Who Are We?

missliberty, originally uploaded by Randuwa.

The news out of Binghamton, New York today stated: "A gunman invaded an immigration services center in Binghamton, N.Y., on Friday, fatally shooting 13 people to death and critically wounding four others before killing himself in a paroxysm of violence, the police said." after an act of xenophobic violence both tragic and despicable.

Whatever happened to?:

"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!"

Have we forgotten that that is how our ancestors arrived? Have we succumbed so utterly to the idea that we are entitled to our largesse and privilege that it can only be sustained by denying it to others? It makes me so fucking sick. Those who deny opportunity to others do not deserve it for themselves. That's my bottom line.

My progenitors arrived in this nation in waves. Thomas S. (my Gx11 grandsire) left a London destitute to join with the migration of settlers under John Winthrope in 1637, Both Richard P. and Samuel M. found themselves living in or near to the original Jamestown settlement in 1622; and both came for a future that would be better than their past only to die in the Native American revolt of that same year--and their lineage continued through their infant children who survived to meet, marry and procreate. And there's James M. who fled the famines and oppressions of 19th century Ireland.

My ancestors came to this nation in a time span from 1619 to 1884. They came here form town and villages now scattered across the nations and kingdoms of Wales, England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany and France.

How are they any more ambitious, daring, creative, conniving, ignorant, needy or hopeful than those who today risk life and limb to become Americans from Mexico, China, Guatemala, Cuba, Ireland, Croatia, Viet Nam, Pakistan, etc. etc. etc.....?

We can no more stop this phenomenon than we can stop the tides. It's time that we revamped the process and imagined what and why and how to the degree that our embrace of immigrants becomes an invitation to emigrants to leave and return and spread the ideals of democracy to the rest of the world. Just saying.....