Looking Backward

From Puck, courtesy of the Ohio State University*, a cartoon mocking certain attitudes towards immigration in the States, circa 1893:



Once upon a time trappers and tinkers; no sneers from me, these are mighty bloodlines stronger than princes, survivors who thrived seeding an extraordinary nation. I personally would loved to have met my ancestors who left in the Puritan migration, this descendant is proud of their secular scorn defying the nonsense of the witch trials, their determination to prosper. One day if I can find enough info, I might even write up their story, cos they were smart and tough as hell.

But everybody starts somewhere and very few started from here, wherever here may be. Those poor shadows fled Europe where at least one would have faced persecution all his life and the rest would have been poor as road dust.

It never does any harm to look at where you came from.

Immigrants bring strength, and the US has a labour shortage. So, putting aside pure They Are Not Like Me issues, what is the problem? Sorting illegal claims to welfare, that's an issue that needs sorting out. Lawlessness and connections to criminality, that's an issue which can't have been helped by the brain-crunching stupidity of Defund The Police. Fixing these may be expensive, but are they as expensive as building vast walls and keeping a perpetual army on your Southern border? This is not the way. Working on stability with your neighbours so that their citizens don't look to you as the way out, that may be a way.

But what does a stranger know?

Oh, and no, I am not about to start calling the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America. I am hopelessly archaic. To me, Yorkshire is still 'The Ridings.'


* The Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum