Chivalry is a pipe dream. Honor codes are for Goody Goodies. Ideals are for losers. There is no place in a real world for visionaries or romantics. They say it’s all Pollyanna, foolishness, the stuff of Merlin or the Knights of the Round Table.
They even have a generalized word for attempts at achieving lofty goals or making the world a better place. They call it Liberalism. The word is used as an epithet.
They live in darkness, having never seen the great light. Light is, in fact, their enemy, for it illuminates all and everything - having no favorites – exposing truth – ignoring bastions of hyperbole and demagogy. They shout it down and rally every resource at their command to discredit it.
If you strip away every negative defense, what they appear to be saying is, “Progress is a great evil. Anything challenging the status quo is our enemy. Doing good just for the sake of doing good is, well, what “Do Gooders” do.
It’s the great “Don’t Tread on Me,” “From my Cold Dead Hands” mentality, which in its inception may have had its own set of lofty goals. Ideals are not always classified as lofty, however. Often, they are only intransigent notions. At times they appear as fanaticism.
A famous Winston Churchill quote goes, “A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.” Most everyone applauds the spirit of independence and patriotism. It loses some of its charm, though, when made into an exclusive club.
One of the most contentious subjects lately is Immigration. Well, not exactly – more precisely, illegal Mexicans. In years past, the word would have been more identified with the Irish or Italians, Greeks, Germans or others. There is always a dangerous group of “different” people threatening to upset the societal balance by not conforming to the “regular” protocol.
The very mention of the “I” word sends some folks into a frenzy of emotion. The word is fraught with danger and insurrection. Speaking the word aloud brings on an immediate barrage of defensive and offensive ranting intent on putting down any rational discussion. Around fifty years ago, another word brought on similar reactions. That word was “Integration.” The two have a lot in common.
Now, there is no clear defense for “illegal aliens” being allowed to live freely, continually, in the U.S. or any country. The fact is, however, that there are tens of thousands of persons living within the U.S. with no proof of citizenship doing honorable, necessary work and causing absolutely no harm to anyone. Should they be deported, or should there be a way for those people to attain citizenship or at least some modified form of it? Or, should the policy simply be “one size fits all?”
In Saturday night beer halls and Sunday morning church services the rhetoric is quite similar: “Illegal aliens (Mexicans) are ruining our once pristine country, and something must be done about it!” The logic fueling this argument is that there is one basket and all “illegal aliens” fit into it. The solutions vary, but primarily center on rounding up all Mexicans with no proof of citizenship and shipping them to Mexico. If some innocent bystanders get thrown in with the drug runners, thieves, gang-bangers, etc. so be it.
“They’re taking our jobs!" "They’re changing our language!” "They’re destroying our health care system!” “They’re committing all the crime.” And, sadly, there is actually some kernel of truth in it. Where there are offenders, there is no question that they should be dealt with harshly.
But, I live and work in Payson, and I don’t see much of that. I’ve lived here for years, and I can’t say that I have seen any overt evidence of that or felt any particular threat from that assumption. I go to Phoenix often, and I’m not aware of any great uprising taking place. I travel to other cities in America, and I don’t see the huge wave of alien invasion that is so apparent to some folks.
I’m not saying it doesn’t exist. I just challenge any person fearful of these allegations to ride around any city with me and point out the overwhelming evidence.
Do the immigration policies of the U.S. need more attention and a fresh new look at modernization? Absolutely, along with many other areas which could use an update or two.
Make no mistake, however. There is a very great danger involved in taking the narrow Tunnel-vision approach to perceiving a problem and proposing a solution. A great many people today have completely lost sight of what America is all about. It is not, and never has been about creating a single caste system of “approved” members.
Study very carefully the words inscribed on the Statue of Liberty. The words come from a great poem written by Emma Lazarus entitled “The Mother of Exiles.” The statue calls out to exiles from around the world to come and find solace and opportunity in a new, unusual land.
There is no mention of having the proper credentials – no disclaimer, which attempts to sort out desirables, much less to define them. The call, in fact, is directly to the “homeless, tempest-tossed” among mankind. “Send me your tired, your poor,” it states - “the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.”
There is no mention of only soliciting well-spoken, educated, mannerly people – no call to pass a litmus test of religion, language, culture – no restrictions as to nationality. America is the place where the down-trodden can hope for a better life – a place, at long last, in the world where the only thing which matters is a person’s character and ability.
It is to these orphans of society that the statue beckons: “I lift my lamp beside the golden shore.”
Abraham Lincoln called it “the last, best hope of mankind,” and he was certainly not referring to a land of identical people, living identical lives, speaking identically, worshiping in exactly the same way. Quite the opposite, in fact.
The one thing which identifies and distinguishes America in the world is its diversity. That’s the whole idea behind the forming of this new venture – a place, finally, where anyone was welcome and all were considered to have equal footing– a place where each individual was guaranteed an unalienable right to be himself. – a place where public opinion was not to rule as law.
If we have lost sight of these principles, then we have misunderstood the precious gift which was bestowed upon a “rag-tag” generation three centuries ago, made up of “huddled masses, yearning to be free.”
To be sure, there are requirements in behavior which must be met for any society to function effectively. As the population grows and matures, the requirements frequently grow as diverse as they are abundant. It becomes more and more easy to get lost among the tangled web of legality and conventions. If this great experiment in social governance is to forever be a model for all people “yearning to be free,” it must strive to sift through the tangled web and find a way to honor its founding principles.
Citizenship, or some alternative, is, quite properly, a requirement for anyone living within a country and claiming its benefits. Everyone can agree on that. A fair way of manifesting it is what we should seek, not using it as a sorting mechanism.
We are all immigrants or heirs of immigrants who came to this unknown land in search of a better life. In many cases, our ancestors spoke a “foreign” language for generations. Even long after the United States was ratified as an official independent country, diverse groups practiced old traditional activities brought from foreign shores. To a large extent, it goes on today and is accepted, in fact enjoyed, by people of all backgrounds. This makes up the great patchwork quilt, the kaleidoscope, known as America. Without this diversity, this inclusiveness, we have no claim to be a special place.
Think about this when you are enjoying a margarita during Cinco de Mayo.
