By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times @mikemcgannpa
It’s hard to watch the events of the last few days and not be shocked and disappointed. Violent, hateful rhetoric continues to poison our national conversation and the daily lives of the people of Springfield, Ohio and some western Pennsylvania communities.
It’s not the first time Americans have been turned against immigrants, seen racial tensions stoked for nothing more than political gain, but you’d think that maybe, we’d have been able to evolve into a fairer, more tolerant society.
But it seems like every day we’re being told who to hate — immigrants, LGBTBQ+ community members, black folks, liberals and so on.
And yes, it always has been easier to hate than to love.
With the exception of a handful of very wealthy scions, every one of us has at one time or another been part of a minority, whether racial, religious, economic, social or otherwise. We’ve all felt alone, unloved and isolated.
So why are we doing it to others?
I’m not excusing it, but it is true we live in a historically unfair society — too many have been left out, underpaid, overworked, struggling just to make it day to day. Too few are hoarding too much wealth. The rich and corporations have more say over our lives than we do, the most at any time since the Gilded Age.
A justified anger is being twisted and used against those with the least power, the least ability to defend themselves: immigrants.
Unless you are full-blooded Native American, you come from immigrants. It doesn’t matter if your people came on the Mayflower or you came here last week, the story is almost always the same. People come to America to build a better life.
My great grandfather, Edward Cox, came to this country in the 1870s as a young man, after his family fled from starving Ireland to England in the 1850s. At first, life here was hard: the neighborhood in Queens, NY where he settled was not particularly hospitable to the Irish immigrants coming into the city. One still could see signs that said “Help Wanted, Irish need not apply.”
He worked his way up in various jobs, scraping together enough money to start an insurance agency and then got into real estate. Those early entrepreneurial days were tough, his young family lived in a cramped apartment above his office. With time and a lot of hard work, he prospered. He became part of the local volunteer fire brigade and soon found himself involved in politics.
He was elected to serve in the NY State Assembly and then won election as Queens County Clerk — a position of great power and prestige. He counted Al Smith as a close friend and functioned as something of a political boss in Maspeth, Queens.
I’m not bragging, so many of us have family stories like this — it is the embodiment of of the American Dream.
So why are we recycling the awful ethic smears used against virtually all of our ancestors when they first came to this country? Haitians are not eating pets. They’re not stealing jobs.
They came here fleeing terrible violence and want nothing more than to work hard and build a better life for themselves and their families — just like your ancestors did so many years ago.
So why are they being targeted?
Because there are those in politics — specifically Donald J. Trump and his Make America Great Again movement— who need you to hate. They call back to the Know Nothings of the 19th century, spreading hate and even using some of the same horrific terminology. Just the other day, Trump — the son of an immigrant — literally said that immigrants are animals.
They are not.
They are people, just like you and me. They work hard, mostly keep their heads down and stay out of trouble. They commit crimes at a much, much lower rate than white, native-born American men. We know so many here in Chester County, folks who come here, work the menial jobs very few of us are willing to take, save, start their own businesses and prosper.
They should be welcomed into our community, not attacked. They make us better as a nation.
Hate is the only thing that can keep us from being the greatest nation in the world and our enemies around the world know this. Those few dictators who hate our way of life seek to divide us, make use of “useful idiots” to spread misinformation and hate.
I know in my heart, we’re better than this, that we can aspire to be that “shining city on a hill” as Ronald Reagan described America.
But we have to say “no” to hate.
I pray that we can do that and soon.
