by: Marceline Donaldson
WHERE DO WE STAND AS AMERICANS ON THE ISSUE OF IMMIGRANTS?
The United States of America has a rich and long history, which started long before Donald Trump and will continue long after he is gone.
Where do we stand on immigrants? This has been documented historically for generations and we have a beautiful statue on its own island as a symbol to make sure our next generations and those looking to us for leadership around the world understand where we have come from traditionally, historically and out of the very soul of this nation, which is made up of immigrants and where we will be solidly for a very long time.
A poem, written by Emma Lazarus and cut into the stone of the gift from France – meant to be a beacon to Exiles from all over the world – says exactly where Americans have been for a few hundred years. This is not the first time I have quoted this poem on this blog. Hope it becomes meaningful to you – as it has been to generations of Americans and Immigrants coming to this country. Many I have met can quote this poem from memory.
“Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Not Donald Trump, nor anyone else can erase the history of the United States with its continuing stance on immigrants no matter how hard they try. We need to come to our senses and look at our history and respect where we have been – who we are – and where we are going.
Neither Donald Trump, nor his wife, nor any members of his family would be in this country if we did not have the above stance on immigration and immigrants. This was not written for the immigration to the United States of Northern Europeans – it was written to and about the world and to and about who we all are.
Me and mine have been in this country over 5 generations and we are not going anywhere. Some of my ancestors were here before the Pilgrims and the Puritans. Some of my ancestors were brought here against their will. Some came as immigrants either because of the possibility of wealth and they wanted to increase wealth they already had; or because they wanted to escape oppression. Some didn’t come at all, but became United States citizens when the borders were redrawn and their plantation was deemed no longer in Mexico, but in America and they were thrown off their own land and put in the street. So, no – I am not going anyplace and I know that my family is very much a part of the fabric of America – the good, the bad and the indifferent.
I did think briefly of updating my passport and leaving before all hell breaks loose. However, this is my country and the Donald J. Trump’s are the newcomers and the nouveau riche. Their history is short and littered with commercial moments trying to take money and material goods from the rest of us without paying, without earning what they have taken, without any regard for the humanity or the human rights or the Constitution of these United States. It is time for them and theirs to leave and be blocked from arriving – not for them to be able to go against those who have always been Americans – always respected the Constitution – always have given and shared and helped those trying to make a better life in these United States – legal or otherwise – trying to respond, as best they could as they were caught in the horribleness of where they called home.
May God forgive him and all the rest who are following him for the way they have lived and contributed to the pain and suffering of those whose lives they have touched, changed and made excruciatingly difficult just because they could.
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