[Magdalen] Our "sh*thole" president.

[Ann Markle]

The US has never come to terms with immigration or immigrants, period. Used
to be that “no Irish need apply.” Italians were all mafia and smelled like
garlic. My dear brother used to call Catholics “mackerel snappers.” Chinese
who came to work on the railroads were lynched. WWII era Jews were turned
away from our very shores, even though we knew they were returning to
certain extermination. It’s a dark, pervasive part of our history, despite
“Give me your tired, your poor...”

What Trump forgets is that most of the places that immigrants have ever
come from were shitholes, for most of the immigrants, anyway. Ireland was a
shithole. England was a shithole for Puritans and non-Anglicans. Post-WWI
Germany was a shithole. What about low caste Indians or Asian peasants? I
think most immigrants are picking up their lives and leaving all they ever
knew, to get away from bad things. Yeah, they come here hoping for
opportunity and second chances. But if things were dandy where they were,
they would’ve stayed there. What an embarrassment. When I travel abroad, I
may say I’m Canadian!

On Fri, Jan 12, 2018 at 10:51 AM cantor03--- via Magdalen <
magdalen at herberthouse.org> wrote:

>
>
> Concerning the ****head word, it's my guess that a large portion of
> Trump's "Base"
> may well have the some opinion of Haiti and Africa that Trump apparently
> does.
> They are still stuck in 1965, and the motto that has recently popped up,
> "Make
> America White Again," still resonates with them.
>
> It's my opinion that the USA as a whole has never entirely come to grips
> with the
> c. 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act (under LBJ).  I don't think the
> American
> people have ever had a good discussion of these changes which had the
> effect of
> limiting the traditional immigration to the USA of Europeans, and opened
> the
> immigration door to Latin American, Asian, and Africans.  I can remember
> not being
> pleased myself then at these changes which I could see would forever alter
> my idea that
> the USA was an extension of European culture in North America.
>
> However, if one keeps an open and reasonable mind, things can change.  The
> USA
> has changed since 1965, and I have changed right along with it during
> these years.
> I really and genuinely like the new polyglot, browning USA.   I no longer
> think of
> the USA as "Europe warmed over."
>
> I would hope that Trump's "Base" can change, too.
>
>
> David S.
>
-- 
Ann

The Rev. Ann Markle
Buffalo, NY
www.onewildandpreciouslife.typepad.com