Just say no for a while to immigration

We are now hearing of how bad things are in East Africa for those who are fleeing war-torn areas and waiting in refugee camps to immigrate to the U.S. Some are eating only once a day; a woman was raped and shot to death; many who were cleared for immigration before Sept. 11 are stuck in terrible conditions, all because of the way our intensified security has backed things up.

I feel empathy for those mostly Muslim people, but I also am opposed to anyone from any Islamic country coming into America for at least another decade.

Everything I have seen gives me the impression that America is hated by the majority of those in such countries and that - as a "Frontline" documentary recently showed - there are even young women who look forward to their children becoming terrorists.

Consequently, I feel none of the oppressive sentimentality that those of Irish, Italian, Jewish, Eastern European, Latin and Caribbean backgrounds have when the subject of immigration is raised.

First, immigration hasn't done much for black Americans, who, more often than not, have been pushed aside so immigrants could get jobs that those who logged the most time in this nation should have gotten.

More than 100 years ago, when America was becoming a nation of immigrants, that meant many skilled blacks were kicked to the curb so some foreigners could get on the gravy train, however much hard work that train demanded. So I feel no great love for the idea of immigration as some high-minded aspect of American history.

Was American culture enriched, even so? Yes, in both bright and dark ways from the mountaintops of public policy, the arts, entertainment, technology and education down to the organizing of crime along the corporate model.

But we are now faced with something very different. I am not willing to see American lives put in danger to make an academic point about our history and our ability to rise above xenophobia and religious prejudice. All that sounds good among school teachers and those who become hysterical because their relatives fled disaster of some sort in Eastern Europe or elsewhere and made a way for themselves and their children in this nation. Good, I'm glad they did.

Such people are not the ones I'm talking about. I'm not even talking about Islam; I'm talking about a problem. I'm talking about those with Islamic backgrounds who can so easily seem civilized but who, given the nature of destructive technology in our time, can murder thousands if they are committed to it.

As cold as it might seem, I am not bothered if 50,000 people are kept out of the U.S. so we don't admit among them 19 more like the ones who brought off the murder raid Sept. 11.

Those who want to rant against such thoughts should take their complaints to the Islamic terrorists. They created this situation - and redefined the meaning of immigration along the way.

He is a horrible person for trying to seem on the side of fighting terrorism, but covering up his own bitterness, racism, and hate.

WHAT HE SAID:
Consequently, I feel none of the oppressive sentimentality that those of Irish, Italian, Jewish, Eastern European, Latin and Caribbean backgrounds have when the subject of immigration is raised.

DG: It's 3 am here in NY, I'm supposed to be studying but my IMMIGRANT blood is boiling. How dare he insult immigrants this way. I hope I'm not alone in this. My grandparents on my father's side came here with NOTHING through Ellis Island. My grandfather helped to build the Empire State Building. They worked hard!!! My mother came from the West Indies with her proud immigrant work ethic... so this makes my Latino blood FIZZ! My sentimentality of my immigrant roots is certainly not oppressive.

First, immigration hasn't done much for black Americans, who, more often than not, have been pushed aside so immigrants could get jobs that those who logged the most time in this nation should have gotten.

DG: FALSE!!! I wish Walt and some of those other johnny reb folks were in on this thread. There were Irish slaves.. yes SLAVES. There were Italians who were often attacked for employing blacks in the south... THIS GUY IS FULL OF BS.

More than 100 years ago, when America was becoming a nation of immigrants, that meant many skilled blacks were kicked to the curb so some foreigners could get on the gravy train, however much hard work that train demanded.

DG: FALSE. He ought to prove it.

So I feel no great love for the idea of immigration as some high-minded aspect of American history.

DG: Bitterness isn't healthy. He tries to be on the side of right while really covering up hate. However, we all know you can't cover up overflowing bitterness.

Stanley Crouch is no racist, in fact he is a conservative.

I think he made a poor choice of words in describing the "oppressiveness" of ancestry, but I think you have focussed on a tiny porton of this article and have ignored the main thrust: he wants to safeguard OUR country from any Muslim immigrants who might wish us harm.

His comments are more directed at the current P.C. stance of "diversity is wonderful."

He's quite happy to exclude Africans (his own ancestry) who are Muslim, rather than to toe the liberal line that "everything is beautiful."

He's not insulting your ancestors or mine, he's wanting to keep all of us safe FROM SOME OF HIS OWN ANCESTRY WHO MIGHT WISH US HARM.

Don't miss the forest for the trees.

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