Lest We Forget

"I lift my lamp beside the golden door." --From the inscription on the Statue of Liberty, poem by Emma Lazarus

   The American Dream has become a nightmare for many newcomers, as the self-appointed guardians of the culture try to close the door of opportunity to those seeking a new life in freedom and democracy.
   Nonetheless, these "guardians" act in clear violation of tradition, law and Constitutional principles in blocking any change in what they perceive as the American Way.
   But they forget and ignore that it was this same set of principles that enabled their ancestors to come here in the first place, on the premise that all are created equal, and that the Constitution forbids any religious test for any public office, and the First Amendment specifies that there be no law establishing an official religion, or restricting the free exercise of any other.
   Now we are engaged in a great civil divide, testing whether this nation can endure, and survive a conflict that stresses one set of values and would ban all others.
   Building walls and demanding that others pay for them is fruitless, and any attempt to do that will only shatter the cultural kaleidoscope that is American culture.
   In the 19th Century, the Know Nothing Party tried to keep out Irish Catholics seeking refuge from the Great Famine. In the 20th Century, the government rounded up Japanese Americans, even those born here, and shipped them to internment camps as war broke out.
   Today, there is a proposal to round up Hispanic people, even those born here, and send them out of the country.
   It is true that the number of foreign-born Americans has increased sharply, and many of them came here from Mexico. But that does not mean they all came here illegally. Some did, but they left home for reasons similar to those that led many others to leave their home countries for what they hoped to be a Land of Opportunity.
   Some could change their names and blend. Others could not change their skin tones or facial features, but became Americans anyway. Still others did not change their names, and kept to many of their ancestral cultural traditions and religious beliefs.
   But to expect them to change, to demand that they change or face deportation is not only immoral, it is also illegal and, most importantly, it is unconstitutional.
   The total population of the U.S. is now about 325 million, according to the Census Bureau. Of that total, some 57 million people, about 17 percent, are of Hispanic origin, making them the largest ethnic or racial minority. And six Hispanic names now appear on the list of the 15 most popular surnames in America.
   That does not mean, however, that they all speak Spanish and do not know English. Many families have been in America for generations, just as many people with German, Polish, French, or Chinese names have no knowledge of their ancestral languages.
   Ethnic nationalism that dictates dominance by one group and the subordination of all others is inherently bigoted and violates the American traditions of equality as inscribed in law and the Constitution.
   To allow it to thrive is to subscribe to its bias, and becomes by definition un-American.