A Nation of Immigrants

"There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware.

"It's time we stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down."  -- Buffalo Springfield

"All animals are created equal, but some are more equal than others."
--  George Orwell, "Animal Farm"

   Literature is filled with warnings about government takeovers by demagogues who claim they support equal treatment for all but really want full control for themselves.
   The collapse of democracy varies in its causes, but the pattern is similar, often based on economic distress combined with fear of "the other."
   In America in the 1930s, it was fear of rising labor unions during the Great Depression.
   Fear of immigrants has been a recurring issue throughout U.S. history, which is ironic, since the country is itself a nation of immigrants.
   The Pilgrims were refugees from religious persecution.
   Spanish invaders were opportunists searching for gold and silver.
   In the mid-19th Century, Irish immigrants fled famine, but faced religious bias when they arrived.
   Late 19th Century German immigrants sought to escape political persecution.
   Refugees from Eastern Europe, including Poland and Ukraine, sought economic opportunity.
   A steady stream of Jewish refugees from several countries came to America to escape religious persecution.
   People from Asia wanted to leave warfare behind and find economic opportunity.
   Others from Central and South America come to the U.S. for reasons similar to those that attracted other groups here for many years.
   All can be summarized in the Four Freedoms cited by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in his State of the Union address in January 1941:
   Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear.

   The Freedom from Want is resolved by having a job, a big reason many come to America, taking even low-paying, low-skill jobs that others don't want and won't take.
   Freedom of Speech and Worship are guaranteed to all by the Constitution, but many who were here first deny these freedoms to newcomers.
   Likewise, Freedom from Fear is not only denied to newcomers, but fear is inflicted on them by some whose ancestors came to America for similar reasons.

   Organized labor had as its first goal a living wage, so workers would achieve Freedom from Want, as well as protection from irresponsible, even cruel, management -- Freedom from Fear. Even so, the disparity between worker income and the very wealthy is widening.
   Many who worship in predominantly European fashions no longer face harassment as they did earlier in American history, but recently there has been strong antipathy toward a religion that originated in the Middle East, even led by a president who called for a complete and total ban on all Muslims. Ironically, Christianity and Judaism also originated in the Middle East.
   So much for the president's oath to preserve and protect the Constitution, which guarantees Freedom of Worship. 
   This president has also said that those who disagree with him should be locked up. So much for Freedom of Speech.
   And he has demanded that those who come to America in desperation, seeking opportunity amid the Four Freedoms, be deported. So much for Freedom from Fear.
   Oddly, many of those who come in desperation take low paying, low skill jobs that others already here don't want and won't take. So much for the Land of Opportunity.
   One more irony: The current president of the United States is himself the descendant of immigrants. His grandfather came from Germany to America seeking opportunity and succeeded, but was deported after he returned to his homeland because he failed to perform military service.
   Must be a family tradition, since the grandson avoided military service by claiming he had a bone spur in his heel. Except he forgot which heel.