[Magdalen] Our "sh*thole" president.

[Grace Cangialosi]

I had to laugh, Ann, because at an Episcopal funeral last week, I asked the man next to me if he was a member of that congregation. He laughed and said, “No, I’m a mackerel snapper!” I knew what he meant, but I’d never heard the term before.
And here it shows up again, not a week later!





> On Jan 12, 2018, at 3:40 PM, Ann Markle <ann.markle at aya.yale.edu> wrote:
> 
> 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