HarryShearer.com

There is an understandable level (perhaps) of pompous self-flattery on this day, but one myth propagated widely on such occasions is that this is a nation of immigrants, welcomed not just by a certain statue to life in these U.S. On the other side of the speechifying table are those who decry the unprecedented cruelty of our current policy towards newcomers to these shores.

May I say, as the child of immigrants, that both sides ignore the extremely checkered history of this nation’s attitude towards such people. As in most social attitudes in this still-young nation, views about immigrants have swerved widely down the decades. Some examples: we welcomed Chinese immigrants—”coolies”, we called them—to help finish building the transcontinental railroad. Then California passed a little law called the Chinese Exclusion Act. Irish citizens flocked here after the historic famine, to be met for decades with “No Irish need apply” signs in Boston. The federal government knew, during the late 1930s, of the danger posed by Hitler to the Jewish populations of Europe. Yet boatloads of potential refugees from such terror were turned away from our shores, sending them to their deaths.

And in no way is the U.S. unique in this matter. Western Europe has been facing unprecedented migration from impoverished African countries, and that has accelerated the rise of anti-immigrant movements from Hungary to the U.K. And just this week came news of big anti-immigration demonstrations in South Africa.

Of course, this nation also abounds in chest-thumping language about “we built this country”, ignoring—and now erasing—the fact that much of this country, including a certain white residence, was built by slaves.

It is not, as certain high-ranking pols suggest, degrading or slandering this country to acknowledge these faults. Civilized grownups recognize their mistakes, and do their best to rectify them. Adult-sized children, not so much.