Our daughter, who lives in Cincinnati, is recovering from an accident. So we, our son and his family, went there for Thanksgiving this year. We had Thanksgiving dinner at a wonderful old Cincinnati hotel. At an appropriate point I had us focus on what we're thankful for and started by saying that I'm grateful for the intelligence to have proposed to Jeanette fifty-six years ago. It's a biological truism that none of us would've been the same without Jeanette, but she's has been a great blessing to us all.
Then I pointed out that our families came from lots of places. Part of Jeanette's family got here in the first boat after the Mayflower. My grandparents came from three different European countries and my mother was sent here at the age of eight to live with sisters who'd already come.
This country treated us well. It wasn't easy but our families put us through college, as we did for our children. Everyone's doing fine in our chosen fields and have strong ties of friendship to Americans of all kinds.
There are lots of people who say "I've got mine so I don't care what happens to you." We don't feel that way. We're grateful to America and want to pay that back by supporting its future. Without taking credit for what others did, immigrants built this country from the railroads to the restaurants, served in the military and fought in its wars, strengthened its universities, its science and its culture. We want a better and stronger America for ALL to enjoy – those who trace their families back to the Dutch, British, Spanish and Native founders, those for whose freedom our ancestors fought to keep making America better, and those who more recently found a haven here. We don't take America for granted. Immigrants don't take America for granted.
But too many seem to want to take it all back. Instead of honoring the genius of America's principles, they'd choose who's good enough to be American based on who their parents and ancestors were.
The Constitution prohibits hereditary titles, makes everyone born here citizens by birth, and repeatedly and deliberately includes everybody by referring to "Persons" and "inhabitant[s]," not people of specific ancestry or even people who have been here a given number of years, as the basis for representation and for rights.[1] But prejudice against immigrants has been growing.
The Constitution prohibits a "religious test … as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States," prohibits any "law respecting an establishment of religion," protects "the free exercise" of religion, and respects religious sensibilities by coupling the requirement of an "oath" with the alternative of an "affirmation."[2] Those are the only references to religion in our Constitution, but there is rising sentiment to restrict by faith the rights granted by the Constitution.
White Nationalists dishonor what America was founded to accomplish, making clear that the so-called "right" is wrong and the left is right.
So let's give thanks to the real America protected by the Constitution, with all the Amendments, consecrated "far above our poor power to add or detract" by "The brave men, living and dead, who struggled" at Gettysburg and after. And for those who seek to substitute for elections held under the Constitution, and substitute for public officials who uphold its rules and restraints, let us dedicate ourselves "to the great task remaining before us … that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."
— If you think I'm on target, please pass it on. For the podcast, please click here. This commentary was scheduled for broadcast on WAMC Northeast Report, on November 28, 2023.
[1] Art. I, secs. 9-10; Amend XIV, sec. 1.
[2] Art. VI, sec. 3; Amend. I.
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