About Immigrant Ambivalence

The USA remains the most interesting experiment in human history. A nation born of immigrants (yes, violently for sure) and built by immigrants. The nature of immigration may have changed during the 200 plus years of existence of the US of A, but the fundamentals have not. We remain a country of opportunity where anyone (without a specific family lineage) can do anything they want (and there are plenty of examples).

I recognize there are exceptions and I am sure anyone, anywhere can come up with an example that states "Person A from Country B was discriminated by a White Person A or a Black Person B" or anything like that. Yes, we have our warts and problems - but I maintain that we remain a country of opportunity for anyone who has the skills and the determination to succeed. Other countries may offer something that resembles what we have, but no one comes close, NO ONE.

Yet, many immigrants are ambivalent. They are happy to make money and live a comfortable living (more than what many would have been able to do elsewhere or in their own countries) - yet they are intensely uncomfortable with the very aspects of this country that make their success and progress possible. To take a minor issue, several years ago, when I was in graduate school, I had a friend from Greece who wanted to have our Government legislate how many types of flavors of soft drinks there may be - he thought it wasteful that we had so many, and so he was OK with the Government decide how many and what and where. (I suppose there may be others like him also - willing to let the government decide as long as it does not impact them and their lives)

There is an element of hypocrisy ofcourse, but many simply cannot deal with this society that is fundamentally open and transparent and accepting of different peoples and their looks and their culture and everything. People scream about hollywood and rock music and loose morals and public displays of affection and vulgarity and all that - yet, they remain citizens of this country. They are torn - between what they would like the country to be and what it is - forgetting that what THEY want may not be what their neigbor wants and thus not recognizing the brilliance of the system that allows individuals to be who they are while allowing anyone to be successful and anything they want.

There is no country on earth right now that tolerates religious diversity as the USA does. Yes, I know very well that there is overt and covert animosity towards Islam - yet we do not hear large scale pogroms against the Muslims. This is still a peaceful nation, unlike many around the world.

Many of my friends know me for how strongly I criticize many of what this country's leaders do - Republican OR Democrat (and yes including inane rulings by the Supreme Court, and I am not trained as an attorney) yet I am unambiguously a big fan of the US and what we stand for in the world - yes, inspite of stupidies in foreign policy by president after president after president.