The Lamp Has Gone Out
When we emigrated to the United States, it was the year 1969. Two months later, American astronauts would reach the moon. The Soviet Union was beginning its decline but still going strong. The Vietnam war was roiling away in the Far East, and spilling over into Laos and Cambodia. The Cultural Revolution in Mao's China was destroying an ancient culture, and Castro was at the height of power, having recently bested the U.S. at the Bay of Pigs. Small terror groups, founded on Marxist principles, tried to move the Iron Curtain further west in Europe. Communism was the word used to frighten small children to sleep.
In Spain, Fascist Franco ruled. One of his biggest bugaboos was Communism. He didn't want any Spaniard to start sympathizing with leftist movements. (Too late. ETA in the Basque country was not only an independence movement; their principles were also based on Marxism, though that aspect was never greatly bandied about.) My father's old passport from the time had the entries written by hand. I remember a section of travel prohibitions. Half the page was written up. Cambodia, Laos, U.S.S.R., Vietnam, Cuba, China, and so many other countries were mentioned. All those countries were off limits to him, a Spanish citizen. Reciprocally, no one from those countries could visit Spain without very special permission. At the time the passport was issued, Spain was a dictatorship.
I once had a Spanish passport. Mine was issued after Spain's transition to democracy. I was free to travel anywhere I wanted. Since then, the only roadblock to travelling the globe has been wars and lack of money, not legalities in the visa world. Not even as a Spaniard, would I have a problem going to places from which Franco once feared we would bring back a revolution.
Spain has come forward in certain freedoms, though not enough. It pledged two years ago to take in fifteen thousand Syrian refugees. (I think that was the number.) It has only taken in, so far, a few hundred. It should move much faster to take in people that have already lost everything and are now at risk of losing even their hope. Still, Spain is slowly accepting them. Spain was never a country that received immigration. Only in the past twenty or thirty years has it had a healthy number of foreigners come to its shores, mostly from Latin America. Yet, we need these outsiders, because our population is dwindling. Oh, there are many problems in the job infrastructure that need fixing, but with more seniors than people of working age, our country will disintegrate. We need immigrants.
The United States is a country built on immigrants and refugees, unlike Spain. Especially refugees. The first settlers in New England escaped religious persecution, and sought to establish a godly kingdom, free from interference, where the Word of God would be followed only as they understood it. (Tolerance was not in their genes.) Quite a few settlers in the colony of Virginia escaped Cromwell's stuffy Christian Protectorate in England. Virginia was the colony that held out longest for the King. Pennsylvania was William Penn's Quaker colony where Quakers (and everyone else) could live in freedom. William Penn himself was a visionary who first drew up the framework for a European Union, and many of whose ideas were incorporated into the Constitution.
Over the years, many people from all over the world poured into the new nation in search of a new life. Some accomplished it, others didn't. The ones that were always treated better were northern Europeans. Those treated the worst were probably the Asians, the former African slaves, and, ironically, the people who had already been living there for millennia. As always, proximity of appearance and customs to those who first colonized, decided the treatment. Yet, those who understood what the Founding Fathers had wanted, guaranteed that the nation would remain open for all.
Until 1921. World War I had been a war of nationalisms, and the United States was not immune to it. Those who wanted a limit on immigrants and refugees won, and the limit was set at 3% of the total number of immigrants for each country in the year 1910. The Johnson Act came into existence because people feared that immigrants from southern and eastern Europe and Asia were almost impossible to integrate into American life.
The idea had been bandied around for a few decades. Woodrow Wilson had refused to sign a similar proposed law. The fear especially peaked after the war, when many who had been displaced and left homeless expressed interest in emigrating to the United States. Many of these were from southern and eastern Europe and Turkey, including Armenians who had survived their own holocaust in Turkey. And so the first immigration quotas were set up.
Ever since then, people have had to apply for entry. My parents did so. My father, however, had also been an illegal alien in 1964. At that time he was part of the crew on a merchant ship. When docked in Newport News once, he had a very heated argument with one of the officers. Having my uncle's phone number with him, my father jumped ship and went north to Boston. There, my great-uncle had been living since the early 1920's, and had sponsored my uncle - his nephew and my mother's brother. My father joined his brother-in-law and worked clandestinely with a construction company for most of the year. He was finally caught and deported in December. When we applied for green cards as a family, my father was up front and admitted having been an illegal. However we were admitted, and on 15 May, 1969, we landed in Boston as legal immigrants.
Would we be able to do so now? Supposedly, Trump's ban does not extend to any country in Europe. But it allows for the possibility. It mentions that in the future, any country that may pose a threat to the United States, could have its nationals banned from entry to the U.S. What if there is an armed attack here, and its participants are Spaniards? For example, that ETA makes a comeback? Would Spaniards be banned? What if the IRA comes back from its political limbo into armed misdeeds? Would the Irish be forbidden from American shores?
The curious thing is that the countries targeted by the immigration ban have not had any of its citizens involved in an attack upon American nationals. But neither do they do any business with Trump holdings. The biggest terrorist attack on U.S. soil was made by Saudi nationals. Yet Saudi Arabians are not targeted by Trump's executive order. If Scotland forces Trump to close his golf course, will he retaliate against Scotland or Great Britain in such a manner? Probably.
Probably, because Donald Trump believes only in himself. He does not consider the Presidency as a job in which he must safeguard his country and all who live there. He does not understand that relations with other countries must be mutually beneficial for the U.S. to be strong and prosper. He is using the Presidency as a way of furthering himself. Only himself. He is now giving his followers what they demanded to keep them loyal to him. From now on, everything he does will be in his benefit, with a few more sops thrown to those who travel on his coattails.
The Land of the Free is no more. The Statue of Liberty should be taken down. It no longer represents welcoming shores.
In Spain, Fascist Franco ruled. One of his biggest bugaboos was Communism. He didn't want any Spaniard to start sympathizing with leftist movements. (Too late. ETA in the Basque country was not only an independence movement; their principles were also based on Marxism, though that aspect was never greatly bandied about.) My father's old passport from the time had the entries written by hand. I remember a section of travel prohibitions. Half the page was written up. Cambodia, Laos, U.S.S.R., Vietnam, Cuba, China, and so many other countries were mentioned. All those countries were off limits to him, a Spanish citizen. Reciprocally, no one from those countries could visit Spain without very special permission. At the time the passport was issued, Spain was a dictatorship.
I once had a Spanish passport. Mine was issued after Spain's transition to democracy. I was free to travel anywhere I wanted. Since then, the only roadblock to travelling the globe has been wars and lack of money, not legalities in the visa world. Not even as a Spaniard, would I have a problem going to places from which Franco once feared we would bring back a revolution.
Spain has come forward in certain freedoms, though not enough. It pledged two years ago to take in fifteen thousand Syrian refugees. (I think that was the number.) It has only taken in, so far, a few hundred. It should move much faster to take in people that have already lost everything and are now at risk of losing even their hope. Still, Spain is slowly accepting them. Spain was never a country that received immigration. Only in the past twenty or thirty years has it had a healthy number of foreigners come to its shores, mostly from Latin America. Yet, we need these outsiders, because our population is dwindling. Oh, there are many problems in the job infrastructure that need fixing, but with more seniors than people of working age, our country will disintegrate. We need immigrants.
The United States is a country built on immigrants and refugees, unlike Spain. Especially refugees. The first settlers in New England escaped religious persecution, and sought to establish a godly kingdom, free from interference, where the Word of God would be followed only as they understood it. (Tolerance was not in their genes.) Quite a few settlers in the colony of Virginia escaped Cromwell's stuffy Christian Protectorate in England. Virginia was the colony that held out longest for the King. Pennsylvania was William Penn's Quaker colony where Quakers (and everyone else) could live in freedom. William Penn himself was a visionary who first drew up the framework for a European Union, and many of whose ideas were incorporated into the Constitution.
Over the years, many people from all over the world poured into the new nation in search of a new life. Some accomplished it, others didn't. The ones that were always treated better were northern Europeans. Those treated the worst were probably the Asians, the former African slaves, and, ironically, the people who had already been living there for millennia. As always, proximity of appearance and customs to those who first colonized, decided the treatment. Yet, those who understood what the Founding Fathers had wanted, guaranteed that the nation would remain open for all.
Until 1921. World War I had been a war of nationalisms, and the United States was not immune to it. Those who wanted a limit on immigrants and refugees won, and the limit was set at 3% of the total number of immigrants for each country in the year 1910. The Johnson Act came into existence because people feared that immigrants from southern and eastern Europe and Asia were almost impossible to integrate into American life.
The idea had been bandied around for a few decades. Woodrow Wilson had refused to sign a similar proposed law. The fear especially peaked after the war, when many who had been displaced and left homeless expressed interest in emigrating to the United States. Many of these were from southern and eastern Europe and Turkey, including Armenians who had survived their own holocaust in Turkey. And so the first immigration quotas were set up.
Ever since then, people have had to apply for entry. My parents did so. My father, however, had also been an illegal alien in 1964. At that time he was part of the crew on a merchant ship. When docked in Newport News once, he had a very heated argument with one of the officers. Having my uncle's phone number with him, my father jumped ship and went north to Boston. There, my great-uncle had been living since the early 1920's, and had sponsored my uncle - his nephew and my mother's brother. My father joined his brother-in-law and worked clandestinely with a construction company for most of the year. He was finally caught and deported in December. When we applied for green cards as a family, my father was up front and admitted having been an illegal. However we were admitted, and on 15 May, 1969, we landed in Boston as legal immigrants.
Would we be able to do so now? Supposedly, Trump's ban does not extend to any country in Europe. But it allows for the possibility. It mentions that in the future, any country that may pose a threat to the United States, could have its nationals banned from entry to the U.S. What if there is an armed attack here, and its participants are Spaniards? For example, that ETA makes a comeback? Would Spaniards be banned? What if the IRA comes back from its political limbo into armed misdeeds? Would the Irish be forbidden from American shores?
The curious thing is that the countries targeted by the immigration ban have not had any of its citizens involved in an attack upon American nationals. But neither do they do any business with Trump holdings. The biggest terrorist attack on U.S. soil was made by Saudi nationals. Yet Saudi Arabians are not targeted by Trump's executive order. If Scotland forces Trump to close his golf course, will he retaliate against Scotland or Great Britain in such a manner? Probably.
Probably, because Donald Trump believes only in himself. He does not consider the Presidency as a job in which he must safeguard his country and all who live there. He does not understand that relations with other countries must be mutually beneficial for the U.S. to be strong and prosper. He is using the Presidency as a way of furthering himself. Only himself. He is now giving his followers what they demanded to keep them loyal to him. From now on, everything he does will be in his benefit, with a few more sops thrown to those who travel on his coattails.
The Land of the Free is no more. The Statue of Liberty should be taken down. It no longer represents welcoming shores.
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