DE FRAG
There can be little doubt that in recent decades one of the biggest divisive factors working against the unity of our nation has been Immigration.
The irony of it all strikes us particularly hard because we have always been proud of the fact that our nation was founded on the concept of immigration of souls from Europe into the New World. The growing nation depended on oncoming people from all cultures. Now, it is obvious, we need some controls on such a flow.
The need is not new one. We have faced up to that problem in the past especially in relation to the exclusion of specific types. We have tired various ways of doing so by the use of quotas and allotments and percentage charts,and ignored any which did not produce the results we expected. Even when it was obviously not working as planned, we took a certain pride in “protecting:” our shores from less admirable aim migrants.
Since the 1970's it has been increasingly obvious that our national visage was changing dramatically with the steady influx of increasing numbers of Hispanic and Asian immigrants - both legal and illegal. The Los Angeles county area, in California is one which is most often cited statistically because such numbers can be startling. In the 1980's the Hispanic population of that LA area alone increased by 1,300,000 people! Try to imagine that: a new city of one-and-a- third-million citizens dumped into one area many with little or no knowledge of the language and with little, or less, prospects of gainful employment.
There are other causes of division in our country, of course. They became obvious during the recent presidential election and we will face it every time we choose official in the future. We were extremely lucky this time, but cannot afford to ignore our immigration problems much longer without inviting future disaster. Other include marked changes in our moral standards and relationships God and religious beliefs. The are economic problems which must be solved- especially those related to equality of opportunity around the world. We have been torn apart in many ways by the unrelenting demands of technology which insists that we discard or refashion traditional ways and means of doing things. The fermentation of knowledge has created a bulk far in excess of our ability to handle it. The machine has become an essential to our way of life instead of an addition thereunto.
i
A.L.M. December 11, 2004 [c422wds]
