The Rise of the Know Nothings

About 150 years ago the Know Nothing Party had a (thankfully) brief fling with fame and popularity advocating the “purification” of America by limiting the influence of immigrants. How ironic is it that now, in the second decade of the 21^st century, the descendants of targets of the Know Nothings have become Know Nothings themselves, treating American citizenship as some kind of divine gift that should be sparingly granted to immigrants to this country.

The current debate over immigration reform carries the unmistakable scent of collective national amnesia. Except for Americans who have only Native American ancestors, every single living American citizen is the descendant of immigrants. African Americans can rightly claim that their ancestors were unwilling immigrants but they were immigrants nevertheless. If one wishes to argue the existence of American exceptionalism, one can begin with the notion that being an “American” is a concept more than a genotype.

A time traveler from the 19^th century would be amused and then appalled to see the descendants of Irish immigrants braying about the unfitness of the immigrants of today. In the not too distant past Irish immigrants were portrayed as barely human with bestial traits that should automatically deny them the glories of American citizenship.

And it was not too long ago that immigrants from Italy and from Eastern Europe were considered to be inferior and absolutely unfit for American citizenship. Into the twentieth century more “senior” Americans thought of the new citizens as diluting and demeaning the very core of this country.

And the so-called “blue bloods” of American society, those who trace their lineage to the Mayflower or some long ago entry into this country should be reminded that the overwhelming majority of early immigrants to the American colonies were former prisoners, indentured servants and fugitives from bankruptcy who were generally thought of as the miscreants of European society. The immigrants of that era who were fleeing religious persecution would certainly be thought of as odd, if not dangerous, cultists.

The point of this bit of historical perusal is that, with very few exceptions, no one is in a position to take the high and mighty high ground when it comes to immigration. It is almost, almost laughable to hear the likes of Senators Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio adopt a “hard line” when it comes to immigration when Cubans were not exactly welcome in Texas, Florida or anywhere else until after the ascent of Fidel Castro.

One does not have to look far into anyone’s family tree to realize that it is beyond hypocritical to advocate harsh restrictions on immigration or to propose such painful paths to citizenship. If the citizenship process advocated in many Teapublican proposals were in place in the early 1900’s millions of Americans today would still be living in Italy, Russia, Germany, Ireland…..you get the idea.

It should be clear that the anti-immigrant and anti-immigration movement is fueled by the fact that today’s immigrants come mainly from Asia, Africa and Latin America. Today’s immigrants are truly people of color and white Americans continue to be terrified by the notion that they will one day be the minority in “their own country”.

The fact is that most of the hardliners on immigration are white Americans along with their Latino sock puppets like Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. The fact is that if most of the 11 million undocumented residents of this country were blue eyed blonde émigrés from the Ukraine and Germany and Scotland and Ireland and Sweden there would not be this hue and cry regarding so-called illegal immigration.

The fact is that this country, indeed this planet, has always been about change and evolution. Countries change; cultures change and the way we live will always change and will never stay the same.

Legend tells the story of the Danish King Canute who had his throne put on the shore so that he could show his subjects that there were things, like the tides of the sea that even a king cannot command.

So it is that there are tides of change that the Teapublicans and the hardline opponents of immigration cannot command no matter what.

 

Weekend Edition – March 1, 2013

This Weekend Edition has a decidedly New York focus – just one of those things. It turns out that Marco Rubio, fresh from his audition for “Water Boy 2” is coming to New York to raise campaign money – and to explain his vote against Sandy aid for New Yorkers. Meanwhile, New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind, who is locally famous for his ardent defense against even a whiff of a hint of anti-Semitism, chose a Purim celebration to do an Al Jolson imitation. And finally, a Manhattan public school teacher gave math word problems to grade school children. The problem was with the problems.

The Water Boy Cometh

In giving the Teapublican response to President Obama’s State of the Union address, Senator Marco Rubio gave new meaning to the word “disastrous”. Aside from his deerintheheadlights demeanor, his urgent need to guzzle water during his own presentation was the stuff of vaudeville slapstick.

Now, on an even more serious mission, Marco Rubio, who has aspirations to be the G.O.Tea Party sacrificial lamb in the 2016 presidential election, is coming to New York City to raise campaign funds. New York City, especially the financial and corporate community, has long been seen as a wishing well for political candidates from across the spectrum.

The problem with Marco Rubio coming to New York with hat in one hand and water bottle in the other, is that he is one of the United States senators who voted against aid for the victims of Hurricane Sandy – victims who live in New Jersey, Connecticut and———-New York.

Aside from being callous Marco Rubio is also a hypocrite as his home state of Florida has received billions upon billions of dollars of relief aid for recovery from the hurricanes that ravage his home state every few years.

When he comes to New York rattling his tin cup Marco Rubio may find that the New York State of Mind does not include hypocritical phonies like himself.

What a Mensch?

If you are a resident of New York City you probably have heard of Assemblyman Dov Hikind. He represents a largely Orthodox Jewish district and his famous for his vigorous and unceasing defense of the Jewish community against any word or deed that carries even a whiff of a hint of anti-Semitism. While some critics have labeled Dov Hikind as being hypersensitive, he certainly deserves respect for standing up for his constituents.

It is, therefore, more than shocking, that Assemblyman Hikind posed in blackface and an Afro wig as part of a Purim celebration. One has to guess that no one told Mr. Hikind that Al Jolson was the white person to get away with wearing blackface and that black Americans and most people of goodwill would be offended, to say the least.

To make matters worse, when called out for his outrageous racist conduct, Dov Hikind gave a cheesy “celebrity apology” (“….if I offended anyone dressing up as an NBA player by wearing an Afro wig and blackface I apologize”). And, if that wasn’t enough, he said he didn’t see what the fuss was all about.

As they say in Yiddish, what a mensch!

School Daze

Also in New York City, a grade school teacher decided to give her fourth and fifth grade students math word problems that connected to social studies topics that were being studied. So far so good.

However, in what can only described as an awesome display of insensitivity, the teacher chose to use American slavery as the social studies topic for the math problems. As a result there were questions like “2000 black slaves were on a slave ship, half of them died on the voyage to America. How many black slaves were alive at the end of the trip?”

It doesn’t take a great deal of imagination to realize that if the subjects of these wacky math problems were concentration camp victims, genocide victims in Armenia or Rwanda or the victims at Hiroshima or Nagasaki, the math problems would be deemed inappropriate.

To the school’s credit, the principal of the school disciplined the teacher. However, many of the parents were quoted as defending the teacher and her word problems. Perhaps predictions of a post-racial America are a wee bit premature.

Have a great weekend!

Weekend Edition – February 15, 2013

The Teapublican response to President Obama’s State of the Union address was typical – a futile effort to go back to the future. But this time, with the unlikely team of Rubio and Paul there seems to be an effort to revive comedy teams. Meanwhile New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg got it right by effectively decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana. It is the right step of a journey of many more miles. And finally, with the announced resignation of Pope Benedict Catholics and many others are hoping that the new pope will begin his reign by confronting the reality of the Catholic Church in the 21st century.

Slapstick and Punch Lines

Amazingly the leadership of the Teapublican Party thought that it would be a great idea to put Senators Marco Rubio and Rand Paul on national television to rebut President Obama’s State of the Union address. It wasn’t a fair fight.

Barack Obama may be one of the great communicators of all time, and when he is on his rhetorical game it is hard to say who is in second place. Last Tuesday he was on his game and with applause echoing through the Capitol Senators Rubio and Paul were asked to counter an awesome performance. They both failed – miserably.

Marco Rubio looked like the loser of a high school student council presidential debate to seem like the adult that he was not, reciting talking points that seem to come from the Young Americans for Freedom playbook of fifty years ago. And then he made this magical transition from Teapublican Savior to Water Boy as he virtually ducked off the stage to get some water in the middle of his presentation.

Rand Paul looked like someone who had just climbed out of a laundry hamper and sounded like someone who didn’t think that anyone was listening. His right wing of the right wing soliloquy repeated themes that were soundly rejected by the majority of American voters but he did his best voice in the wilderness imitation.

During the heyday of old time comedy there were comedic teams like the Marx Brothers, the Three Stooges, Abbott and Costello and Martin and Lewis, to name a few. We can now add Rubio and Paul to the All Star Clown List.

A Journey of a Thousand Miles…..

New York City Michael Bloomberg announced this week that possession of small amounts of marijuana would no longer result in arrest or being put on an individual’s criminal record. The impact of this directive will mean that hundreds of thousands of mostly young black and Latino men will not have to go to jail for an “offense” that simply doesn’t exist in Colorado and is rarely enforced in suburbs of a different hue. This will also mean that fewer of these young men will be marginalized in the workforce because of a petty criminal record.

That is a great step in the right direction. The next step would be to retroactively eliminate such arrests from the criminal record of the hundreds of thousands of victims of this egregious policy. And the next step after that? That would be to totally eliminate the outrageous “Stop and Frisk” policy which torments hundreds of thousands of young men of color in New York City every year.

The New Pope’s Challenge

The announced resignation of Pope Benedict touched off a flurry of commentaries about his eight year reign and what he should or should not have done while serving as pope. Certainly historians will have plenty to discuss.

It is also important for the next pope to finally and decisively confront the five thousand pound gorilla in the Catholic living room. Unless and until every aspect of the global child abuse scandal (which is most certainly over a century old) is exposed and addressed many people of the faith and outside the faith will view the Catholic Church with suspicion.

It has not only been the horrific tales of continual abuse all over the world that has shocked and dismayed, it has been the institutional cover up of the crimes and the criminals. The steadfast refusal of the leaders of the Catholic Church to fully address not only the criminals but also the enablers who have masked this institutional disgrace is unbecoming of a religious institution with over a billion believers.

We can only hope that the new pope will see that now is the time to right the wrongs by confronting them.

Have a great weekend!