Tried With Fire

" Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced. "  James Baldwin After the news of President Trump's call to end birthright citizenship, I was shaken. I was always proud to be the first person on both sides of my family to be American by birth, but now I am faced with a problem. Is my citizenship a mistake because of a misreading of the Constitution? While my initial fears have abated somewhat, I am still wrestling with my feelings. I stopped wearing rose-colored glasses a long time ago, but there is still a sense of grief. My welcome to this country seems begrudging now and given in spite of what the founders and leaders of this country wanted, not because of them. And where do I stand now? Like Hermione Granger, when in doubt I go to the library. In other words, I research and read history to answer the age old question, "Why?" I have several pending interlibrary loan requests for books on immigration, and ...

Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it. George Santayana The following is the trailer for a PBS documentary on the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act . I don't remember learning about this in American history. Do you? I'd have a hard time forgetting because if I had lived back then, I would have been excluded. The Chinese were a source of cheap labor during the California gold rush and the building of the transcontinental railroad. But when economic times got tough, they were accused of taking work from "real" Americans. They were considered unassimilable and inferior by their very nature thus unfit to become citizens. In 1882, the federal government banned any Chinese from entering the country and denied citizenship, which led to an eventual ban on all Asian immigration until 1943. Even with repeal of the exclusion act, only 105 Chinese per year were allowed to immigrate until 1965. This is the first law to single out a specific ethnic group for ex...