One of the great things about America is that just about everyone, at some point in their familial line, has an amazing and compelling immigration story. We often forget this, as we spit venom towards those who cross our borders, a tactic that has been replayed again and again over the generations.
We’re a nation of nomads, of frontiersmen and women, of expansionists. Our nation’s culture is tied up in and around cultures who are hundreds and thousands of years older than ours. While we certainly have created an American culture over the past 235+ years, we are still the sum of every culture that has passed through the nation’s doors. As Eric Weiner puts it in “The Geography of Bliss” (yes, I know, been quoting this book frequently recently. I have no shame in that!):
We are shaped not only by our current geography but by our ancestral one as well. Americans, for instance, retain a frontier spirit even though the only frontier that remains is the vast open space between SUV and strip mall. We are our past.
That frontier spirit is a collective one, where we long for the ethereal ‘freedom.’ An American present and future that denies others that most inalienable right is a nation we will not recognize. We need to tap into our collective unconscious, as Jung would say, and tell those harrowing and joyous immigration stories of our past; of our parents, grandparents, all down the line. We need to remind our elected officials how previous generations of immigrants were the backbone to “the American Dream” they love so much.
We say something along the lines of, “those who forget history are doomed to repeat it,” yet it often seems like we have selective amnesia when we try to reform. Not just on immigration, but on issues like those absolute and unassailable rights only some of us are lucky enough to have. Hopefully, as we enter the Campaign 2012 election cycle, we can have intellectually honest discussions, discourse and debate. Let the invisible hand of the marketplace of ideas become a visible and vocal reality.
yesterday I posted a pic of the Obama’s and wrote, “I am sorry but if you don’t like them there is something seriously wrong with you.”. I wrote that for what I think are obvious reasons. They seem to always come across as genuine and just flat out nice.
Now, with that said this pic of Sarah Palin is exactly, of course IMO, how she comes across. For someone so ignorant and I mean ignorant, she is not stupid, she knows that she is not well read (with the exception of palm reading). She comes across as condescending as this pic makes here out to look. This is that we’re “real Americans” thing that Jon Stewart and others refer to and I am sorry but it makes me sick.
pic via npr
Peter just stop it!… I wish I could
gotta turn this dose of reality into a positive. moving on a bit, even if subtle, has always been tough for me. i let people, not circumstances bother me way too much. it’s something i have to find help with. i recognize this weakness but recognition alone doesn’t help.
my biggest problem is ignoring, even if by ignoring i will stand to gain. i am actually moving out of state because of this problem of mine. it manifests itself in many ways. when i fall for someone (which i rarely do) i fall hard and i hate that about myself. i don’t want to feel strong emotions for anyone right now, too much to accomplish.
i won’t let any of what i am bitchin’ about stand in my way but i do wish i could flip a switch and just make things easier on myself.
