The Best Citizens of All

They came from all over the world to Ellis Island. Sixteen million immigrants passed through her doors. They came to find a life filled with hope instead of fear. . .

“You press forward to the bow of the ship. After three weeks at sea. . . After years of hunger and dreaming… For the first time you see it . . .”¹https://www.history.com/topics/immigration/ellis-island

There she stood, the Statue of Liberty – the symbol of America.

“Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”²

Emma Lazarus, The New Colossus. She wrote that America was “Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, with conquering limbs astride from land to land.”

They rolled up their sleeves and went to work. They gratefully took the humblest positions in work, the least desirable housing, and the lowest place in society – because it was better in America. At least here they could look up. Things would get better. And they did. They fought their way up by the only weapon they had – hard work. They learned the language, the history, and the ways of America. Then they could come to the proudest day of their lives, becoming an American citizen! They went on to fight in America’s wars and enter every realm of their beloved adopted country.

Unwanted and oppressed in their native lands, they found dignity and acceptance in America. They didn’t come demanding their rights. They only wanted a chance and America gave them that. They loved the nation that gave them a new life. And they made the best citizens of all.

This was not “multiculturalism.” It was the only way in good conscience a man could cross the boundary from one culture to another – by embracing the new one you entered. If it weren’t superior, you wouldn’t have come. Since it was, you treated it that way. Then there was peace in the land.

SEGREGATION

In large cities where there is a large Asian population, you will find invariably a “Chinatown” or the equivalent. In some part of the city will be the Black section of town. Next will be the Irish Catholic section, and one can continue on, according to all the different cultures that make up that city. People naturally gravitate to their own culture. They feel more comfortable there. Forcing them out of it causes discomfort and alienation. The New York Times, in a major series on race relations recently, quoted one black woman about the desire of another black woman to integrate into the white society around her:

“It’s a wanna-be thing,” says Mrs. Ray, who attends a black church. Her sister-inlaw, she thinks, is too eager to make white friends and entertain them in her home.
“Some people don’t know who they are and have to go somewhere to validate themselves. She doesn’t feel comfortable being black.”³June 4, 2000, “Testing the Faithful” by Kevin Sack.

Those who are comfortable with the way God made them are being made to feel uncomfortable in today’s twisting society. Yet what
do people do when they have some refuge from the laws compelling them to integrate? They segregate!