Every 100 years or so we reclaim our decency and our constitution. Abolishing Slavery, keeping people down was most inhumane, followed by the Know Nothings dislike of Irish Catholics in the 1800’s. The 1860’s and a civil war had our government announcing that Slavery was over, all are emancipated. Stating all people are free did not make it so. The next hundred years saw sinister white men devising ways to limit the rights of former slaves using Jim Crow and the Ku Klux Klan.
The 1960’s witnessed equality directed primarily for African Americans. Rev. Martin Luther King, John Lewis, Bull Connor and his police dogs, human beings brutalized on the evening news brought a more awareness of the country we had created. This resulted in the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The law did not just recognize the mistreatment of African Americans but included as protected classes, race, national origin, religion and was expanded later with more protected groups.
Generally, hate has not been the essential motivator for such discrimination. Viewing people as less than us was sufficient. In our disregard of fellow humans, we must visualize people as less and not deserving of equal treatment. We all should know better and reject it. Unfortunately, we apply this “less than me” attitude to immigrants today to justify our treatment, incarceration, even deportation of many.
Most understand immigrants are seeking a better life much like many of our ancestors. At least one in five jobs in the food industry is carried out by immigrants, the equivalent of 14 million workers across the sector. This includes 27% of agricultural workers nationwide and 33% of meat packers. According to an estimate by the Migration Policy Institute more than 250,000 undocumented immigrants in California worked in the accommodation and food services, arts, entertainment, and recreation industries in 2019. The U.S. agricultural sector primarily relies on both documented and undocumented immigrant farm workers. Immigrants make up as much as 78% U.S. farmworkers (Payan, 2024). Over one million U.S farmworkers are undocumented, which is roughly 70% of the farming workforce (Castellanos-Canales, 2021). If people are afraid to go to work, or attend immigration hearings, or drive a car or simply send their children to school, or wonder will their father, mother, children, or relatives simply be gone? This will result in lower production. Will our grocery store shelves have bare spots previously filled with products? Is this the America we are creating.
Uncontrolled illegal or undocumented immigration presents a legitimate problem which we need to address. The current approach of snatch and grab, kidnap and terrorize approach can not be our choice nor is it supported by most Americans. Hate must not be a motivator in deciding whom we support in America. Fairness, people’s rights, decency and a belief in our constitution, our moral code must be our base line. Our history and our traditions must matter to us. We are moving toward a different America; one based on fear. Fear is motivating this change. First the extremely wealthy fear losing their wealth and seek to guarantee their status through power. The upper middle class fear their status declining and seek to gain control through the ballot box. Others see the pie divided into too many pieces. It was viewed as bad enough when African Americans were included. The fear of job loss by white America has raised its head in an ugly manner. Even those who recognized in the 1960’s, previously enslaved individuals, deserved a seat at the table but not at the head of the table and most assuredly not my seat. In fact, President Lyndon Johnson, a Texan, said as he signed the Civil Rights Act “we have lost the South for a generation.” He missed it by about 3 generations and it has expanded beyond the traditional South.
How does this compare to earlier years? Think of the world many grew up in. Think of the feeling we felt about others, caring, helping. Think about those times, what was happening. Rock and roll music was heard on transistor radios. Our music began with Bill Haley, Elvis Presley, the English invasion, Bert Bacharach & Hal David and more. “What the world needs now is love” was written by Bacharach and David. The civil rights movement, the Vietnam war protests may have inspired this song. Younger people agreed with that back then. Have the baby boomers forgotten why they believed it? Seniors now, who vote regularly, may have lost that hope and replaced it with fear. We can’t let another 100 years pass. In the name of hope, decency, America, and equality for all, we must reverse our path now. Will the year 2060 see better days. We can not simply dream of returning to a reimagined time referenced in the pop song, American Pie. As a nation history will record our accomplishments. Our hope is to be remembered for giving the world the finest constitution ever written and not only for wearing blue jeans.
Phil's Personal Perspectives 