These are people who think and feel the goodness, greatness, wonder... of the US of A. They come freely and for freedom and opportunity.
Push'd
These are people who have needs and reasons to leave their lands of birth. Perhaps the economy is horribly poor and impoverishing. There are those places where regular, simple people are in danger of their lives because there is no rule of law as there is in the US of A. Such people are often women or children or young men or young women. They risk becoming slaves, essentially, to powers and forces which we would see as evil.
Another "sort" is the combination of the pull'd and the push'd. People who hope for something better then what they have where they are and think and hope the US of A is a place where this is hope and peace.
Yet another sort are those who would like to destroy the US of A... by any means possible. Terrorists and criminals.
We certainly do not want terrorists and criminals and keeping such people out is important. The question is ... how many such "bad guys" are amongst those with real needs and simple wants. I dare say there is never going to be any really 100 percent positive way of knowing who is bad and who is good/ok....
Therefore -- we can do the checking we do... and hope for the best... and know nothing is perfect... Know the good guy coming in may become bad... and the bad guy may become good. The only thing certain is that things change. People change. Change always happens and how much control we have over change is always unknown!
The UNKNOWN is one of the most real things... Along with the necessity for change - from life to death at one set of extremes to something more mundane such as from sleep to awake or from hunger to either starvation or satiation... THINGS CHANGE! And as things change our judgements about whether the changes are good or bad are unclear and they change, too. Too much coffee - bad... A lot of coffee - good?? Alcohol - none - good OR some good .. OR ???
Confusion !!!
Do we need or want immigrants? Now, earlier in our history, later... What is the optimum birth rate? Death rate? Where do immigrants fit into the calculations? How is our economy effected by too many immigrants or too few?
And what is THE HUMANE things to do? Or... if you like: The Christian thing to do?
Lots of people coming this way: those coming for a better life: economic, political.
those coming to unite with family
those coming fleeing persecution
those coming fleeing fear due to chaos.
SO -- what are we to do.... What do we citizens of the US of A really want to do relative to the various sorts of people coming here.
Chose YOUR reasons and side... On one side -- keep them out... now that I have mine... OR another side - let them in because we have enough for everyone if only we distribute and share. Or just let those we really like or need or just want.... and some accommodation will be made/engineered.
© Ken Firestein - 2020
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I feel a passion for this issue. An urgency... As 2018 nears its end on December 31st... Immigration and caravans of immigrants and drownings in the Mediterranean .. are issues in the news... real and even fake... It is everywhere... with judgements and assumptions and evidence and truths and opinions... Everywhere and everywhichway...
Am I a New immigrant or an Old immigrant? Immigration - a great issue for the world with all the comings and goings of people... freely or under duress. This is about the USA -- the United States of America. My country and my place here.
Immigration has many causes and categorizing the several causes could be helpful in determining solutions.
What is an old immigrant?
What is a new immigrant?
As for the question what kind of immigrant am I, the answer is a Moderately Old immigrant from the early 1900's as distinct from an Old immigrant from the Colonial/Revolutionary period, not a person, often African, forced here to be a slave, and not a Native American. A Native American may be considered either a REALLY OLD immigrant. In this country, on this land... sometimes called a melting pot or the land of immigrants the basic reality is immigrants RULE! Certain immigrants.
It seems the United States of America with all its wonders and greatness is THE land of immigrants unlike any other country. There have been many waves of immigrants and some have been melted into "americans" and some have been less malleable. Some have chosen to remain outside the melted american... and some have been kept outside.
Whether or not we are among the melted or distinct in this radically essential "land of the immigrant" the movement of people in the world today are of the following sorts:
Pull'd
These are people who think and feel the goodness, greatness, wonder... of the US of A. They come freely and for freedom and opportunity.
Push'd
These are people who have needs and reasons to leave their lands of birth. Perhaps the economy is horribly poor and impoverishing. There are those places where regular, simple people are in danger of their lives because there is no rule of law as there is in the US of A. Such people are often women or children or young men or young women. They risk becoming slaves, essentially, to powers and forces which we would see as evil.
Another "sort" is the combination of the pull'd and the push'd. People who hope for something better then what they have where they are and think and hope the US of A is a place where this is hope and peace.
Yet another sort are those who would like to destroy the US of A... by any means possible. Terrorists and criminals.
We certainly do not want terrorists and criminals and keeping such people out is important. The question is ... how many such "bad guys" are amongst those with real needs and simple wants. I dare say there is never going to be any really 100 percent positive way of knowing who is bad and who is good/ok....
Therefore -- we can do the checking we do... and hope for the best... and know nothing is perfect... Know the good guy coming in may become bad... and the bad guy may become good. The only thing certain is that things change. People change. Change always happens and how much control we have over change is always unknown!
The UNKNOWN is one of the most real things... Along with the necessity for change - from life to death at one set of extremes to something more mundane such as from sleep to awake or from hunger to either starvation or satiation... THINGS CHANGE! And as things change our judgements about whether the changes are good or bad are unclear and they change, too. Too much coffee - bad... A lot of coffee - good?? Alcohol - none - good OR some good .. OR ???
Confusion !!!
Do we need or want immigrants? Now, earlier in our history, later... What is the optimum birth rate? Death rate? Where do immigrants fit into the calculations? How is our economy effected by too many immigrants or too few?
And what is THE HUMANE things to do? Or... if you like: The Christian thing to do?
Lots of people coming this way: those coming for a better life: economic, political.
those coming to unite with family
those coming fleeing persecution
those coming fleeing fear due to chaos.
SO -- what are we to do.... What do we citizens of the US of A really want to do relative to the various sorts of people coming here.
Chose YOUR reasons and side... On one side -- keep them out... now that I have mine... OR another side - let them in because we have enough for everyone if only we distribute and share. Or just let those we really like or need or just want.... and some accommodation will be made/engineered.
© Ken Firestein - 2020
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