I have to ask the hard-line immigration folks:
What would you have if you had to give up everything not made in America?
Would you have a car? What about your house? Who built that?
What about food? What American dish really gets you moving? A hamburger?
Spaghetti? Sorry...Italian
Tacos? No...Mexican
Those vegetables? Picked by immigrants...no can do.
I would love to hear from you and don't lecture me on the immigration process...
I was just in the Philippines...and they gave me a yearlong visa AT THE AIRPORT because I brought my marriage certificate (married to a Filipino) no questions asked.
Coming back into the US? My goodness you would think I was strapped with explosives...all those pat-downs...I served 21 years for this?
298
@Scott Franklin, Great post, but trust me, your pat-downs are nothing compared to those I get about 60% of the time I travel. There is no doubt what the TSA agents are seeking-- they want to cop a feel. And yes, I do mean the women. It is an act of sexual assault and one I meekly put up with because the alternative is so, so much worse.
48
Wow - I rarely if ever agree with Stephens. But he hit the bulls-eye here.
32
It would be good for Trump to read "My Antonia", but then again he doesn't read. Maybe he should get the book on tape that he can listen to while flying on his many trips to to play golf.
37
It's too bad My Antonia is a printed book and not a Fox News short clip!
32
I had occasion to know many evangelicals thru an extended airbnb host. Educated people who repeated ti me , someone they knew to be a child of holocaust survivors, george soros paid the “caravan” of pseudo migrants. Some of these socalled do- gooders” traveled often to Guatemalan Christian orphanages yet denied any of these fleeing immigrants were legit. Other blatant antisemitic conspiracy accusations were rampant such as eye- popping refusal to believe news stories that Bloomberg donated miney to his alma mater for financial aide. Comments such as “where did he get his money anyway?” - were horrifying.
23
Good column today. Thank you.
16
Read Willa Cather? I'd be happy if resident Trump or any of his base read the back of a cereal box.
41
There is much blame that goes to Big Corp. for putting migrants in harms way now. Let me explain. I worked at the Boca Raton Hotel in the early 90's. It was then owned by Arvida Corp. The hotel would hire immigrants a plenty. They would live on the hotel's grounds, be fed left-overs in the worker cafeteria. All their costs were being calculated and would come out of their pay. They had no choice because they had no "papers". The hotel knew that and took advantage of that fact. The workers had to wait 4-6 weeks for a pay check. Without papers that is too long and too scary. Many left before obtaining pay; just short of the time for which they would receive a ck. from which their expenses had been deducted. I also worked as a volunteer for the Migrant Farmers associated with Fl.Atl.University. There I learned that DOLE would promise Guatamalan's green cards and various other papers to come to the US to work sugar cane fields in FLA. So they came without the papers in hand; never ever to receive them; which caused them to have to be on the run. Many left to go to other states. But while in FL, I saw them living in squalor on company property, giving all their pay to the "man". Putting their children on buses to schools they did not know the location of; etc. Deplorable? You Bettcha, and that's Corp. America for ya.
32
Immigrants in her days wished to assimilate. Many today do not and the Democrats kowtow to them. That's the issue.
4
When he responded to a reporter asking why he didn't cut off the chanting, he said several times that he started speaking very quickly, a very obvious lie since the video showed him gloating for 13 seconds before he began to speak again. Why didn't the reporter call him on this? They had no restraint about challenging Obama; why can't they challenge trump on video on the record?
Another question: why doesn't trump spontaneously explode from all of the festering poison inside of him? What a disgusting lump of protoplasm he is!
50
Just had lunch with 3 Hispanic men, working at odd jobs on their time off to make extra money. Hard working, quick to earn, reliable and always cheerful. They are examples of most of the local workers, digging ditches for PGE, helping landscape houses, nannies for children, maids and restaurant workers, learning construction skills , trying to fit in.
These folks are like our forefathers, immigrants, appreciative of the opportunity America can offer, willing to work hard, taking the abuse of some with a smile. These are good people and we need them.
50
The difference today is that white people are not coming from Europe but brown and black immigrants.
America made sure it decimated the Native Americans who were on these lands by lying, cheating and stealing their lands through fake treaties or out right fraud. This cleared the way for Willa Cather's family and many others to take the land and thrive.
16
Mr. Stephens, reading this OP literally brought tears to my eyes. How shamefully far this country has regressed from it's once inclusive ideals. Thank you for writing such a succinct piece. klee.
15
"That we have a president who doesn’t believe this, and a party bending constantly to his prejudices, is a stain on the United States. We can erase it by recalling what we’re really about, starting by re-reading “My Ántonia.”"
History records indelibly, there is no erasure.
18
Many of our 6th/7th generation real Americans are the most vocal. (mine) Texas is full of lil German towns. They are very proud of their heritage. They are very pro Trump. They have lost their way. Sounds like a remake of the confessions of a Nazi spy movie...ouch!
15
This is an excellent column from a surprising source but what surprises me even more is that an avowed conservative has written a stronger rebuke to Trump's racist xenophobia than either of the recent attempts by two of your "moderate" commentators, Thomas Friedman and Frank Bruni. Rather than fighting back, Friedman and Bruni have taken Trump's most recent expressions of racism as an occasion to encourage the Democratic party to roll over faster and more effectively. As a Democrat myself, I hope our party moderates read this and realize that it's ok to fight back aggressively against racism.
29
Everyone knows Trump is an immigrant basher and is a racist. Most Americans are neither. Why then is he still popular? He is still regarded as a political outsider who dares the system. He is also an entertainer that can connect with his audience (would you rather have Hillary speeches?).
He is masterful in his use of the Media. He controls their narrative. Have the DEMS succeeded in highlighting the obvious- failed immigration, infrastructure, foreign policy- Iran and Korea and everything other nation, China trade, lack luster economy and jobs that are only incremental from Obama years? They need to deal with issues and get beyond his theater.
8
My great grandparents on my mother’s side were Swedish immigrants.The were just 19 years old,newly married and came in1869 to Illinois.I have a copy of their entry papers..just name,country of origin and age....that was “legal immigration “ at the time.My grandmother told me that they went to a school in which only Swedish was spoken for the first 4 years.They were discriminated against...”dumb Swedes”.Despite the fact they were thought to be dumb,they did quite well...lawyers, a University professor,very successful farmers.My father’s ancestors came from Scotland in the early 1700’s.They fought in the revolution and later moved to Kentucky.They had 13 slaves which they freed because they came to think that owning another person violated their Christian beliefs unlike today’s evangelicals.It is interesting to me that none of my relatives oppose immigration and understand that it takes time for them to assimilate.It’s because we know where we came from..we’re not ignorant of our history or how our ancestors struggled to succeed.Could it be that Trumpian bigots are not only ignorant of history but just plain lazy.. they think success should be guaranteed to them..that they shouldn’t have compete with anybody else?Actually they are a different class of elitist..one that feels that because they’re white,they’re entitled.I can’t imagine my ancestors blaming anyone else for their struggles.They understood what really made America great in the first place.
29
In 1964 I spent a summer working in a carpentry loft on Houston and Broadway in New York. One of the new hires, a Jewish carpenter who looked like he'd led a hard life; he kept to himself and worked very hard all day at what was not an easy job.
One day we were working side by side and got to talking. He was a concentration camp survivor who had somehow made his way to Israel after the war, yet now he was here, in the United States. Why, I asked, after struggling to get to live in Israel for years as a free Jew, did he give that up and move here?
He looked at me in disbelief. "America", he said, "America!"
That word was known throughout Central and Eastern Europe, from Italy through the Balkans and Poland to White Russia and Ukraine where my grandparents all lived. It was a word that conjured the dream of freedom, liberty, and a chance at a better life. "America" had a meaning that touched their hearts, that gave them hope for a better life and future.
I wonder if that's still the case in this age of Trump.
383
Much as an admirer of Willa Cather and Mr. Stephens' general sentiment, the practicalities of today's large illegal immigration crisis require different solutions than those of almost a century and a half ago. The number one practical solution is how to accept very large numbers of unskilled immigrants when we have very large numbers of citizens who because of their low skills are being left behind by a new hi-tech economy. The new economy is the real issue that requires a government initiative along with the private business sector to solve. Until that happens, Mr. Trump will be able to scapegoat the desperate new immigrants at the enemy. This is both the challenge and the great opportunity for the Democrats and simply expanding social welfare programs is not going to cut it. They have to develop a new Fair Share economic package based on education, skill training and private sector jobs. They have to address the anxieties and fears of current citizens while calling out Trump on his noxious political strategy on blaming all our problems on the "The Others."
16
Mr. Stephens, thank you for celebrating the work of Willa Cather. "My Antonia" is a moving, beautifully written novel, a vivid account of the immigrant experience. I say the same about "O Pioneers!", another great Cather novel. At least one commenter said Cather ignored the suffering of Native Americans. But in "Death Comes for the Archbishop," Cather wrote about Native Americans with sympathy and sensitivity.
15
Trump's ugly rhetoric about "the Squad" is completely beyond the pale, and Omar's own behavior in no way excuses it. But we should not lose sight of two things.
First, Trump's comments were most likely calculated to give the Squad a boost by prompting the Democratic Party to unite around them and thus weaken the party's center (and the party as a whole).
Second, while Trump is pandering to the deep-seated bigotry within his base, it is not because of bigotry that many liberal Democrats (and probably a fair number of reasonable Republicans) dislike Omar as much as we do. We dislike her because of her penchant for scurrilous and self-promoting populism (one of the main reasons we vehemently dislike Trump), which inflames divisions instead of solving problems.
7
While "My Antonia" is a beautiful romance, it is also a window on one of America's greatest mistakes -- the development of the Great American Desert.
"Dry soil farming" should never have happened; yet, the railroads had worthless land; European peasants had none. It rained in 1860's, and the desert bloomed, a century of rain in a decade. The land was marketed throughout Europe to Volga Germans, Czechs, Swedes, etc.
So, they came to the prairie. To a land without trees, without wood for houses or fuel to heat them, where water was 100 feet under ground, where herds of buffalo and bands of savage nomads were almost as destructive as the plagues of grasshoppers that regularly immiserated them.
And for all their struggles and compelled accomplishments, what survives? Agriculture dependent on government handouts, a depleted aquifer, and six or seven perpetually red states.
22
I've read this! I love Willa Cather so thank you for this clever analogy, Mr. Stephens. (O Pioneers is probably one of my favorite all time books).
I doubt Trump has read this book (or would), but you might consider sending him the audio version.
9
While I agree with most of this, there are a couple of caveats.
1. The land was taken from the real native Americans, who were inconvenient to "white" Americans, many of whom were immigrants in any case.
2. The farming practices led to the great dustbowl of the 1930s, an early incidence of climate change.
3. Some of this country then was converted to oilfields, which were even more profitable and short term, with dire unintended consequences in this present.
4. Now we have floods and other increasingly wild weather consequences which ultimate will damage the world's food supply.
5. Bret Stephens has allowed himself to be seduced by Lomborg and Pielke Jr. into thinking the above doesn't matter. But the earth itself is rebelling against its apex predator.
So yes, it's a great story, and there are many lessons about common humanity to be learned. But let's not be smug about it. Trump and his team of wreckers and enablers are so awful we forget the problems remain when the worst is removed. We need to take this seriously, and work together to solve problems. It is our only hope. That is true moderate socialism, and it's long overdue.
16
I am thoroughly surprised to have found a column by Bret Stephens that I basically agree with. Now we just need to convince him that doing things like fully funding education budgets and paying teachers fair wages will result in more kids reading and understanding the lessons of great books like "My Antonia."
15
we're all born prejudiced; it takes work and experience and grace to mature out of that.
4
au contraire. you must be carefully taught.
8
"As I looked about me I felt that the grass was the country, as the water is the sea. The red of the grass made all the great prairie the color of winestains, or of certain seaweeds when they are first washed up. And there was so much motion in it; the whole country seemed, somehow, to be running."--My Antonia, Chapter 2
14
Another great immigrant tale from the past is Rolvaag's Giants in the Earth. The exact opposite of Little House on the Prairie, this book brought home the desolation faced by the early immigrants, and the bleak reality of starting from scratch.
13
Reading cultivates critical thinking which conservatives abhor with passion. It messes with their fixed view of the cosmos. "Don't confuse me with facts; my mind's made up."
13
This sounds good, but it misses a crucial distinction. People who came in the past were expected to learn English and assimilate to the prevailing local culture. They didn't come here and call everyone racists/sexists or ask them to confront their "white privilege.” If they had, they would have been sent home quickly. It isn't Trump that changed the rules. It's liberals who decided that apologizing for themselves is the best form of self-promotion.
94
@Michael Livingston’s Two major corrections. First, elementary schools in many immigrant-rich districts in Nebraska were taught in the native language, such as Swedish, Czech, Danish, and German, until World War II. I believe that today we would call that bi-lingual education, but most assuredly children were not forced to abandon the languages of their families.
Second, as someone with deep Nebraska roots, I can assure you that the leaders who financed and operated those public schools would bridle at being labelled "liberals" as you do in your comment.
286
They would not have been sent home quickly. And here is why: This is a free country.
170
@Michael Livingston’s
My German family wasn't expected to learn English until the World War broke out. In 1919 Nebraska passed the Siman Act, which outlawed German-only education. It was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in Meyer v. Nebraska, but until then, there was no expectation my German family and their neighbors in Richardson County would have to conduct church, school or business in English. It was only the xenophobia brought on by war that changed that expectation.
307
This column column is music to my ears. During the last few weeks we have been subjected to an especially loud refrain of the xenophobic chorus echoed even in some of the columns of the Times.
I am primarily of English and German descent and the last to immigrate came here in the 1880's. Most of my ancestors came much earlier. They came here in an era of open borders.
While many argue that is no longer possible, their arguments all seem to come down to the bromide: Its time to pull up the gang planks or the ship will sink. Well that is not clear. Show me some data that immigrants do not add to the ship's cargo capacity. I don't think it exists.
My Antonia is a classic - another old novel on a related subject, the South during Reconstruction, written in the 1870's by Albion Tourgee, is "A Fools Errand". BTW I just learned that Albion Tourgee was the lead plantiff's lawyer in Plessy vs Ferguson. At least for the last 10 minutes the internet is wonderful.
4
Thanks for reminding me of this very American book. Its message is, very much indeed, a much more American one than the vile bile 45 spews. I'm glad to know the book is still on high school reading lists.
6
Nostalgia for the past isn’t sound immigration policy.
9
Sometimes I wonder.. If not for wishful thinking would we have any thinking at all left?
1
Cheers Mr. Stephens. As a descendant of the region of Bohemia too, my great-great grandfather, Simon (Levi) Loew, as the eldest of five, departed at the age of 12 from his family, sought a better life and prosperity in America. His arrival in 1860’s with only a name of a distant uncle scribed on a pierce of paper, ultimately made his way to San Diego. The business he created back in 1873, from cattle, dry goods, chandlery (stocking Adm. Dewey’s fleet), and to the distribution of wines and spirits, carries on day with the seventh generation in tow. And along his journey, like Antonia Shimerda’s, filled with fits and starts, he was able to appreciate the other, his fellow travelers, and stood shoulder to shoulder protecting those Chinese citizens in the late 1880’s in ports of San Diego from mob rule, exercising his proud responsibility, his moral assignment, of being one who rose in the ranks to be a civic leader sharing his great sense of hope, aspiration and family.
9
I am a recent immigrant to the US and have always felt privileged to be here. I don't perceive that President Trump has any antipathy towards immigrants in the way that you do. The issue at hand is illegal immigration as well as the perverse incentives created by the current legislative stalemate to asylum seekers, some of whom are legitimate according to our laws, and others who are not. Immigration reform has been badly needed in this country that is still the beacon of freedom that many aspire to. President Trump is trying to get Congress to act, however they remain obstinate and recalcitrant. The Democrats and you Mr. Stephens seem determined to perpetuate the current mytg that this administration is anti immigrant, racist or xenophobic. Can you please engage in a truthful dialogue on immigration?
10
I would suggest listening to Terry Gross interview with journalist Garrett Graff 7/18/19 for in depth coverage of immigration policy and current crisis at the border in context of the mismanagement of the Customs and Border Patrol agency. Current administration policies are clearly designed to exacerbate suffering of asylum seekers and all immigrants at the southern border. Compounded by systemic dysfunction at CBP it is a humanitarian crisis worsened by inhumane and headline grabbing policies that do nothing to serve interests of this country or its immigrants.
7
You’re engaging in willful denial of the president’s actual statements on the record.
7
Immigrants and their U.S.-born children now number approximately 89.4 million people, or 28 percent of the overall U.S. population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2018 Current Population Survey.
Trump’s tweet applies to only four of them.
So, asserting that Trump wants immigrants, per se, to go home is absurd.
8
Nice essay. Heart-warming.
3
Willa Cather is indeed a representative of the best of America, just as Donald Trump represents the worst of the nation.
My favorite Cather is "The Professor's House," about an elderly academic, but also about his protege exploring the ancient Native American cultures of the Southwest. But any Cather novel (O Pioneers! or Death Comes for the Archbishop or The Song of the Lark as well as My Ántonia) is worth reading, and her stories -- like the classic "Paul's Case," too.
When she was young, Cather was called by the nickname "William" and sometimes wore men's clothing. Her closest relationships were with women, and she lived with the editor Edith Lewis for nearly 40 years until her death.
I have visited the graves of Cather and Lewis in gorgeous Jaffrey Center, New Hampshire, and I will always treasure the words on Cather's tombstone from My Ántonia:
". . . that is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great."
You can listen to all her works, in the public domain, for free on YouTube, read by volunteer readers from AudioVox. The hours spent listening will make you forget the current news.
11
How can you ethically or spiritually deny to others a privilege you yourself did nothing to earn?
12
Well done.
5
"My Antonia" (1918) was seminal American literature about the immigrant experience in America. Willa Cather knew what living in a democracy was all about. And yes, Bret Stephens, our American president is the most dangerous bigot and racist ever to govern the U.S.A. Those of us who witnessed Donald Trump's base chanting "Send her back!" about Representative Ilhan Omar -- a naturalized American citizen and lawmaker -- felt the chill of fear and anxiety about our country heading into Fascism led by our president.
We're living in a topsy-turvy world of dystopian fear under Trump. This president's first two wives were immigrants, naturalized American citizens, from Eastern Europe. Three of his children by Ivana Trump are Czech/American and one, by Melania Trump is Slovakian-American. And yet Daddy Trump throws unending brickbats and curses at immigrants seeking asylum? He calls his people "patriots" for chanting against 4 Congresswomen of color, one of whom was born in Somalia? No wonder we're all living in stress and anxiety today.
Donald Trump won his first presidency because he dished out his vile racism, bigotry, and misogyny, like bread and circuses and tweets and reality TV shows, to his ravening loyalists. Now as our president, he cossetts his ignorant base by gaslighting the truth. Will president Trump win re-election? Only if he isn't impeached or removed from office and the world stage before 2020.
7
Going to a good public school in Nebraska in the 90s, I assumed only we read My Antonia and Willa Cather — no doubt embedded in our identity. But I wonder if anyone reads it anymore — whether in underfunded public schools or elite private ones (they probably just read Marx and Rand these days). It’s plain spoken modern truths are definitely needed today (you can see how it influenced Hemingway and Fitzgerald).
Today Nebraskans probably don’t know who Willa Cather is ... no longer a common sense, moderate place — kind of like the rest of America. Though its extremely difficult to refund public school, fix culture, and get rid of Fox News.
6
Willa Cather was one of the best American novelists ever. Her books evoke an era long gone, when people grew their own food, made their own clothes, worked together as a community, and worried about the mechanization, urbanization, and globalization would have on family farms and small communities.
She also was an early feminist, using strong female characters to anchor her plot lines.
Her book "One of Ours" is one of the best coming of age/war novels ever, and much of her work is infused with historicity that helps you see the rural, verdant, non-GMO, hard-working, land-loving, nature-loving country America used to be.
Every one of her novels is exceptional, and some are heartbreakingly poignant.
Donald Trump isn't known as a man who reads books (other than his beloved Mein Kampf), but he'd do well to read Willa Cather.
Her work could educate him, thaw his cold heart, and give him a conscience.
4
A balm in these trouble times. Thank you Bret Stephens.
6
well said.
Its not about immigration— its about hate, avarice and control.
3
Have read it a few times, along with Cather's others. Better yet, drive around those Nebraska Sand Hills. Still tons of land there, even small towns are few and far between. Plenty of room, yes, but how to make a living?
The far better book, also intimately about immigration in Nebraska, is "Old Jules" by Mari Sandoz. It's incredible in a way that "My Antonia" is not.
And intensely paradoxical, because Jules is so diabolical. How can one individual can do so much social good and yet be so repellent to his own family? But that is the reality, and the true narrative of Jules and the struggle between newcomers and established power structures, not to mention
harshly demanding elements, is compelling in a way the more fictional Cather book can't measure up to.
If you can't actually drive through the sand hills, read "Old Jules" for a riveting, hair-raising glimpse of the reality of home-steading on stark prairie wildlands. Then we can really talk.
Stephens, you sound like a progressive idealist, like Mark Twain or John Steinbeck.
3
Brilliant op-ed.
3
Whenever I’m driving through Detroit and pass large swaths of blighted buildings and homes, all I think is, if only we could let immigrants come here, give them a little food, shelter and assistance, they would rebuild all this and turn it into a thriving city.
There is so much room for more people in this country and they would really help make it great. What a shame 40% of the citizens are such ignorant racists.
16
Amen! Thank you.
1
I don’t see the problem as the rights of immigrants, which are human rights. In a free society such rights can and will be exercised. What’s not being exercised are governmental duties— I see almost noone living up to those, at least in the Trump Administration. There are those in the thankless governmental bureaucracy who understand this. We need to thank them.
2
I suggest that we all reread Animal Farm and imagine the trumpsters bleating “Four legs good, two legs bad.” And then, “Four legs good, two legs better,” .... Baaaaaaa
3
We fought the Indians. We made a country from nothing to the best in just 200 yrs.(free labor works) If you don't like what we've done then you can leave. Love it or leave it. Trump 2020.
White entitlement 101
This is how many white people feel. The race to look or act as white as possible.....same as it ever was.
2
Glad you finally found this, Brett.
1
Hear hear!
Foreigners will probably start assimilating into American culture at around the same time Americans start assimilating into Native American culture.
6
Immigrants were very dominant in some communities. One of my elderly relatives who was either an immigrant or first-generation American from Norway said that back in the day, black American kids in their community spoke Norwegian because it was the dominant language around there. I think it was in South Dakota but I'm not sure. Inclusiveness used to be celebrated in a certain retailer's signing and advertising, because one place where all sorts of people should be able to happily come together is in a store, all waited on with welcoming friendliness. Conservative Americans, don't you remember your Sunday school lessons about how there's no longer Jew or Gentile, Greek or Roman or Ethiopian, now all are one (paraphrasing a bit). Yet red-state bible thumpers ignore passages like this, reject welcoming foreigners, etc.
7
If fifty cents was worth $12, then a penny was worth about a quarter dollar.
Which means that every year as inflation continues unabated, we must deal with finer and finer divisions of money.
$9.99 = the sign of Satan because it's ubiquitous purpose is deception.
Utter nonsense. Amazing how Trumpists rewrite history to confirm their biases.
My grandmother came to America from E Europe and never fully learned the language and never fully assimilated.
But she proudly became an American citizen, valued America’s freedoms (including the freedom to express herself and disagree with government policy) and knew enough to encourage her children (my mother) to pursue an education and follow the American dream.
I can assure you no one was “sending her back” anywhere for having opinions.
6
I read it in high school, close to sixty years ago, a great read. I wish every teenager in America would read it. It does stick with you. Thank you Ms Cather.
4
No mention of the original inhabitants of this land, and how they were exterminated to make way for these immigrants.
5
There was nothing but land...not a country. What white Christian hyperbole! There were indigenous tribes all over this continent and to ignore that fact is another white washing of history! Who came before the pastoral immigrant farm family? More ethnic cleansing.
8
Let's not forget that Willa Cather was a member of a sexual minority. She was widely thought to be a lesbian.
4
I borrowed some prairie from my daughter and went to live on the land again. I bought some nails, a barrel of molasses, a tin of lard, and a long twine rope for my journey. while traveling across acres of sunken hops I met a man going the other way. "Where you off to, stranger?" I asked him. "Back to civilization" he replied, taking off his hat and wiping a rattlesnake from it." "Why's that?" I asked. "Too many dang writers comin' in and scribbling away all the good bottom land" he said, with half a sneer. "You a writer?" he asked me.
"No" I said honestly. "I'm a dreamer with a barrel of molasses." He shook my hand then. "You'll do well, pardner" he told me cheerfully. then he walked on back to civilization. the dope.
next I came across a family of cottonwoods taking a long drink from a small stream. they nodded at me in a neighborly fashion, letting their cottony seeds drift down on me. so I settled in to farm the land and sing the songs. when the drought came and killed off all the cottonwoods I still had my barrel of molasses.
1
The line from My Antonia that has always stayed with me is this one: The prayers of all good men are good.
7
Missing in this article is the simple fact that xenophobia and attempts to halt other groups from arriving began with the pilgrims (a bunch if religious zealots tossed out of their own homeland). Each large group following them was also trying to impede 'others' .
The very sad reality is this: Xenophobia and distrust are part of USA's cultural 'DNA'. . .and with Trump-Pence it has become as American as 'apple pie'.
4
I'm not reading about any refugees or immigrants speaking ill of the U.S. After all, most came because they thought they'd have opportunity. If you're referring to the 4 women, then remember, they but one were born here.
And I'm really tired of hearing people clumped as liberals or conservatives. The loudest voices are on the far ends, and are not the people in the moderate and perhaps civilized middle. Among them all, there are a lot of ill-informed and ignorant people just sounding off.
6
As Seth Meyers puts it:
“This is beside the point, but three of the congresswomen you’re attacking were born here and they’re all American citizens. So if you’re asking them to fix the totally broken, crime-infested governments of their home countries, they’re trying.” — SETH MEYERS
11
The party of plutocrats spend billions on political operatives and think tanks, with fakes studies, use their ministry of misinformation of fuax news and Sinclair network and fund politicians who are hucksters, clowns and conmen/women, to con voters to who vote against their own interests with trickle-down economics of tax cuts, corporate welfare for their friends, reduce worker rights/income, privatize social services like education, healthcare, etc.
The GOP preys on our country’s deplorables with racism, misogyny, homophobia, religious zealotry, etc because informed voters are not stupid enough to continue vote against their own economic interests. This has been going on from Nixon, except that now Trump is doing overtly what their past leaders did covertly.
There is no hope for ignorant people who are intoxicated with their xenophobic arrogance. To undo this GOP cancer we need political leaders with a vision like Elizabeth Warren, who wants reverse their trickled-down plutocracy by getting money out of politics, and offering universal care, green new deal, breaking up of monopolies, affordable education, etc..., everything that a great nation like our deserves and to which the GOP fought so hard against. We must reverse the Reagan devolution which turned us into a plutocracy brought by their deplorable voters for the sake of their evil plutocrats.
3
beautiful explanation of what could be, should be, My Antonia. I'll re-read myself. Now to listen as readers pick apart. Want to hang on for just a few moments to the ease with which you wrote these words, thanks during these bitter bitter days.
3
Fine piece, Bret! I, too, read and loved "My Antonia", and the many other works of Willa Cather.
What's missed in your otherwise fine column is that the laws, or lack of laws, on immigration differed greatly from today.
Over time, what used to be porous borders became ports of immigration, such as Ellis Island, right next to Lady Liberty and her torch of light and freedom.
FDR himself denied the pleas of hundreds of Jews on a ship trying to flee the gas chambers of Buchenwald. Eleanor was at his side pleaing for an exception to the law. It did not happen as Congress would not change the law.
The same is true today. Congress must change our immigration laws in order for a President to consider signing them. Why not focus on the law-makers first, and then work to vote in a President who will sign them.
I'm betting Willa would agree.
6
"That we have a president who doesn’t believe this, and a party bending constantly to his prejudices, is a stain on the United States. We can erase it by recalling what we’re really about, starting by re-reading “My Ántonia.”"
A fine piece! I would amend the final paragraph (quoted above) by saying we must begin by voting him out of office.
3
Racism has alway been a part of the conversation in this country. Trump has given voice to those who in the backrooms and Bars and the "social clubs" and around the dinner table. It has deep roots of envy by those who they perceive have through special treatment have achieved some advantage and have managed to survive the undertow of ugly speech.
The boot straps by which they managed to get a foothold may be a result of a generous government program as code word for socialism. This hate filled conversation will not recede back into the dark corners until we regain our sense of kindness to our fellow citizens regardless of their accent or dress.
3
While it's wonderful that Mr. Stephens accurately identifies in Cather's novel "My Antonia" the essential value of immigrants to the fabric of American, I'm afraid he's reading her work through rose-colored glasses. I recommend Mr. Stephens also read Cather's short story "The Sculptor's Funeral" [ https://cather.unl.edu/ss008.html ] to see a portrait of how the "leading citizens" of the fictional town Sand City, Kansas think. The lawyer Jim Laird's excoriation of the men sitting watch through the night over Harvey Merrick's coffin, as well as his own fate in life, is an indictment of their small-mindedness, their mendacity, their bigotry (the character Harvey Merrick, like Willa Cather herself, was most certainly gay), their arrogance, their destructiveness, their fear of being less than those who have achieved something real in life, and -- yes -- their de facto power within the small, relatively insignificant circumference they occupy. If you want to understand why Kansans (to use the name metaphorically) "voted against their interests" in 2016, read Willa Cather's "The Sculptor's Funeral". Therein lies a portrait of Americans that few of us want to acknowledge.
5
Thank you for this. Now, Bret, do us all a favor. Announce that you’ll vote for whoever the Democratic nominee is. Don’t keep dangling the possibility of voting for a third party. Because if you really think Trump is so bad, the only sure way to get rid of him is to vote for a person who can’t beat him, and only the Democratic nominee can.
5
Trump is hideous and dangerous but the members of Congress and others who support his lies, hate, xenophobia, and racism are even more frightening and dangerous.
6
The real way to erase the stain is to replace all these cowardly Republicans in Congress, defeat Trump in the November 2020 elections, and then have the next President appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Trump's many crimes and hold him and his family accountable.
Accountability is the real stain remover.
6
Oh how I wish the trumpers could open their hearts and understand this message!
4
And to see a dramatization of the worst kind of treatment of immigrants, contemporaneously with the idealized "Antonia" story, watch Cimino's "Heaven's Gate," where the greedy anti-immigrant "patriotic" forces hunt down and slaughter the "others," mostly "just because," in Johnson County WY in the 1900's. Xenophobia is nothing new, demonizing immigrants is never good, yet Americans tolerate our so-called leader spew these despicable taunts to incite real violence now.
3
Ha! When I read My Antonia a few years back, I was surprised at how badly it appears to have aged in regards to racism. There's a chapter on a black singer, D'Arnault, that is totally racist. Mark Twain knew how not to be racist towards African-Americans. Willa Cather did not. I challenge anyone to read that section without seeing it as racist. Almost all literary criticism avoids that section.
3
Blah blah blah. Firstly democrats should proclaim loudly and often that they don’t support unfettered and illegal immigration. Second they should make it very clear to anyone who will listen is that capitalists and conservatives exploit these illegal immigrants for monetary gain. Third, make hiring an undocumented a criminal act. Guess which party will block that initiative.
5
"That we have a president who doesn’t believe this, and a party bending constantly to his prejudices, is a stain on the United States. We can erase it by recalling what we’re really about, starting by re-reading “My Ántonia.”
Sorry, but I don't see how the Republican Party which is "bending constantly to his prejudices" is suddenly going to start reading "My Antonia." In fact, I don't see Republicans in Congress or anywhere else reading any book at all, because they get all their news and "facts" and "history" from Fox News and talk radio.
4
That's a touching narrative about Willa Cather, but her love of immigrants went only so far. Daniel Okrent's masterly book on the immigration wars of a century ago ("The Guarded Gate") provides this lovely description of a character named Siegmund Stein, taken from Cather's short story, "Scandal":
"He is one of the most hideous men in New York, but it's not at all the common sort of ugliness that comes from over-eating and automobiles. He isn't one of the fat horrors. He has one of those rigid, horselike faces that never tell anything; a long nose, flattened as if it had been tied down; a scornful chin; long, white teeth; flat cheeks, yellow as a Mongolian's; tiny, black eyes, with puffy lids and no lashes; dingy, dead-looking hair----looks as if it were glued on."
(From "The Guarded Gate", p. 267)
As noble as the sentiments voiced in "My Antonia" might have been, there may be better role models for tolerance of "the other" than Willa Cather. Sorry if this spoils Mr. Stephens' illusions.
2
Michael Collins photographic image of “The Earth Rise” wasn’t available to Willa Cather. Nonetheless she encapsulated the same sentiment as the photograph; that this planet does not belong to anyone, and we are all in this together, traversing the universe for a brief moment in relative time, on our only spaceship, a tiny chunk of dirt and rock we call earth.
3
All points taken. But people of color, elected or not, native or immigrant, who bash this country and want to turn it inside out are going to get harsh blowback, more so than other anarchists. You don't like it, I get it. BTW, what constructive purpose did the tea party freshmen serve to the GOP? Not much, I'd argue.
3
First problem, the audience who NEED's to read this, or many other similar tomes, many of them more current - ain't likely to do so! Trumplodites are not picking up old books, anymore then their Orange tinged leader is gonna read his current Intelligence briefings.
Second; this - "To fourth- or fifth-generation Americans who now say their ancestors came here legally, unlike today’s undocumented workers, that’s largely because the getting in was easy."
Yeah, point that out to these ancestral virtue grabbers, and the best they can say is, "Well, it was still the legal way in!"
Which is a valid point, a small one for sure, but very difficult to insert any sense into. Only thing left is to try and figure out what their current illegalities are and call them on them...but that gets us no where.
Third. There is no negotiating, no reasoning, no fact based means, to deal with the Trumplodites. They are not interested in negotiating. They are decided, and as such they are dug-in like ticks. Extraction is only thru force, when Trump is no longer president. BUT they will not be letting go of their POV's...but will instead seek more ways to be more biased, more belligerent, and more non-negotiable.
Fourth. Nothing anyone on the staff of the "failing" NYT is saying is finding a way into the Trumplodites circle...that isnt there for the sole means of evidence of the Deep State, the Soros, et al owned MSM outlets, or simple ridicule.
Trumplodites do not seek a cure. They want more.
2
“Otherwise, the American dream was available to anyone who could pay a 50-cent tax (about $12 in current dollars) and was not a “convict, lunatic, idiot or any person unable to take care of himself or herself without becoming a public charge”
Does this mean Trump would be kept out of the 1889 Act were still the test?
4
Immigrants have been a big part of Making America Great. America is Great and if we allow trump to continue his racist, lying, immoral and unethical behavior is when and why we will have to make AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. America is already great right now because of help from immigrants. Cheap labor allows us to pay a normal price for all kinds of regular stuff like landscaping, fast food, and most American products. Look at how many illegal immigrants trump has employed and may still employ them. His father was an immigrant who must not have educated his son on the value of immigration.
We are already great thanks a good bit too immigration and if we allow trump to continue it is what will cause us to have to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. WE ARE ALREADY GREAT and trump needs to thank is illegals for making America Great.
Yes, exactly. Thank you.
1
Thanks Brett. We could all use a dose of Trump antidote!
Most of the characters in My Ántonia thought the indigenous were savages, not quite human. And treated them accordingly.
Just like we do today.
It was their land to share but we stole it.
2
There was a lot more room for immigrants in 1930.
3
A recent article in the Minnesota Star Tribune suggests Omar may have committed fraud in her income tax filings, campaign finance reporting, and marital status related to qualifying for citizenship. In fact her background suggests she has woven a tangled, secretive web about herself not unlike that of the spider in chief. I notice neither the NYT, the author, nor any of the bleeding hearts in the comments section are addressing these issues.
3
Nostalgia for the past is not sound immigration policy. In 1900, the population of the United States was approximately 76 million. Today, we have almost 330 million....with 7 Billion worldwide.
The American citizenry is under NO obligation to offer up our country as a pressure release valve for the world’s overpopulated Billions. Our government’s obligation, first and foremost, is to serve the best interests of the ‘American citizenry’...which doesn’t include the over 20 Million illegal aliens brazenly residing here...along with the tens of thousands trying to jump our borders every month.
Enough histrionics over this issue. We’re a sovereign nation with defined borders and immigration laws. Deal with it.
7
I love Willa Cather, a fine writer and most likely homosexual—which wasn’t often discussed in her day. Did your high school mention that? Alas, it isn’t just immigrants that Trump and his Republicans relentlessly target. If Cather were here today, she would no doubt champion immigrants. She might also show up for the gay pride parade.
3
America is an experiment, and just like in science all most all experiments fail. America almost failed in the 1860s coming within an eyelash of complete disintegration. We are now on the verge of another civil war that will again test whether or not the experiment will continue or fail. The odds are not in our favor.
5
Our ship is indeed listing perilously towards a treacherous vortex that once entered may cause the break up of the nation, with anything escaping from the maelstrom completely unrecognizable as America. All of this propagated by right wing Christian evangelicals, white supremacy extremists, & the new American Oligarchy that has infected & taken over the once dignified Republican Party.
Moderate Senate Republicans & Sen. McConnell could stop this slide into the abyss but their cowardice, greed & lust for the hold on power ( at any cost ) has instead pushed us closer & closer to the edge.
I’m reading Erik Larson’s ‘In the Garden of Beasts’ & the descriptions of a changing 1930’s Germany under her new Chancellor Hitler is very eerily similar to what is rapidly unfolding in America. It’s only a matter of time before Trump’s fan club goes total mob scene.
3
The column is a wistful evocation of an earlier time in America, and, of course, New York Times readers seize upon it to lament our current President and his policies on immigration, which are too often incompetent and borderline racist. But commenters should remember that our country is no longer a land where millions of arable acres remain, waiting for the plow. We no longer have thousands of factories needing labor, even if it is uneducated and unskilled. Mr. Trump said a true thing recently when he said that we are “full”. Our population has more than doubled since the 1950’s, and the reason for this population explosion is immigration. Those of us who are concerned with climate change must also be concerned about the threats to the other species with which we share this continent, resulting from loss of habitat because of the paving over of America. Congestion, pollution, pressure on water resources (see California and the West), and environmental degradation, generally, are all a result of too many people, and that is because of excessive immigration, both legal and illegal. We should strive for a zero population growth , or even negative population growth society. An important point is that this newspaper and the mainstream media generally are obsessive in advocating against any restrictive immigration measures, and yet I do not remember one article or opinion piece in the Times which examined the environmental effects of our immigration policies.
8
Maybe we should also look at the role that America has played and is playing in creating the environmental degradation that causes international migration.
2
Unemployment is at an all-time low. Modern day factories, retailers, warehouses, fruit growers, .... they all need more workers. So you’re flat out wrong. Immigration is essential to America’s success.
1
Thank you for your comments. Certainly valid concerns. Much of these challenges should have & could have been solved via bi-partisan legislation early on but our Legislative branch of government stopped working for the general welfare of the common people, sold out to their donors, got lazy & slow with some going full on corrupt during the last decades of the 20th c & now we’re about to drown in a swamp of stagnation with the fractured parts of America blaming others for the mess we’re in. And it certainly doesn’t help that we’ve got a really damaged guy at the helm, running the show - rubbing salt in America’s self inflicted wounds every chance he gets, aided & abetted by a bunch of corrupt know-nothing cabinet members & the characters over at Fox.
1
Does Mr. Stephens believe that Trump's supporters read books?
13
@Frank O
Does Frank O believe that ‘intelligent’ citizens paying $12,000 in health insurance premiums (with a $5000 deductible) will vote in favor of providing ‘free’ medical care for illegal aliens?
6
You are barking up the wrong tree Bret, as usual. And thank you for pointing out the correct pronunciation. And with this op-ed, people will feel that they don't have to read the book. Their loss. How about writing something on "To Kill a Mockingbird" or "The Keepers of the House" or The Grapes of Wrath."
3
Captains and Kings was one of my all time favs
@Marvin Friedman, never read it but did watch most of the mini-series. I was not into reading as much back then as I am now! But i did read a lot. I remember driving in the car to Bethany Beach as a kid and my mother reading a Talyor Caldwell book. We sat in the back and rolled our eyes!
I will have to read this book as half my DNA is the same as that of Ántonia Shimerda. I met my great-grandfather who came to America in the 1880s. He was 103 when he died shortly after our meeting and, unfortunately, I was too young to appreciate his story. My interests then were eating, sleeping and playing tag, kick-the-can and other such activities. The other half of my DNA is mixed with some of it dating to before the Revolution. My 6th great father on that side was Abraham Clark, whose signature is the Declaration of Independence. Trump's America is not my America and although he is president, he is not my president.
8
As lovely as Ms. Cathers portrait of America is it needs a little updating. There is no free land for would be farmers unless you count the myriad free services as a later day substitute, the difference is those are paid for by American taxpayers already here, taxpayers who in our increasingly inegalitarian society need help themselves. This is not the eighteen hundreds, this is 2019 when 1% of the population owns 90% of the wealth and 90% of the population are struggling: no free land, maybe a below market apartment in San Francisco if your relatives are politically connected. This is more like the era immediately preceding the French or Russian Revolution, an era of “ let them eat cake”, or in our case let our fellows Americans, the ones already here, eat out of dumpsters and sleep rough while we tell ourselves “ they’re just lazy”, this as we encourage more cheap labor to show up at the border. It’s a fact that since quotas were changed in the sixties labor has fallen way behind on the wage front. The most intelligent ideas for immigration have been for more highly skilled folks to be admitted and the less skilled back too quotas. So let’s see a show of hands from all the Doctors, Lawyers and tech folks who are in favor of millions more highly educated immigrants, especially Doctors that we need being fast tracked for citizenship, India and Cuba alone could erase our Doctor shortage tomorrow and I know they would love to get onboard the American healthcare gravy train.
5
I particularly love the end of the novel when the narrator visits Antonia as an older woman with many children and sees that “She was a rich mine of life, like the founders of early races.” So it is with all ancestors to new lands. I want to say in response to those who are annoyed that the writer of the article did not address Cather’s personal biases or conditions at that time for people of color already in place. I believe he was discussing only the book and its contribution to the subject of immigration. Not Cather herself. However much we wish she had reflected personally everything we do, at some point we (usually, anyway) must separate art from the artist in certain discussions, like this one. If we block out all artists who have ever had a personal flaw, we will have little left to read, look at, or listen to. My Antonia is a precious work, of great importance to what we want and keep trying, to make America live up to. Maybe I wouldn’t invite Willa to tea, but I’m grateful she wrote the book.
7
Immigrants are great. We are all immigrants except for Native Americans. But our ancestors came here legally. They did not, incidentally, when they came in 1890 receive any "social" services. It was work or don't eat. Study hard and apply for citizenship, including learning to speak and write in english, and reject allegiance to any other country.
6
@Ancienthoosier
They DID receive social services. They got it through their church, or the Grange, or the CO-OP that farmers started.
It is the fundamental conceit of conservatism that the decision by people to provide services in addition to, or in place of, these other communal structures is "evil".
It makes no sense, but that's why it's conservativism.
4
@Bob Woods In other words Bob people contributed to those they chose to, often with religion or commonality of business interests not to whom their politicians dictated they pay for largely for political purposes. Therein lies the rub, Americans are being asked to subsidize people with whom they must compete for rapidly diminishing job opportunities, we are in an era of shrinking opportunities unless you are among the 1% of enormously intelligent or enormously well connected folks who own or will own just about everything, to compare 2019 America to the America of our great great grandparents is ludicrous, there is no “ we’re all in this together” anymore, never more so obvious than since I’ve moved to this rural area of Oregon from San Francisco and Portland. The “ deplorables” in rural areas are much like our grandparents, many were in the Armed Forces together and served in conflicts, they still help each other out, are very kind and generous, even though they have very little, real Americans, not the shrill Liberals who want to save everything but their fellow Americans who have been left behind as they bravely go to their startups and spend the day trying to figure out new ways to destroy( sorry “ disrupt”) middle class jobs: where will all these brave new disrupters be when America is dragged into the next war, not in a fox hole with a deplorable, that you can bet on. This is not 1880s America.
4
Beautiful piece. Like others, I too loved this book in high school. My grandparents were Croatian and lived in a company coal town in Iowa. Not quite the pastoral landscape of Cather, but still, so much of their wonderful cultural heritage from the 'old country' came down to me when I was growing up.
Great to see the conservative Stephens capture what should be our response to the immigrants of today--including them as part of our own history.
4
What will erase the stain, Mr. Stephens, is not simply re-reading "My Antonia" or any works by Paul Laurence Dunbar or Maya Angelou or Louise Erdrich or Sherman Alexi, but DOING SOMETHING in November of 2020. I am still frustrated by "moderate" Republicans like you and David Brooks who criticize this President and administration, but refuse to have the courage to come out and state: "I will not vote for this man in 2020 and I urge all Republicans to vote for the Democratic nominee, so that we can end this scourge on humanity".
14
Well, to bring up the obvious, early immigrants like those in this novel expected to survive on their own. They didn't come for assisted living in anyway beyond the chance to make it. Of course many new immigrants may have this quality, but it seems that, equally so, people line up for "free education", and other "benefits" they've heard exist. I work in a sanctuary city and I see this in play every day, and there is a benefits information network into which new immigrants often tap. That's a lot different than getting off a boat and looking ahead, with nothing but a willingness to work and a hope to succeed. The inherent expectation of aide sets up very different immigrant point of view. Yes, let's celebrate that spirit of American independence and self-reliance (a point explored by another great American writer) in anyone we meet, but let's not be naive about arrival into a 21st century country.
5
@PS I think you are correct. But I also believe that no immigrants come to America and expect to be on assistance for the rest of their lives. I think it also worth remembering that the assistance that people who need it receive is a result of the standard of living we have been able to create in this country and that many immigrants have made a significant contribution to that.
3
Much of the land in Nebraska & the rest of the Midwest was open for homesteading...that is to say, it was given for free to anyone, including immigrants, willing to live on it for 5 years. Blocks of land were given or sold for nominal amounts to groups of European refugees, who started towns where their native language & customs continued.
2
When our children were small and would tolerate long road trips during summer vacation, we took them to visit secular shrines in New England: Emily Dickinson's house, Hawthorne's Seven Gables house, etc.
On one of those trips we visited the gravesite of Willa Cather in Jaffrey, NH. It was far from imposing, but I was deeply moved by the words on the stone. "That is happiness, to be dissolved into something complete and great." It seemed to me it was the American earth itself that Willa loved and joined.
America's "greatness" has now morphed to something that Willa would find unimaginable and basically sinister.
6
At last, I find myself in total agreement with Bret Stephens. Cather is indeed a fine writer. And the current occupant of the white house might profit from reading her books, or having them read to him.
And while we're at it, how about asking some devout Evangelical to read him those lines in Luke that encourage us to "love thy neighbor" and then go on to describe the charity of the Good Samaritan.
6
Willa Cather was a great writer, an amazing American artist. And, to have been sitting among the greatest male writers of her time, a revolutionary. Her talent lives on. Ever the subject of scholarly study. to one can doubt her talent. That talent, to put the reader in the oh so intimate shoes of her characters is a gift to all of us. She is a great example of American spirit, to see the world as inclusive. But let's be clear, she was a fiction writer, not a historian. She told the stories to inspire human depth. Our job is to continue seeking our deepest connections as humans, all immigrants to this continent.
6
Thank you, an excellent commentary.
4
Trump's mother came by ship from a poor fishing village off the coast of Scotland. She became a naturalized citizen. Her profession was listed as a "Domestic." She married a man whose father was an immigrant. A child of recent immigrants can become President. Only in the United States.
4
Yes, great book, Bret. But for now I think we must read "How To Get Rid of Trump, No Matter What."
5
This is precisely what the Dem candidates have to tap into. This message reverberates with all of us who are completely befuddled by the lack of ability to counteract the effects of trumpism.
5
Thank you, Bret Stephens! “My Ántonia” was and still is a favorite of mine, is it read in high school English literature classes these days? It’s an American classic that everyone, including adults should read. I’m a a Cuban refugee, our family flew over on Pan Am Airlines and we were welcomed by Catholic communities and others throughout the U.S. Immigration was easy into the U.S. , the hard part was Castro. Why were we, Cuban refugees welcomed in 1962 and the poor, desperate souls at our southern border are no different. If my parents would have had to they too would have walked two thousand miles to reach the southern border of the United States.
Unless you are a member of the Shoshone, Yakima, Lumi, or other First Nation Peoples YOU are an immigrant and back in the day Irish, Italians and others also suffered being ostracized and demonized.
My family has been here since ‘62, we are eternally grateful to the Americans who helped us, welcomed us and made us feel at home! I have always been proud of my adopted homeland. PLEASE be KIND America, it costs nothing to welcome the stranger and to want to pass laws that are fair and just for immigration! We, liberals, don’t want open borders, we want HUMANE treatment of all people!
8
Thank you for this, except for the unnecessary slap at Rep. Omar’s views.
6
PlanetEarth:Your comment is quite good, well written, and points are well taken. "Des fois," comments are better than the article itself, and this is one of those times.This is a weak article, or rather the arguments author makes are weak. You can't compare immigration in the 1880's to immigration today. You cite the case of Sweden which has admitted hundreds of thousands of Somalians over the past years and many remain on welfare still today. Documentary film maker Ami Horowitz made a film about it and recounts that when he brought the subject up at a cocktail party the reaction to him one of hostility.ELITES make policies which the average citizen , taxpayer is forced to live with and pay for. We see this everywhere in the Western world.
2
Kind of a funny article. I like Cather's books. But let's be real here. The immigrants in Cather's novels didn't tolerate the indigenous people who lived on the plains, they simply exterminated them and moved on in. The people living in the US today fear immigration for the same reason. They fear that what they 'have' will be taken from them. That their way of life will be changed. I live in California and we have more immigrants, legal or otherwise, than most. We just became the first state to give taxpayer funded health benefits to illegal immigrants. Cost the California taxpayer $98M. Have to wonder what Cather's mythical characters would have thought about that.
3
My thought, too: has the journalist forgotten about the people already there? The land was not empty. It was stolen by settlers from the indigenous people. Surely we all can recognize this now.
2
You might learn about Cather and the real people who inspired her writing before dismissing her work. While you are at it, learn about what she accomplished not only as a writer but as one of the investigative journalists who helped propel the progressive movement.
1
my recollection of long-ago school was that My Antonia was required reading in NY schools and questions about it were on the Regents. for a while, everyone carried around the little (it's a short novel) gray book; girls liked it, boys hated it because, face it, it's more than a little soapy. meanwhile, our President was yanked put of school and sent to the reform academy for rich, incorrigible brats upstate. if he read the book, it had no impact. did he pass the Regents? no evidence of that, either, and his academic record is somehow sequestered. maybe he'll have time for it on a return trip upstate to prison someday.
2
Ridiculous. Most sentences in Mr. Stephens's article should be read with these questions in mind: is there a legitimate distinction between legal and illegal immigration? Should the law today be followed even if stricter than yesteryear's law? Does it follow that because one opposes illegal immigration, one opposes all (or most) immigration?
2
Sounds almost idyllic; unless you are an American Indian. There was nothing but land because by that point in time the American Indian genocide was largely completed. So much for the argument about today's immigrants not assimilating into the native culture. Settlers didn't start living in teepees, did they?
4
Now if only Mr. Stephens can start reading some climate science journals.
9
The idea of America described so well by Bret Stephens in his tribute to Willa Cather’s “My Antonia” is timeless and particularly pertinent today.
Let us not forget the bigotry of Americans whose own arrival in the 1870s only preceded the appearance of the Shimerdas by a generation or less. While immigrants played a vital role in building America, the tradition did include a reflexive animosity to those who came a few years later.
Let us also recall that the skin color of immigrants like the Shimerdas matched that of the neighbors who shunned them. Today, under the cruel regime of Donald Trump and his Republican sycophants, the pigmentation of people seeking a better life in America is used to justify any excess against the newcomers.
And, of course, that same racial bias continues against Americans whose ancestors arrived centuries ago, brought here against their will in chains. They were transported by white men whose parents and grandparents had reached our shores, eagerly seeking freedom, only a few decades earlier.
3
"The Perfect Antidote to Trump"
"...starting with the president, pretend to venerate and constantly traduce. You don’t have to favor sanctuary cities and the abolition of ICE to be on the right side of this debate. But you do have to recognize that the newest immigrants have as much claim to the country and its lawful freedoms as any other American. "
AND:
"...we have a president who doesn’t believe this, and a party bending constantly to his prejudices, is a stain on the United States."
Our Freedom Of Speech is the best defense against those who would turn our country into a dictatorship. Trump loves Putin, Kim and Xi Jinping and he would turn America into their sort of rule.
Americans have the right to speak their beliefs and while we respect that right, we have the right to oppose their beliefs, not with violence, but with our speech. Let's keep it that way.
2
One of the best if a somewhat incomplete column on the presidential race, But aside from the wonderful Willa Cather, I would urge every American who wants to exile Donald Trump back to Jamaica Estates where he can run for Borough President, to take a long look at William Weld, the former Governor of Massachusetts, who is challenging Trump for the Republican nomination for President. Governor Weld's strategy is to first target the 23 states with open primaries, that is primaries where voters can vote in any primary regardless of their registration. New Hampshire is an open primary state and if Governor Weld can defeat Trump in New Hampshire who knows what can happen. Just go to Wikipedia and read Mr. Weld's bio while taking a look at the video on his presidential campaign website. As a disclaimer, I am a progressive Democrat and am not involved in any way with Governor Weld or his campaign.
Experienced, credentialed, successful and the embodiment of anti trump his nomination, as long a shot as it is, would elevate American politics to a level that FDR, Ike and a few others once did. Even if the Governor can wound Trump, it could help the Democratic nominee.
2
I love Cather and appreciate the writer's overall message regarding immigrants. It is inexcusable, however, to ignore Cather's prejudice against Native Americans, which appears in her writing more than once. The white power structure that was quickly established in this land systematically killed uncountable peoples who had lived here for thousands of years. We have yet to reckon with what we did (and continue to do) to Native Americans. Stephens could have made a larger point by acknowledging that fact and been truer to his overall message.
1
My Antonia is universal to the immigrant experience it has nothing to do with whiteness. I live in Los Angeles and I could write the same story about our Latino immigrants. My Honda dealer is in a heavily Latino area in the SFV. Nearly all the workers are young Hispanic second generation Americans, as American as I am. I imagine their parents were gardeners, and other entry level workers but the kids are moving on up claiming their rights as Americans. And the dealer happens to be a strong Republican who has invested in this community. I once asked one of the young men if he knew that the owner was a Republican and he said all I know is that he is a great man. What a tribute. Keep the faith, one day Trump will be gone.
466
@irene
Neither black Africans nor brown Natives were American ' immigrants'.
Africans were enslaved white European American Judeo- Christian property.
Natives were brown Native human pioneers in America whose lands, lives and natural resources were stolen from them by white European American Judeo-Christian colonizers and conquerors.
14
@irene
but the damage will be done and we'll have to live with it!
9
@irene
Bit different with Latinos in the L.A. Basin--unlike Omar, they didn't come to this country to berate it after being saved from the savages of Islam. They came to work for their American Dream and appreciate American sovereignty as American citizens too. And granted Trump will be gone, but that's in 2024. Until then, we'll continue to hear American flag-burning rhetoric coming from the left whenever the issue of illegal immigration surfaces or Trump's name is mentioned.
8
You're doing, Mr. Stephens, what I'm doing. Clutching at straws.
Let me explain.
Back in the 1930's, a series of books came out with an odd theme:
"RIVERS OF AMERICA"
Huh?
Think about it. Suffering as they were from the great depression, the writers and publishers were doing what we're doing right now:
Clutching at straws. As who should say:
"THIS is who we are. THIS is where we came from. THIS is what our country is like--and that includes the great flowing RIVERS of our country:
"The Sacramento. The Susquehanna. The Tennessee.
"And others. Many others."
And so--you reach out, Mr. Stephens, to Willa Cather. Thank you, sir. I love Willa Cather. I have read many of her books. Including "My Antonia."
Like that chapter ending with old Mr. Shimerda gazing earnestly at the young boy telling the story.
"Teach! Teach my Antonia."
Oh Mr. Stephens. I recall that passage, my eyes fill with tears. I long to rush out into road, screaming--
"--This is not who we are! This is not WHAT we are!
"These wretched men and women, fostering their own hate--
"--they're not US. Not ALL of us. Not really!"
She died, Mr. Stephens a few years before I was born. In the 1940's.
May I live to see a better America rise up from the barren waste of Trump-ism. ! A kinder America. A wiser America.
An America Willa Cather would have loved.
The America she DID love.
The one WE love, Mr. Stephens.
Thanks for your piece.
451
beautiful column. I have been wondering lately why we don't open our borders? there must be a way to clamp down on the crime and and the criminals while letting decent hard working people in.
2
If you want to read a more apt description of what is happening, and a better description of the character of many of the people, read The Diaries of Victor Klemperer. Not American, but a nearer phenomena.
I just read the Wikipedia article about Willa Cather. Her parents were well off and she was extremely well educated - she earned a college degree. Like many other well off and well educated women of the day, she moved to New York City in her early thirties and remained a New Yorker for the rest of her life. Her stories about immigrants and American prairie life are actually highly romantic fiction. Most immigrants - the people she wrote about - would actually shun her because she was unmarried, wealthy and well educated. Fictional narrative of a past century is not a realistic way to deal America’s current immigration problems.
1
Kudos to Stephens for his humane thoughts on immigration and xenophobia in our country. But why is it, that like most if not all conservatives, Stephens can't resist injecting ideology into his otherwise commendable reflections?
Ilhan Omar's "rights must be defended every bit as vigorously as many of her views should be opposed", Stephens says. In my opinion, as an American Jew, nothing Omar said needs to be opposed on any reasonable grounds.
Omar said AIPAC has undue influence on American policy. That's true. She said "I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country." U.S. policy toward Israel is, unfortunately, influenced by pro-Israel sentiment in this country to support the current Israeli government in ways that do not support U.S. interests. And Omar's criticism of our country are not only merited, but less extreme than those that Trump himself has leveled against those tolerant, humane, liberal and, yes, truly Christian tendencies that are what actually makes America great.
11
I love that novel, too, but as an antidote to Trump, I can't see it. Pretty sure Trumpers, in the main, don't read, just like their golden calf.
4
I couldn't agree more. "My Antonia" is the most heartfelt story I have ever read about the early immigrants life out West.
Willa Cather's writing came together, in a way she had not in her early writings of the west, in her depiction of those early settlers and the roots they sewed for the betterment of this country.
Truly, a novel worth reading again.
Minnesota’s Representative Ilhan Omar was elected to do something, and if the people who elected her like what she's doing, she'll be around awhile. Otherwise she'll soon be gone.
That's how elections work. For now, there she is, and there she has every right to remain until the next election.
14
Cather as a more mature writer was one of the first to understand the divisions in American society that had beginnings in the Midwest. In 1931 she published “Two Friends,” the short story she considered her best, in which she sees not only two men, but also the fabric of society affected by the political divisions of the time. The fundamentalist themes of William Jennings Bryan provide a disquieting background to her descriptions of the beauty of the landscape.
In the recent issue of Phi Kappa Phi’s “Forum,” I wrote about such literary narratives that define a culture. Cather found the early themes, but also recognized the differences that were present.
3
Another important and relevant book about immigrants is Norwegian-American author O. E. Rolvaag's Giants in the Earth -- a story of survival, endurance and courage in the face of the unknown, a risk immigrants are willing to take.
5
Yes, Willa Cather was a major American naturalist and like Edith Wharton advanced the public status of women. Both were also anti-Semitic. Is this important? Does it diminish what they accomplished? I think yes, especially in Wharton's case and because you cannot unknow what is known. For all of us with a knowledge of the immigrant's story in America, one was far better off to be, like Antonia, a western European.
@Jeff Freeman
You should be more careful who you accuse. Cather had many close Jewish friends and was clearly writing in a different world than exists today.
Here's an in-depth examination her views: https://cather.unl.edu/cs002_semitism.html
1
Beautiful piece. My grandmother’s family was from Bohemia. They came in through Galveston and settled in Arkansas. My great grandfather was a tailor by trade but found himself farming in America. He spoke no English. Nobody ever tells me to go back to where I came from.
7
@Michelle Brockway
You do not have to speak English to be a tailor, farmer, plumber, housecleaner, farm worker, landscaper, pet walker, babysitter, hotel maid, cook,carpenter, mathematician,handyman, kitchen worker, sous chef, tree pruner, chef, waiter,dishwasher, electrician, or many other occupations. These are only a few
of the jobs people can do that do not speak English. You do not have to speak English or be White to be human. You do not have to speak any language to see the humanity in others. You do not have to speak English to appreciate art and music and kindness. Lets start there by recognizing human struggle for a good life. There is a very simple solution to all the madness. If you realize two things. That those that come here from anywhere are brave and take nothing from anyone or lessen anyone and secondly, we must realize that everyone wants the very same things out of this life. It is what makes us all the same.
6
I should add that my grandmother died at age 104 on the day Trump was elected.
3
Well done Mr. Stephens. This IS a country of immigrants.
11
I am going to read the book. Also, I think it would make a great movie, especially for these times.
3
@Dick,
It was a 1995 Emmy winning TV movie with an all star cast.
1
In the meantime you can watch “The Immigrants”, released — if I remember right — in 1976 and starring Liv Ullman.
Back when somebody could produce a movie with that name and still think it would do well at the box office.
I remember that story fondly from when I was in high school as well, and remember that it had a great impact on me at that time. I wonder if our president ever read that book? Oh wait, he doesn't read books.
I think he should go back to his families country of origin -- that would be Germany when On October 7, 1885, Friedrich Trump(dad), a 16-year-old German barber skulked away from there to avoid the draft. Like Germany or Sweden -- Trump's fantasy place of origin -- would want him as a citizen. Or even invite him to visit.
11
Cather loved America and she was an idealist and an optimist like all progressives of her time and ours. Sapphira and the Slave Girl is another of her books that celebrate the goodness of the American soul in the face of the reality of much cruelty in our culture. I agree that Americans are essentially good, generous people when they are forced out of isolation and made to have personal experience with "the other." The xenophobia that Trump is banking on is shared by a relatively small number of our neighbors. At a vigil at my City Hall last week the support of passersby honking their car horns far outnumbered those who yelled epithets. I am optimistic. As long as moderates and progressives do their job Trump and his cruel anti-American policies will be a piece of history come 2021.
10
The dairy farms in Wisconsin and New Jersey do not run without Latin@ immigrants. Nor does much of our agricultural produce and fruits. The work of these people is on our tables and in our restaurants. And for how many years we have had Central America's fruit and coffee at the expense of our support of oppressive regimes?! These are working, tax paying people who support our infrastructure and our retirements. How myopic to fear them in a deranged political theater that we see today under this administration and its' think tanks. We need pathways to citizen ship for these people. We need to get back to working quotas. We need to stop the mindless propaganda of fear and hate. This is a great story. Yes - realizing the story of immigration is what America is about. Thank you!
14
Well said, and true! I’m hoping that Trump’s vile policies will backfire on the farmers that voted for him and their produce will rot in the fields, vines and trees!
2
Beautiful. I remember the part where the Russian committed suicide and was going to be excluded from the cemeteries. I think it was the grandmother who indignantly said they would create an AMERICAN cemetery, meaning inclusive. That's a great country.
8
Thanks Bret for providing a historical and human perspective on immigration (we normally don’t agree on much.) This editorial should be required reading for both sides of the political spectrum. Real immigration reform, making legal immigration practical, is desperately needed now.
7
Thank you for this relevant, beautiful op-ed, a must read. However, it won't be read by the person who should. Forget the story about the persevering, forgiving Antonia and her family, this President does not even read a James Patterson novel which resonates full of egalitarian, empathetic values.
6
Nice try. Having just traveling through Nebraska, I recognize the landscape and the Czech influences.
It's all lovely, isn't it? Except these immigrants were white. And white immigrants have always found a way to assimilate.
The American story is not so lovely for immigrants of color. Not then, not now.
9
Since we're talking about My Antonia, let's not forget Donovan, the seducer who caused Antonia's out-of-wedlock pregnancy. Apparently being a huckster is nothing new.
Let's also not forget that the country was big and empty then. There was land for the taking if you were willing to farm it. The Europeans "discovered" half of the world, ran the original inhabitants out, and gained a 400 year relief valve for their excess population. It's beyond ironic that the current immigrants we're fretting about are the descendants of those people the Europeans ran off so long ago, albeit from a different part of the continent.
Given that the world has changed since then, our immigration policies should be updated. We need to decide how many and which people we should let in. But like many things across the spectrum, that discussion has become polarized, and we are unlikely to craft a reasonable solution.
9
Wait until the devastation of Climate Change! If you think immigration is a crisis now!
1
Thank you, Mr Stephens, for making this case. Much of today’s conversation is about asylum vs economic migration, with many considering the latter illegitimate. But the Shimerdas were economic migrants. Why can’t we show the same welcome they received? We are a much richer country now than when they immigrated.
11
THIS: "to have come from elsewhere, with very little; to be mindful, amid every trapping of prosperity, of how little we once had, and were; to protect and nurture those newly arrived, wherever from, as if they were our own immigrant ancestors — equally scared, equally humble, and equally determined."
6
Mr. Stephens offers a literate and hopeful recounting of immigrants in America. Unfortunately, a single column cannot offer the breadth of our experience. One singular omission is another type of “immigrant”. Another group who did not leave their homes because they wanted to. A group brought here by kidnapping and the horrors of the Middle Passage—Africans.
Landing in America did not hold the promise of a better life, but the continued violence and suffering of slavery. From the early 1600s to 1865, their lives were not their own. They did not find America the land of opportunity.
The 13th Amendment, while freeing them from the legal state of slavery, did not open opportunity to the newly emancipated slaves, nor their children, or their children’s children. Jim Crow replaced bondage with invisible rules and laws that trapped generations in poverty and powerlessness.
Lest we think that the liberating legislation of the 1960s or the election of Barack Obama brought African-Americans to the full promise of our land, remember that this one group has consistently been denied full participation in our civil, economic, and social life.
Rich, white people may individually seek an open society, but not enough of them to support progressive taxation, the allocation of public resources for universal healthcare, equality of education, and respect of everyone before the law—from the Supreme Court to the police traffic stop.
There’s a lot more for us to read. And think. And act.
15
Thank-you for this. The abandonment of the humanities for all STEM and business has a great cost to all of us. Business leaders have abandoned ethics. Tech people have never thought about ethics. Bring back real education.
16
Tech people? Many Tech companies are leading the way in social justice, example: Salesforce and Microsoft, also Amazon which is building affordable housing in Seattle. Careful not to demonize an entire industry!
2
An important element in allowing those long ago open borders was the ability to "take care of himself or herself without becoming a public charge." While the majority of immigrants are able to work, they still need much public assistance, especially in health care. In addition the strain on the school systems in many areas is immense. They require years of English as a second language instruction, interpretation of everything for parents, and free lunches. Yes, if the US was the same as in Cather's day, it wouldn't be a concern for anyone.
1
Immigrants legal and undocumented pay taxes. The undocumented do not receive healthcare other than emergency room services. Not a dollar of welfare or food stamps is given to them.
The folks that use welfare and food stamps are Military dependents. Look it up it’s fact!
3
Hey! I remember in the 1940’s
men (white men) would knock on our back door in Chicago for food.
My mother would keep our door locked and make huge sandwiches for them with fruit and homemade cake and they would eat on our back porch before they went on their way.
There was a big chalked x on our brick outside the building.
I
My mother said there were good men out of work, looking for jobs and wandering the country.
I think she showed us what “free lunch “ should be and was then.
1
Stephens gets it right about My Antonia, but the background to Trump's racism and xenophobia is left out of his discussion. Why is the GOP so willing to bend to Trump's harmful and inhumane prejudices?
The GOP political calculation is a brutal one. The wealthy people who literally own the party have found Trump and docile Congressmen to be willing tools in plunder.
Tax cuts go to the wealthy and businesses are deregulated. Nothing is done to combat climate change, to clean up polluted air and water, to fund education and health care.
Fights with "the squad" divert attention from the way we are being exploited.
The GOP is doubling down on an appeal to the worst in us and they are very, very good at it.
15
OK, Cather's novel presents a good immigration lesson for reactionary, frightened white folks (can we call them the new No-Nothing party?), like many of those posting comments here who have clearly never read the novel. But let's not turn Cather into a saint. The novel sings the praises of the Shimerdas as model immigrants and admires them greatly, so long as the Antonia's from their worlds don't marry the Jim's of Cather's. The New York world of the unnamed framing narrator and Jim Burden (as in the White Man's Burden?) remains inherently separate from that of the Shimerdas. And Cather's next book, "One of Ours," the war-time novel which few people like to talk about, is a jingoistic train-wreck.
4
jim Finnegan.
There was an anti immigration party back in Lincoln's day. Members were called "know-nothings", because when they were asked about the group they were instructed to "say nothing."
Bohemians in Nebraska? I thought all the Bohemians immigrated to Chicago, where the added art glass windows to the Chicago bungalow from Pilsen (neighborhood), going westward along Cermak (bohemian mayor Anton Cermak took a bullet for FDR), through Cicero, and eventually to Berwyn (the world's finest Chicago bungalows). Even though Chicago's great Westward Ho (Cermak Ave) has transitioned from mostly eastern european to mostly hispanic - one thing remains steadfast and true - people from all corners of the world love Chicago bungalows - despite 90 percent of the living space is the dining room. It's the bohemian art glass windows giving them infinite curb appeal. Nebraska is a nice place - as long as you're not too reliant on the Ogallala aquifer to grow corn for ethanol. So there's that to keep sort of on topic.
3
That's the story of the Drumpf (aka Trump) family as well. Perhaps you could send an audio-book c/o Donald Drumpf, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC and offer free copies to all his "base" as well. Then again the Shimerda family was white, and what really is THE issue is virulent white racism going back to slavery, the Civil War and the failed Reconstruction that led to Confederates running the state governments in the South, Jim Crow, lynchings, the Ku Klux Klan which Fred Trump joined, and only in my lifetime Brown v. the Topeka Board of Education in 1954 outlawing de jure public school segregation, followed by sit-ins in Greensboro, NC, the Montgomery bus boycott, Selma and civil rights marches, the Voting Rights Act, mandatory school busing (strongly opposed by Democrat, Joe Biden), the Republican takeover of the "solid South" with Voter ID laws, purges of the voting rolls, gerrymandering, and a conservative Supreme Court rolling back much of the Johnson-era progress on civil rights. Yes Bret, it's time to throw the book at Trump, but it's not "My Antonia," it's the Constitution. We fought the bloodiest war in America history to preserve the Union, and we're at the brink of losing it with no Lincoln stepping forward to defend and save it.
7
The point is ....that prejudice against the “other” is part of our human genome. Through life and learning and teaching we either overcome that prejudice or it grows and spreads. In many communities Catholics could not marry Protestants, Polish couldn’t marry Germans etc. Our leaders shape our perceptions of the “others” ...be they religious leaders or politicians or the elites of Washington or Hollywood. Most of the people at the Trump Rallies are looking for fun,it’s free, it’s part of history ..they might get on TV. Would most of them intentionally hurt an immigrant child or harm a member of congress? I hope not. But they would vote for a man devoid of character who said what they believed and couldn’t express just to make a point that politics is a joke and you might as well stick it to someone else. My Antonia is timeless in that it identifies this human defect , this prejudice against the “other” then reaches into your heart to show you who the “other” is. Great writers are a true gift.
6
Mr. Stephens, Are you actually aware of Ilhan Omar’s remarks that our president viciously twisted into a disgraceful pile of usurpitory rhetoric ? Her viewpoint was the need to separate Islamic terrorists from peaceful Muslims in the public’s consciousness. And she condemned terrorist acts vociferously. In that interview she mentioned a college class she took where the professor would move his shoulders to emphasize
“al-Qaeda”. That is what Trump declared was Omar’s support ! Let us face reality
Mr. Stephens, Trump has been twisting and lying his whole life.
13
Thank you. You are making an excellent, important point. The media enjoy a fight so they don’t consider the context or the reality behind controversial statements. When someone is criticized because of expressing disapproval of Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians both within their borders and near them (Gaza and the West Bank) that person is considered unAmerican! But the United States is not the United States of Israel, Israel is not a democracy but a theocracy, and when they take over the West Bank they will be practicing full fledged apartheid. They should be criticized for their behavior.
2
Nothing wins wavering Trump voters than references to Willa Cather.
7
I thought to be American was to be petty, callous, thoughtless, deceitful, destructive, generally intolerable and disgusting to everyone around you. Of course, I read "Great Gatsby" in high school, not "My Ántonia." I might add "Grapes of Wrath" did nothing to improve my interpretation of America's self-proclaimed idealism. Reading "My Ántonia" later I can't say I drew the same wistful nostalgia as Stephens either.
The book is most certainly nostalgic. I can't deny that. However, the book mostly conforms to the cultural norms expected of each character. The central characters end up exactly where you would expect them to end up in 19th century society. I'm not so wistful about a privileged New York boy ending up a privileged New York man for instance. Jim is certainly wistful for his time spent in Nebraska but is it really about Nebraska or just lost youth?
By the way, have you ever been to Nebraska? I do not miss my time spent there. In a story concerned with an unrecoverable past, I can say I have no wish to recover any part of my time in Nebraska.
1
Note that the land these immigrants farmed was violently taken from its original inhabitants, not that the immigrants, in most cases I suppose, had a hand in that taking. America's westward push was criminal in many ways, and those original inhabitants are still suffering.
5
Seems a decent read except for the line “These were the people who made the Midwest great.” I am not sure that the Kiowa, Lakota and other Native Nations would agree with the idea that the Midwest needed improvement, but European immigrants seem to forget that First Peoples were ever here, or that they still are here!
5
What “immigrant bashing” is Bret Stephens talking about. The United States granted permanent legal residency to 457,257 immigrants in 1880, the year the fictional Ántonia Shimerda came from Bohemia to America with her family. During the first year of Trump’s presidency, the United States granted permanent legal residency to 1,127,167 immigrants, in addition to absorbing hundreds of thousands illegal immigrants. It will accept more than one million legal immigrants this year and is on track to absorb more than one million illegal immigrants. (Trump only bashes illegal immigrants.)
Trump doesn’t bash Ilhan Omar because she is an immigrant or because of her skin color, and he doesn’t want her to go back to Somalia. He wants her to stick around and held the Democrats loose the 2020 election. Trump attacks Omar and the other three members of the “Squad” because he want Americans to recognize them as the face of the Democratic Party.
2
The person (Individual #1) who needs to read My Antonia, won't read this article. Or book. Or briefing.
6
How about an Oscar worthy movie, “My, Antonia”, starring Meryl Streep? Now’s the time.
4
Or better, starring an actor from Serbia, Croatia, or....
Don't forget to read George Washington, "...to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance..."
My mother was an unaccompanied minor whose parents put her on a boat from Germany to the US in 1938. Unable to find a sponsor, my grandparents and uncle could not escape and were murdered by the Nazis.
5
Ah yes, My Antonia, about "the settling of the West". Except the West was already settled. As the East had been before. We just exterminated the natives. The classic American story indeed.
2
Different times. Then, most people here were immigrants. Now, we have a huge native population. In addition, we have a economically struggling population due to our over reliance on globalization. Additionally, we have a fascist party controlling the WH and Congress. Their xenophobia is hurting our ability to deal with any immigration here, legal and otherwise.
1
I’m all for legal immigration like the vast majority of Americans.
Maybe we can get a Democrat or so-called ‘progressive’ to tell us when enough people have just walked in instead of applying as others do.
What’s your upper limit? Do you even have one?
1
"That we have a president who doesn’t believe this, and a party bending constantly to his prejudices, is a stain on the United States." Agreed.
"We can erase it by recalling what we’re really about, starting by re-reading “My Ántonia.”" Or by walking in one of our blessed National Parks or Forests and seeing the many children of many races playing together in the woods. (I particularly recommend Sequoia National Park, which has interpretive signs in both English and Spanish, or Kenosha Pass in Colorado.) Or by working at a soup kitchen. Or by visiting an unfamiliar locale: going to a gay bar if you're straight, riding a subway car through a black district if you're white, picking strawberries on a farm owned by an immigrant Hispanic if you're native-born.
1
Excellent!
2
Thank you for another thoughtful column, Bret.
I would like to add one point, however. You note that many of today's 4th or 5th generation Americans who oppose immigration today and came here legally, lose sight of how much easier it was to emigrate 140 years ago. That is true.
But more frustrating to me is how many 2nd and 3rd generation Irish and Italian Americans today support this anti-immigrant hysteria even though their families came to the country illegally after the most restrictive immigration policies were put in place in the 1920s. My family were among the thousands of Italians called "WOPs" (without papers). And when I tended bar in Manhattan in the early 1980s most of my Irish friends tending bar were here illegally and eventually married Americans and stayed.
I am not in favor of "open borders" or abolishing ICE. But let's develop a humane set of policies allowing for pathways to legal immigration and to addressing the situations causing the fleeing from Central America. Those are things the greatest country in the world should be able to do, rather than follow a disgraceful president down a path towards a xenophobic third rate banana republic.
Although, on second thought, Trump's path will very likely reverse the trend of immigration. Four (or more) years of him and many Americans will be the ones fleeing. Sad.
6
You provided a lot of date.
You missed one.
What was the population of the country when this book and these immigrants arrived?
Oh and they were white.
A fine essay, Mr. Stephens. Next I wish you could explain what combination of folly, cowardice and corruption prevents most of your Republican friends from speaking out. How can anyone of even modest integrity remain a part of that fear and shame drenched organization?
4
“To fourth- or fifth-generation Americans who now say their ancestors came here legally, unlike today’s undocumented workers, that’s largely because the getting in was easy.”
So? Because it was easy and legal then we’re supposed to accept illegal entrants now because it’s hard? Sorry to see that this writer now hues to the overall position of the NYT, which is to say there is effectively no difference between legal arrivals and those that jump the queue of those willing to play by the rules.
...and also read...'It Can't Happen Here' by Sinclair Lewis, the novel that describes the rise of Buzz Windrip, a 'populist' flag-waving demagogue elected President of the USA after fomenting fear and promising drastic economic and social reforms while promoting a return to patriotism and "traditional" values.
Windrip’s campaign channels white male hatred of racial minorities, Mexicans, uppity women, and liberal and Left “elites.”
After his election, Windrip takes complete control of the government and imposes totalitarian rule.
One of his first acts as president is to eliminate the influence of the US Congress.
Most US citizens initially approve of Windrip’s authoritarian measures, thinking they will restore American “greatness,” power and prosperity.
Windrip's administration curtails women and minority rights, and eliminates individual states by subdividing the country into administrative sectors managed by "Corpo" authorities, usually prominent businessmen or paramilitary officers.
“The Senator (Windrip) was vulgar, almost illiterate, a public liar easily detected, and in his "ideas" almost idiotic, while his celebrated piety was that of a traveling salesman for church furniture, and his yet more celebrated humor the sly cynicism of a country store. Certainly there was nothing exhilarating in the actual words of his speeches, nor anything convincing in his philosophy. His political platforms were only wings of a windmill.”
Remind you of anyone ?
Register.
Vote !
8
Wow!thank you. So scarey. Clairvoyant.
3
The article speaks about "the American Dream" well I am afraid that today this is a delusion as I do not believe that it exists under the racist President Trump's America. Why anyone would want to live in the USA whilst Trump is in charge is a mystery, there are far better countries to go, or "go back", to—see e.g. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/19/opinion/send-her-back-ilhan-omar.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage.
As for "the perfect antidote to Trump" I would suggest voting would be the best antidote.
1
A few thoughts:
--America in 1880 was still fairly empty. Today it's not.
--The empty land we gave to immigrants from Bohemia we took by force from the Indians.
--The best way to deal with the refugee problem is to have another Marshall plan in Central America like we had in Europe after the Second World War.
--Unfortunately, we have shot our wad, so to speak, on junk: mansions, yachts, private jets, second and third and fourth and fifth homes, etc., etc.. Stuff, which has now become a burden that enslaves us. Hence not much money for Central America, or health care or education or infrastructure or the environment, to say the least. But we should help those countries anyway. Let the mansions rot.
--Anyone caught hiring an illegal alien receives a manditory jail sentence of two years and a fine to two hundred thousand dollars. That would take a lot of Republicans off the streets.
--Population is a problem. The Catholic Church is part of the problem. Maybe we could teach the Catholic Church about birth control and they could teach their parishers south of the border....and north of the border. Same for born again Christians.
--What was Bret Stephens doing all these years supporting the Republican Party. This whole thing started long before Trump.
--Willa Cather is a great writer. So I have one thing in common with Bret Stephens.
--
2
Too bad Willa Cather was not around to read “The Art of the Deal”.
Maybe the author will get a chance to read it.
Build the WALL
The perfect antidote to Trump would be impeachment!
3
Trump is always the offending bigot, yes? There’s nothing at all bigoted in Omar’s myriad statements that castigate Israel, the US, and minimize 9/11 as if it was a trifling incident. Thanks Bret for further advancing this one-way racism narrative that posits only white men are racist. Everyone else, we know, is an exploited victim.
Willa Cather is one of my favorite authors. Think also of "Song of the Lark," "O Pioneers," and other works. My ancestors were Irish Catholics who came here in the 19th century after the horrors of the famine in Ireland. They were not welcomed at first. We need to look at the ideals of this country that Bret Stephens brings out as well as the Biblical mandates to love our neighbors and to welcome the stranger.
3
I don't agree as a blanket statement that the newest immigrants have "as much claim to the country and its lawful freedoms" as any other American. This is true (to varying extents) for those who are here legally, but those who are here without permission, who are not citizens nor even approved visitors, simply do not have the same entitlements.
That being said, certainly this column does make other valid points, including that we do need to nurture and protect our newest (legal) arrivals, and that they are part of what makes this country great.
But even more fundamentally, the best thing about this country is the freedoms guaranteed to us by the Constitution. The worst thing, to me, about this country at the moment is the extent that these freedoms are under attack from both the left and the right, and the most terrifying thing about this country at the moment is how few citizens seem to care, especially when those being oppressed hold views counter to their own.
2
The focus here is on faux news, which the public should certainly become informed about, but unless Citizens United is repealed, billionaires will keep on electing our President.
4
I hope all those questioning the’ “Americanness” of those different from themselves aren't descendants of immigrants of non-English speaking/Catholic/Jewish, Central/Mediterranean/Eastern European heritage, because, at one time, all these immigrants to the United States were also once deemed too “foreign” to ever successfully assimilate and become productive, American citizens.
5
One wonders whether Willa Cather was oddly prescient, and if the character who threw the bride and groom from the sled to the wolves really did have orange hair.
1
The stain on America is from those who denigrate the importance of citizenship and the right of the nation to control who comes into the country. The blather of white liberal guilt has blinded the elites to the damage such uncontrolled immigration does to the nation, particularly those citizens of color who occupy the lowest rungs of our economic ladder. The Angel Mothers who cry at the graves of their children killed by the "bad" illegals are never considered. Willa Cather can't excuse the shame of this behavior.
Problematically, our White Supremacist Fake President does not read, let alone reread, preferring to watch hours of affirming propaganda every day from his own state television source , Fox News, just like his loyal, bigoted, brainwashed “base”. MAGA, and don’t forget the red hat!
3
The immigration issue has been a contrived Republican concern for decades. People coming to our country have been a net benefit to us, with the labor they provide and the economic activity they create.
Republicans bottom line is power. Always has been. All other issues serve their ability to control society to the benefit of business and wealth accumulation. The immigration issue serves that hunger. The Minutemen, the Tea Party, the Promise Keepers, the Proud Boys are all tools in the Right wing box of tricks, along with gerrymandering and judicial packing.
It’s all nakedly apparently now with Trump. No more hiding what’s going on. Looking at the faces at that rally, you see pleasure. That pleasure is not about hatred. It’s about winning power. They don’t care how they got it, but they got it now, and they love it.
Alas, it won’t last much longer. Then they will be sad again. And powerless.
3
Great article Bret. A worthy choice for these troubled times. Willa Cather has been my hero for many years. Especially her Pittsburgh stories. She was a champion of all the arts and a master of the short story. You will not have a dry eye after reading "Uncle Valentine", and "Double Birthday" is perfection. Willa was truly inspired and a great American we could all emulate. A perfect antidote indeed.
2
In school I read Sapphira and the Slave Girl. The real problem we have with racism in America is that even when many people acknowledge racism past and present, they quickly follow it up with odes to optimism and how everything will be okay. They ignore two big issues.
The first is, it's not about Trump. About 35% to 40% of America has shown they want an open racist in the White House giving minorities hell. It is a sort of a smeared New South. No single senile, foolish man speaking means much. He represents millions of people who are fighting to maintain white racism today and in the future.
The other thing is that this thinking is 400 years old. If you are white and comfortably middle class, it is dismissive of the suffering of millions of black and brown people to blithely talk about how thing will be okay. First slavery, then Jim Crow, then Lynching, then Mass Incarceration, with a new front opening up on voter disenfranchisment, so that every time white racism is set back and defeated, it takes a new form and there is no end in sight. With such a horrible track record, the best we can hope for are people admitting their mistake and moving to the left. Stephens never admits he unknowingly set up Trump.
Stephens looks down on the right and the left and in doing so, ignores his role as a white conservative in pouring the gasoline of hate for the last two decades. Trump is no genius, all he is doing today is walking around and lighting the match.
2
Home is where your heart is...
These Czechs, these Slovaks, they are my immigrant family ancestors. Yet my modern day family has somehow found a way to rewrite their roots, sugar coat the paths that were paved to today. I am knee deep in genelogy and when I see thier names, foreign, see their faces , reflecting an older world, a culture strange and unique, my heart hurts, and I am sad, sad that their offspring have rejected and and now actively speak against those who built up the blocks that they now stand on and judge others from.
4
Amen.
Che bello Stephens, bravissimo.
1
"Convict, lunatic, idiot or any person unable to take care of himself or herself without becoming a public charge" Once, you couldn't get into America if you were one of those things. Today, we have a president who is every one of those things.
7
My great-grandparents were immigrants too but they became citizens, which I imagine was one of the proudest days of their lives. No one can deny the value of diversity and immigrants. However, I cannot comprehend extending the rights of citizenship to those who aren't citizens. If the path to citizenship needs to be fixed then let's do it. Or will people forever enjoy the rights of citizenship without becoming citizens - which I don't think any other country allows.
1
We all know very much the president in a moron.
Mr. Stephens, from your platform @ the NYTIMES
call out the rest of them. Pence, McConnell, and the rest of the prominent republicans.
call them today, all the them, by name..
7
We must shift our attention and press away from trump and to his supporters who will remain long after trump is out of office.
4
I think Trump, the master con man, and television personality has mobilized the white working class on two related issues and both are related to immigration. The economic issue is the four decade stagnation and in the case of non college white males, the substantial decline in real wages and social status since the 1960s. Without high paying union jobs and for those that are left, job security, the white working class has reach points of desperation. A desperate group of people, their livelihoods and family structures threatened by a host economic and social issues, needs an enemy. For Trump's core constituency, the enemy is nonwhite and of foreign origin.
The related issue is the rise of identity politics, an elite driven process that has worked to enable the political mobilization of nonwhites and other groups antithetical to the white working class. So affirmative action programs for blacks, hispanic and other historically disadvantaged groups has provoked a backlash among the white workingclass who view opportunity in the United States as a zero sum game. If you aren't high up in the socioeconomic class structure or a member of one of the privileged minorities, the world is working against you.
In walks Donald Trump, who didn't invent these issues. But, he pulled them together, sticking his finger in the eye of the corporate elites in both parties who created this unfair world. Willa Cather be damned.
3
This may seem an inappropriate analogy, I was given an unwanted, dying Basset Hound 12 years ago. After any kindness or affection I gave him it was met with an undeserving expression and subservient body language. I told him it would be a happy day when I never had to see that response again. He has had plenty of nicknames since then, Sparky, Dancing Dog, Inspector, Sheriff, Friend reflecting his evolution, antics and confidence. It is increasingly painful for me to observe the body language of many Hispanics in public the last few years. Heads down, avoiding eye contact, husbands and wives queitly speaking, shopping with children clinging to their parents clothes and hushed over in order to avoid being noticed. After one kind word their transformation is instant. Their is no denying what prompted behavior similar to an unwanted, abused dog and their desire to be invisible. I am angered by what may have occurred, the potential future psychological damage the family may be victims of and fear for their physical harm. This anger encompasses all vulnerable people. My intense dislike, revulsion, loathing for Trump is culminating into hate. That is something I fight with every outrageous act, statement, walk back, translations into what he meant, not what spilled between his tongue and lips on film. Trump has a title, he is not my or our President, he is the manifestation of evil and hate. Those who defend or are silent are his collaborators in evil and hate.
5
Times have changed in the last 150 yrs. There are 7.5b people in the world. Most live in poverty.
One hundred and fifty years ago it was hard to get to the US. Not so much anymore. Back then there were almost no social welfare benefits. Now they're generous and if a dem is elected, will become much more so.
Every country has a right to set its own immigration rules. That flood of immigrants from 150 yrs ago: how many would have come if they'd been turned away. America welcomed them as a matter of policy.
What's your policy Bret? First come first served is what it sound like here. Because the queues are long? Do you resort to lawlessness when you're faced with a queue?
Maybe there's a 6 yr wait because the resources are being diverted to manage an immigration crisis.
Fix the bloody crisis instead of making a political circus out of it.
Trump isn't asking for an immigration ban. He's on record as wanting an immigration system like Canada's.
What the heck is wrong with that?
@Dred Well, Dred, he's the president. Where's his proposal to Congress for fixing the immigration system. He's on record for wanting a system like Canada's? Strange, he's proposing effectively ending asylum petitions, while Canada has a policy that allows petitioners to remain in the country while their asylum claims are being processed. Trump as well as the Republicans have zero interest in fixing the immigration system; they need the issue and the hate it engenders to feed his rabid base.
1
I love this because I am a Cather fan. But don’t forget that the endless land Cather describes was seized after displacing indigenous people. Cather says next to nothing about that. I’ve been thinking also about how Cather’s white immigrants were welcomed by the Free Soil ideology that Abraham Lincoln pushed. Opposing slavery in new Western states meant no aristocratic slaveowners in Nebraska and thus a better chance for the self-made immigrant. But it also meant (some say by design) fewer black people in those states. A tabula rasa for poor white immigrants in Nebraska required selective amnesia about other racial inequities. So Cather’s America was not unequivocally great.
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@J.A.
Phew, I was wondering how many comments I would read until somebody brought up these important points. Thank you.
37
@J.A.
It seems after millennia of "normalized" violence against neighbor across the globe, what the United States did, while shameful, was certainly not "special."
5
@J.A.
Sadly, maddeningly, our native Peoples were, like misplaced trees and brush, simply cleared away to create the homesteads for the post-Columbus immigrants. That's how Trump's favorite prez, Jackson, thought of these human beings. Indigenous people do not fare well in a conquered land, in any event.
The enslavement of Africans is sin #2. If Native Americans were cleared like so many pesky bushes, enslaved humans were carried to some of those lands to create the wealth from which their forced labor provided no benefit to them.
Failure to mention these horrific episodes in the episodes in the American story is inexcusable and mars Bret's otherwise laudatory rumination.
25
There were prosperous humans “here” way before any humans from another continent. Thanks for ignoring history of a peoples subjugated by the peoples you so honor!
2
Reading, books - yes. Reading Mr. Stephens piece today has provided me with an "a hah!" moment.
My husband of 25 yrs. is a rabid trump supporter and I have never known him to read a book - never. He does have a math degree but has no interest in anything much outside his own little world. I however, will probably be found dead with a book in my hands.
How does he consume information (not to be confused with truth or fiction)? He listens to podcasts and talk radio, he even sleeps with one or the other pouring into his ears, and watches nonsense on YouTube. It occurred to me that although he's never said so, his attitude toward reading is that it's a time waster - it's what snobs do, you know those evil elites.
It all makes sense now in a way - trump doesn't read either.
3
People make choices, yours should be either couples therapy or a lawyer. Good luck.
2
Liberal values have certainly changed. In the 1960's and 70's we were ashamed of the taking of American Indian land by European immigrants. Now we celebrate it and use it to justify displacing White Americans. Thank god those White European immigrants came and took the American Indian lands and built this great inclusive country.
1
Maybe “My Ántonia” should be required reading for Trump and his supporters.
2
Ah, the good old days of....101 years ago!
Women were not allowed to vote, along with blatant sexism.
Discrimination against African Americans was codified by our government.
A US president made a racist comment against native Americans;
Immigrating Asians were told to go back where they came from.
Citizens could not afford decent housing.
Most Americans could not afford significant health care.
It's nice to think of Willa, instead of looking current fascism
in the face and calling it out for what it is.
1
So what do we do with people who don't like to read.
1
When people say they voted for Trump because he wasn’t “politically correct”, that means Donald Trump has made it so that racist language need not be delivered via dog whistle. Immigrants, in the eyes of Trump supporters, aren’t white and they don’t come in the country the right way.
But if they are not white and they came in to the country the right way, then as soon as they have A disagreement with who you are told to go back to where they came froma disagreement with Trump he will tell them to “go back to where they came from.”
2
Rather than reading “My Ántonia”, I'd much rather read Trump's and the Republican partty's permanent political obituary in Nov 2020.
4
The perfect antidote for Trump: Rep. Ilhan Omar, Rep. Alexandria Acasio-Cortez, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, Rep. Rashida Tliab. These smart, brave, hard-working women represent the best of America and the values that it aspires to. Democrats, Independents, and really all Americans must defend them loudly and without qualification as silence is weakness, silence is tacit approval of Trump’s fascist, hateful rhetoric.
2
A lovely piece with a dose of sentimentality. I fear that appealing to the hearts of Americans to empathize with those seeking a better life is simplistic at best. A refrain of 'Love conquers Hate' falls on deaf ears of the Trump supporters. Besides, isn't reading an elite conceit? The coastal liberal snowflakes who go to college?
The Trumpian GOP refrain these days is more "We don't need no stinkin books" (especially science). The emotion of hate is easier to identify and slip into and rile up. All you need is an object of that hate and resentment can fester for ages. Thus the 'other' is named and vilified and can change with the times and needs.
Irish, Chinese, Polish and always, always Africans and any other people of color.
In the main, hate is used to tell struggling people that they need do nothing because their problems have nothing to do with them or their society. It's "THEIR" fault and if you just get rid of them your lives will be better. And so the powers that be can continue to do what they have always done.
Trump has added an element of cruelty which is very disturbing to say the least. And he is now adding the patriot card to this hate and racism.
And Democrats are running around like feckless chickens claiming "I'm an American" to justify themselves before the perverted Hater-In-Chief when it is He and his club who need to stand before us and try to 'explain' themselves.
2
Bret, beautifully written. I wish that some author would have written, “ My Bubbe” (Yiddish for grandma) so that you could remind the very influential Jewish members of Congress, Lowey, Nadler, Engle, etc., all committee chairs that it is their obligation to be the first to defend their colleague Ilhan Omar. My guess is they had grandparents who had to flee violence and persecution just as she did. Maybe Omar is right that these Jewish members are afraid of the Israeli lobby and that it is about the “ Benjamin’s”. I oppose the BDS movement as these members do. But, I am saddened by their lack of chutzpah in defending a colleague and fellow American’s right to free speech.
2
I'd very much like to know "Which views of Rep. Omar's....that the writer believes should be "vigorously opposed". That comment....tossed in at the very end of this otherwise lovely Opinion.....puts me off to a great degree...and it demands further explanation.
2
The US has fostered the "me me me" attitude since its inception no wonder the place is now a cesspool collapsing under its own weight. The Bible predicted the result of the "me me me" attitude.
Wow.
Nicely done.
Lovely.
My Antonia is a powerful story that requires the reader to completely ignore the genocidal predicate. It’s an important element if you want to actually learn anything from it. Would any part of the story be possible without America’s original sins? Trumpism extends from this denialism, goes dormant and gets renamed periodically, but will be with us forever until we fully repent.
136
@Chad Aaaand... umm, what will "fully repenting" consist of, I wonder? Are we, by any chance, speaking of some form of reparations? I don't recall hearing any surviving Native Americans suggesting such a thing, as some descendants of black slaves are... Everything that has been said here about "America's original sins" is totally valid, but I fail to see what can effectively be done about them.
4
Oh, America the land of ….what, exactly? As I look around at the young in my community - citizens, non-citizens, humans of all races, ethnicities and cultures, I worry about one thing: our dominant, shallow, consumerist culture utterly killing their potential. The one thing I have noticed about the non-citizens that is working to their advantage is that the onslaught of "otherness" is keeping their communities tight knit and protective of their dignity. The recognize the ugliness of what it can mean to "be American" and they, gratefully, reject it.
Maybe what the Trumpists are really upset about is the mirror being held up to the mainstream American Values. Frankly, its not good. Left or right, we have collectively lost something over time. The mind, heart, and spirit has grown fat and weak from too long sitting at the buffet tale, wine-filled chalice in hand, demanding more from the dancing jester.
Time really look closely at the true causes for why a demagogue was able to use a slogan as simple as Make American Great Again to gain the presidency. It had less to do with the diversity of the people filing our country but much more to do with those individuals showing Americans who they no longer were.
On a positive note: immigrants are smart enough to recognize the foundational merits of what our country offers. So their coming validates us still. We can work with them to build ALL of us back up, or not and suffer further ignomy.
2
"But, more powerfully, Cather’s novel is a story of a country that can overcome prejudice." I would add unless your skin is black or brown. Americans apparently can eventually accept immigrants so long as they are here long enough to learn the language and blend in with the "real Americans." Black and brown people never blend in and are therefore never accepted by many Americans. My firm belief is that Americans will continue to disparage and discriminate against non-northern European immigrants until all of us are Brown. Thankfully, the demographic arc of history is bending toward brownness.
1
No, black and brown people are Americans. They don’t need to wait for acceptance.
So what's the parallel here Bret? An America 150 years ago where immigrants came to make a life for themselves without any government assistance who, in fact, had to pay to a tax to come into this country. Or is it the America of today where people cross our southern boarder without regard to any of our laws and are entitled to a plethora of government assistance programs, including free healthcare, which most middle class Americans can't afford. It would be different Bret if we had the infrastructure to support mass migration, but we don't. Remember, Obama deported 2.9 million people during his time in office so I guess that means Trump's in good company. Right?
2
kurt,
These early immigrants obtained their land from the Federal government, usually at no cost. The Federal government encouraged westward migration under a broad view called Manifest Destiny. It was believed that Americans in the US were destined to spread from the east coast to the west. It also relieved the overcrowding in our east coast cities. American Indians, blacks and other nonwhite minorities were excluded from the giveaway. Whites, like myself, had the playing field tipped in our favor.
1
Immigration is fine. I think this country can accept a small number of immigrants / asylum seekers every year. But we need to be able to provide for each and every one. They each should have access to housing, education, jobs and healthcare (including mental health). And providing for them must not negatively impact citizens. We need a full accounting from the government- an appropriate to cover the costs of these policies with a guarantee that only what is appropriating can be spent. Let citizens in this country understand what these policies cost.
Beyond those immediate concerns we should also bear in mind that climate change is going to cause massive impacts on us all. The best thing we used to have going for us, as a nation, was a stable/negative birthrate. That is gone now- and we will have to cut consumption even more drastically to account for the charity a vocal minority insists we provide to 30 million illegal immigrants (with, under a Democratic Congress and President, that increasing by 2 million a month).
Our university here in Nebraska used My Antonia as its common reader for students two years ago. Dr. Cather's message then is just as relevant today. Great column!
2
Thanks for the reminder of this wonderful author. Maybe even more appropriate to the current climate is Death Comes for the Archbishop, surely one of the most lyrical books ever written, and set in the newly-created diocese of New Mexico, among the Hopi, Navajo and Mexicans. I will dig out my copy and reread it this weekend!
2
As a native Nebraskan who no longer lives there, I devoured Cather's works, in school, and later in life as well. Recommend highly to anyone seeking great writing.
I'm sorry that some people commenting here have had to politicize this column. Can't let go of Trump for one second to enjoy a beautifully written column that rings true, to me anyway. And another thing. Books are not dead, not yet. Even printed ones. Imagine that.
4
Will Cather wrote My Antonio in 1917 in New York City when her other literary and artistic contemporaries were focused on movements like Dadaism and the Avante Garde and/or were obsessed with the future promise of the 20th century. Instead she turned her attention to the people who would be left behind by the modernist agenda. It was a choice she made, and we are glad for it . . . because without it, we might not truly understand ourselves.
1
The only way “My Antonia’s” story differs from my family’s experience in Nebraska is that they were Swedes....simply looking for a better life. Be welcoming.
3
Pardon the party pooper, but are you serious? An antidote to Trump? Mr. Stevens tells the half of the story of America that Trump embraces: immigrants from Europe, toughing it out on the frontier and building the mythical one shaded America he exalts. Chinese Exclusion Act was shameful? No shame in the degradation of the native peoples the Nebraska plains were seized from? And, pardon me, but let's not forget that the lead defendant in the 1954 "Brown" case, in which the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the doctrine of "separate but equal", was not a school board in Georgia, or Alabama, or Mississippi, but the Board of Education of OMAHA, NEBRASKA." Do you have to be a member of "the Squad" or a "woke" 19 year old to recognize and contend with this unpleasant side of our history?
1
My mother, 25 years a high school English teacher, named me after this book. “Antonia knew how to work and she knew how to love,” she used to say. “And there’s nothing more important than that.”
How ironic that I grew up to immigrate to New Zealand. For the affordable housing, education, and health care.
393
@Antonia Murphy I envy you. I'm stuck here and I'm named for a French queen who was beheaded.
24
@Antonia Murphy
I am a Nebraskan with my pioneer family roots from Sweden, Germany and England, we grew up reading Cather and 'My Antonia' remains my all time favourite book as well as 'O, Pioneers!'. Reading Cather in our youth taught us to cherish our immigrant roots and teaching us acceptance of our immigrant cultures.
I also immigrated to New Zealand three decades ago and am we re-living again the richness of a cosmopolitan culture that I enjoyed as a young Nebraska boy. New Zealand's egalitarian views, general acceptance and full democracy would certainly fit with what Willa pictured for us. A case in point is just think of how the community of Christchurch and the entire country responded to the recent terrorist attack on our mosque by an outsider and how the country and our Prime Minister supported our immigrant Muslim neighbours and friends.
I am sure Willa would hardly recognise her country anymore and would probably cry with the rest of us over what is occurring now. Kyrie Eleison.
29
@Antonia Murphy I love NZ. But don't you have to bring a lot of money with you to immigrate there?
6
Thank you for the reminder of where our ancestors came from and how they built this country and the discrimination they experienced due to prejudices. If only we had a leader that wanted to educate and unite, instead of dumb down and exploit others with his hatred. Greed and Hate and Ignorance, all our poisons he spreads.
3
I am as liberal as they come but I'm sick of the immigration debate and if that continues to be THE focus for democrats, we will lose and lose badly. How many immigrants do you actually know and care deeply about? The kiosk guy is close to your heart? The Guatemalan painter? No. It's your family, friends, your neighborhood, your livelihood. Roads, schools, healthcare, wages. The situation at the border and in Central America is a mess but for the vast majority of Americans it is theoretical, not personal. Please don't talk to me about the "human condition" when I battle with income inequality, insurance companies, funding both college educations and retirement, when I fret for our constitution and way of life every day. We need to get that orange ball of corruption out of office but this focus by everyone on immigration is simply not the way.
7
hhhhuuuuuuu......Willa Cather. Mr. Stephens....I agree....in a wonderful world.....a world which is not this. Willa Cather...I agree with you. But not a minority chants "send her home". Not our masses, but still. Literary references are nice, but.......
Another brilliant and well written article by Bret Stephens. What I really love about Bret’s articles is the way he is able to nuance the dividing line between conservative and the extreme right. A lot of the letters here want to demonize any position that isn’t extreme left and which advocates totally open borders. But Stevens helps us to Remember we all had immigrant roots and we must respect peoples views but it doesn’t mean we have to bow to the extreme left’s views.
3
After decades of trying to appear more decent and humane (conceding to the liberal values of the media and Democrats), Republicans have been freed by Trump, who has made it "okay" for them to reveal their true nature.
This is why they love him.
Obviously, the genuinely decent and humane Republicans are the Never-Trumpers (e.g. George Conway III, Bret Stephens, Jennifer Rubin, Justin Amash, John McCain, George F. Will, etc.).
1
The requirement that immigrants "not to not become a
a public charge" should not be lost in the discussion.
My grandfather came with 10 dollars, leaving his wife and daughter in Italy until he could afford to bring them to the US.
It took him two years!
The hard life in Cather's book documents a similar story of not becoming a "public charge".
The story of legal immigrants is the one that made our country what it is.
Open the border and welcome chaos.
1
Bret, the American wilderness is still out there awaiting immigrants who will transform it into a prosperous hinterland.
Nowadays, the wilderness is a broad expanse of middle America sparsely populated by aging and spiritually destitute people. That wilderness of the American mind needs an infusion of people who are willing to do the hard work of nurturing children, growing crops, and providing the services needed to make thriving communities.
Immigrants are streaming northward from their oppressed homelands in search of the opportunity to make a new start and a better life. Let's open the gates and let them in to fill the void in the American landscape and psyche.
4
"My Antonia" is a good book to read or to reread just now. Another book to take a look at, much more recent, is "House of Broken Angels" by Louis Urrea.
1
Good column, but like most of the conservative NYT columnists, he conveniently blames Trump for the GOP prejudice. The Republican Party didn't magically become the home of racists and xenophobes in 2016. It's been their home for the past 50 years. It's just that with Trump in office, instead of being locked away in a room, they're allowed to openly strut around.
10
This story of worldwide immigration to the US should also be taught to the intolerant of Eastern Europe who forgot that millions of Poles, Czechs, Hungarians, Russians, Ukrainians, Italians, Germans and French emigrated to the US and took over lands that once belonged to First Nations.
The American Dream was available to anyone who was not a “convict, lunatic, idiot or any person unable to take care of himself or herself without becoming a public charge.” It is not hard (and, in fact too easy) to make the case that the current President could be disqualified on at least two grounds. Immigration (or at least the perception of it) was one reason why so many in the UK voted to leave the EU. It is too easy to become insular when things are going well. When the going gets tough, then you need your friends and denigrating them by having selective immigration policies is storing up trouble for the future. Immigration policies should take into account value as well as cost. Otherwise you end up with a system that is obsessed with numbers and counting rather than society and value.
2
Bret, the idea is to defend Omar's rights without defending Omar. Swine like Trump, and the fools he's addressing, say that's not possible, that you defend her rights only because you want to defend her point of view.
Of course it's easy to see, on an intellectual level, that you can defend immigrants and not want to abolish ICE, but Trump doesn't want people to see things on an intellectual level; and the fact is, most of his supporters couldn't even if they wanted to, which they don't.
4
It's hard to be an American today in a land where the POTUS is greedy, hateful, corrupt and consorting with our most formidable sworn enemies while his party stands complicit and complacent with its completely shameful un-American behavior. Things were far from perfect in our past, but they will surely be totally dystopian in our future.
Vote.
3
Trump's rallies with their anti-immigrant subtext are the political "Id" of his base. Political correctness is the enemy and its abandonment engenders a visceral,xenophobic release, which overwhelms any resistance to the racism , misogyny, lies, and factual distortions, which permeate Trump's demagogic appeals to the dark side of the American psyche. The Greenville rally was raw ugliness, and is reminiscent of another, darker, intolerant America, which lurked just below the surface, waiting for a racist demagogue like Donald Trump, to slither and crawl its way back it to the forefront of American politics.
3
My Grandfather (Dad's side) came from Italy in the 1920's. On my Mom's side it was Germany in the 1890's. Neither spoke the language well, neither read English well, and both had educations well short of 6th grade. What became of this mix? 12 children 4 of which fought in WWI, 2 who fought in WWII. And today? Tax paying families that stretch from the Midwest to New England. I have nephews and nieces with Master's and PhD degrees, who contribute to America in ways great and small. We all come from somewhere else. Should our immigration laws be respected? Yes. Should our immigration laws be revised? Yes. What Mr. Trump has done is put a stain on America, one that needs to be badly washed away in 2020. If anyone should go back to his former immigrant country it is he and please take the family too. OK. You can leave Melania here.
5
Spoiled the plot of the book!
1
I would encourage everyone who can to visit the Willa Cather Foundation in Red Cloud, Nebraska.
1
I keep thinking that the other side would come around if they read more books like “My Antonia”, or even if they y’know, read.
4
“But you do have to recognize that the newest immigrants have as much claim to the country and its lawful freedoms as any other American. That would certainly include Minnesota’s Representative Ilhan Omar, whose rights must be defended every bit as vigorously as many of her views should be opposed.”
Bret here refers to Omar’s observation, “It’s about the Benjamins baby,” and her criticism of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and Israel. It is a deft sequence that elegantly recognizes the importance of defending Omar’s right to free speech even as it asserts her detractors’ right to disagree with her views. This is the American way, even for the incumbent.
Trust me, Bret knows more about US policy in the Middle East than Omar and his critics combined.
As a good writer, he understands that to address this issue here would be a major digression, an especially untimely distraction given the incumbent’s latest incendiary tweets.
But you might search the NYT and just stumble upon one of Bret’s earlier articles which engages this precise issue in detail.
Enjoy.
Cather’s book “Death Comes for the Archbishop” is a brilliant look at the settling of the southwest. Spoiler alert: the latinos were there first. By hundreds of years.
1
Native Americans. Let’s not forget.
"That would certainly include Minnesota’s Representative Ilhan Omar, whose rights must be defended every bit as vigorously as many of her views should be opposed."
Let's talk about Ilhan Omar's views and ideas, values on their merits, instead of skirting around them and labeling them as offensive, wholesale rejecting or mischaracterizing them. Can we? Hers are views that represent people living in this country as much as the louder bully pulpit pushed racist, misogynist xenophobic white ones, even as "Christian" values.. Is she or Democrats socialist? communist? What does that mean? Lets clarify instead of repeating name calling reminiscent of the McCarthy era House Committee on Un-american Activities? What does un-American mean?
2
Living side-by-side with people who are different certainly can work to reduce prejudice. But slave owners lived side-by-side with African-Americans for generations, even putting their white children into black hands to be cared for. Yet, to justify the master-slave relationship, they doubled down on their racism. And after the end of slavery, white Americans continued to encounter hard-working African-Americans every day and still, they cheered for the Klan. There's a lot more to racism than a lack of familiarity.
1
To equate the abscess of uncontrolled infiltration with the historical many years past immigration standards is an absurdity indicative of the incorrect liberal mindset that so amazingly avoids being laughed out of existence .
Of course the characters in MY ANTONIA did not have brown or black skin.
2
The ladies and gentlemen chanting "Send Her Back!" will not be reading. Anything for that matter. So "antidotes" will do no good. Organizing. Registering. Canvassing. And voting, on the other hand, may well rid the body-politic of this cancer.
3
The world has changed much from the time Willa Cather wrote her classic. I would also dispute your assertion that 19th century immigrants had an easier time of things - they could enter the country, but they were cruelly exploited in the sweatshops - child labor(and exploration) was accepted and healthcare inadequate. The slums of the 19th century were far worse than the detention facilities at the borders today. The right to a publicly funded education not recognized, no food stamps, no rent vouchers, no smartphones. The farmers on homesteads also didn’t have an “easy” time, either. They were subject to exploitation by the banks and had weather and crop failures. All arrivals had to hit the ground running to survive. Many did not. There was a published report that about half the children born in NYC in the 19th century did not survive. My ancestors did not have an easy time at all - using a fictional narrative to support today’s “undocumented” migrants is dishonest.
2
This is a very nice essay, Mr. Stephens. I loved Cather's novel. It was great. I loved what you've written about it. That remark toward the end about defending Ilhan Omar's rights as an American was nice. The rest of that comment, that we should vigorously oppose many of her views doesn't belong here. Since your essay is not about Ms. Omar's views why not save your digs for an essay that is. That way you can support your assertion with reason and logic, if there is some, rather than just taking a gratuitous shot at a progressive Democrat. You might better have ended your essay by saying what a shame it is that we so rarely see bigots and racists reading novels from the literary canon of great American authors. Or what a shame it is that the sitting president, who likely never reads a book, can barely read from a teleprompter.
2
A timely appeal to our "better Angels" as Lincoln so aptly put it in another time when we struggled to find and save our soul as a nation.
Thank you too for reminding what a fine author Willa Cather was and how much she has to offer today.
3
This is a beautiful reminder of a perennial lesson, Who is my neighbor? The correct answer is already there in Leviticus: love the alien in your midst as you love yourself. I remember reading My Antonia in high school as well. This has convinced me to re-read it.
1
Wonderful reminder of the immense contribution immigrants have made not only to American life but to American literature. Other classics of the experience that belong next to Cather's masterpiece are Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle," Henry Roth's "Call it Sleep" and Pietro di Donato's "Christ in Concrete" - all tales of fortitude in the face of almost insurmountable hardship. Recently, despite America's efforts to close the gates, we've had a flood of such stories from countries as far-flung as Ethiopia and Sri Lanka. If one author can be said to sum them up in a single line it may be the Vietnamese American poet Ocean Vuong, who writes in "Night Sky with Exit Wounds:" “Dear god, if you are a season, let it be the one I passed through to get here.”
4
My guess is that our current president has never read My Antonia, because he hasn’t read much of anything else. His stone-like mind offers proof of a person who has eschewed reading throughout his life. “Stable genius”? That’s laughable on its face, since he shows no evidence of knowing literature or history of any kind. No, Trump is incapable of grasping even the rudiments of Willa Cather-like liberal understanding, as evidenced lately when he embarrassingly answered a question about liberal values within the context of places with elected Democratic officials rather than the ethos of the Enlightenment and our founding fathers. And so from Trump’s dark mind and soul hatches his cruel policies. Ignorance begets cruelty, which is on display in his anti-immigrant chants at his despicable rallies for all the world to see.
4
So, out of all the literature highlighting racism towards immigrants in US esp. immigrants of colour to cite, Mr Stephens's choice of "My Antonia" is very odd, indeed.
You forget Antonia is a Caucasian Christian.
It is this very "be-careful-don't-use-the-word-racist" attitude of many conservatives and Republicans that has made me turn away from them utterly now.
They can stand in the parliament to renounce someone's words which label a President a racist, who happens to be a racist... but they won't stand up to the perpetrator himself because he happens to own their party now.
To all Republicans & Conservatives: whether you like it or not, your voice is controlled by Trump's mimicking, seditious, pervasive voice.
That is the voice everyone hears now.
Your wobbly leg arguments and weak denials inside a secret meeting with Pence have no moral fortitude.
Ms Pelosi was right that if Republicans didn't support the resolution to condemn President's remarks, well... that tells you how it stands.
2
Willa Cather is not the antidote to Trump. She's dead.
Please engage yourself in the real world. The deck is stacked against everybody who is not white and rural (the rural part is written into the Constitution; the white part comes with that). Please speak out in favor of any white male from the heartland who is running against Trump. Please use whatever pulpit you have.
The future of our country depends on it.
Dan Kravitz
115
Good call, even if the candidate is horrible, if he checks the box? Good to go! Identity politics is how we got Trump. @Dan Kravitz
8
@Dan Kravitz I do believe that is what happened in 2016; minus the rural part. We got the heartland alright. Be careful what you wish for. Get a library card if need be. Ideas from dead people to be found all around.
27
@Dan Kravitz
Trump campaigned on making life better for the left behind [white, of course] and bringing the troops home.
Sanders has advocated his whole life for making life better for all working people, and has a record of not supporting the the reliance on the military to resolve conflict. Of all the Democratic candidates, Sanders is the only one you can depend on "to bring our troops home".
Those Trump voters who found Trump's brashness so refreshing, may equally like Sanders loud, to the point, truth to power speak.
Sanders is the one Democratic candidate who may appeal to some heartland Trump voters.
I, too, love "My Antonia".
9
What a phony article by Bret Stephens. He would have read MY ANTONIA in high school around 1989 or so. I read it in high school back in 1955, and I don't have to pick up another copy to re-read it, because I never forgot it to begin with. To use it as against President Trump is both inaccurate and pure journalistic yellow when condemning Trump for hating immigrants. He does not hate immigrants, but he disdains illegal aliens, people who play footloose around our laws to gain admittance dishonestly, and rightly dislikes people who receiving the benefits that this country has to offer, then turn their backs on it and express hatred and contempt for it. No one argues that Ilhan Omar and others don't have "as much claim to the country...as any other American." Of course she does. But Mr. Trump, as do I and most Americans, also have rights of expression, one of which is to heartily condemn Ms. Omar and others like her for ingratitude. Race doesn't enter into it. The condemnation would be just as valid were these four congresswomen Polish, Albanian, Tibetan and Sudanese. Cather's people came here legally, and if a few did not love it here, that was fine, but the vast majority did, and that was one of the points of the novel. Had Cather's novel taken the point of view of AOC and Co., it would not have lasted as a great American novel nor would it have been taught in our schools. Half the kids in my 1955 class would be in the military in a few years, serving patriotically.
1
Sometimes I forget that I am second generation American. My grandparents came here from Scotland and Ireland. My Scottish grandfather was a sandhog who built the tunnels in NY. My parents grew up in NYC and moved to Florida where I was born.
When we said we were “Irish,” our Mom would say, “No. You’re American.” My parents grew up with Germans, Italians, Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and many other peoples. Each group was clannish, but they lived right next to each other. They saw each other’s families, their struggles, and the different hardships they all faced.
My parents were never anti-immigrant. That concept didn’t even exist in my life as I was growing up. I grew up in Miami. The immigrants were from Cuba, Haiti, Central and South America. They were hardworking, modest people who cherished their families. They sent money back “home” to those who couldn’t come here. They drove buses, worked in restaurants, in construction. They owned small businesses. They embodied the American Dream. I feel fortunate that I grew up with a front row seat to the American Experience.
It saddens me to see my brothers and sisters at Trump Rallies behaving like ignorant fools, telling fellow U.S. citizens to “Go back to where you came from!” These rally folk are my brothers and sisters. It’s my job to open their eyes to the danger of Trump and his bigoted, manipulative ways. Trump is the head of that vile snake.
Not everyone is equally intelligent. Some are more easily misled.
7
I believe that Mr. Trump would point out that the family came from Northern Europe.
2
Of course, the Shimerda family was white. Their clothes, food, and language may have been different, but from a distance they fit right in.
I think that Death Comes for the Archbishop would be an even more instructive Cather novel. Bishop Lamy, also an immigrant, works closely with people in the New Mexico territory, simultaneously in and out of the tired strictures of European cultural hegemony. Lamy is a true American, not perfect but open to all. Lamy would be appalled by Trump and the “send her back” crowd.
3
So, if the America that Donald Trump and his base is not the America of WIlla Cather, has fallen into, to use his phrase "American carnage"and has to be made great again, is it not Trump and his base that should go back where they came from?
Would put money on Trump being clueless about who Cather is.
4
Too bad about the First Nations (aka American Indians). Also too bad about an amazing ecosystem ploughed under and shot (American Buffalo). It is a fantasy if you think it was empty and that this nation was not built on destroying the discriminated "other" of the day. Remember the "the only good Indian is a dead Indian" meme. And Mother Nature is the current target of all those denying climate change resulting from the on-going industrial revolution combined with over population. People forget Mother Nature always has the ultimate power with her weather, water, fire, and disease. Cather knew we should be more careful about nature.
3
Wow. When one uses expressions like "an antidote to" something else, then you know for sure that what they're really delivering is the poison. First, the world's population in 1900 was only 1.6 billion - slightly over one-fifth what it is now, so that the difference in immigration laws then vs. now just make some sense. Second, I've NEVER heard President Trump dismiss or trash LEGAL immigration, so to claim that he does is completely false. Finally, I come from Canada, and still don't understand what all the Democrat brouhaha is all about over a country's leader who defends the honor of the nation he leads. Since when did even a mild version of the patriot view, 'America, love it or leave it' suddenly become a racist view? One would think that the hundreds of thousands of American soldiers who died defending America would disagree with that fake racist notion.
3
Even a blind squirrel will find an acorn once in awhile. Your columns which sometimes require a half teaspoon of baking soda can also hit the mark and uplift.This one hit the spot. Our fearless leader,unchallenged master of the nonsequitur,rarely gets close. He's like the Eight ball we could shake up and ask questions and get answers that were funny and completely off target ,but were never in any danger of becoming the law of the land.
2
Frankly if some Americas read and traveled more we'd wouldn't be in this mess.
4
You may be right, but Trump has traveled quite a bit, and it hasn't broadened his worldview.
Unfortunately, Bret, your insights will also fall on deaf ears. The people that decided the Native Americans were only entitled to the part of America that the whites from Europe did not want. The people that need to hear your message and change the way they look at immigrants are the ones who voted for, embrace, and bow to Trump. They are not interested in what you have to say. If Trump rounded up and incarcerated the four women involved here, they would be OK with that as well. There is only one thing that will get their attention.....massive numbers of Americans voting to end this. Trump 'won' by 80,000 votes allowing the electoral college to hand him the election. If the numbers in 2020 result in a victory for him, especially if the victory is greater than the 80,000 margin, Willa Cather's America will likely be gone forever. And 140 years from now, I wonder if the pundit at the Times will be pining over Trump's "The Collected Tweets" as the "My Antonia" of the 22nd century?
2
I, too, return to classic American literature to make sense of the insanity of Trump’s America. I, too, use novels and poems as an antidote to this era of the American berserk.
I read Sinclair Lewis’s “Main Street,” Theodore Dreiser’s “An American Tragedy,” Sherwood Anderson’s “The Book of the Grotesque,” John Steinbeck’s “The Grapes of Wrath.” We live, the novelists tell us, in a land of immigrants. We are all migrants.
This is Walt Whitman’s writing about the American democratic soul and spirit; it is his plea for an America “with room for all.” It is taken from Whitman’s preface to the 1885 edition of “Leaves of Grass.”
“…not to become a conqueror nation, or to achieve the glory of mere military, or diplomatic, or commercial superiority—but to become the grand producing land of nobler men and women—of copious races, cheerful, healthy, tolerant, free—to become the most friendly nation, (the United States indeed)—the modern composite nation, form'd from all, with room for all, welcoming all immigrants—accepting the work of our own interior development, as the work fitly filling ages and ages to come;—the leading nation of peace, but neither ignorant nor incapable of being the leading nation of war;—not the man's nation only, but the woman's nation—a land of splendid mothers, daughters, sisters, wives.”
4
Roughly 1/2 of the undocumented immigrants are from Mexico. That's a disproportionate amount to overwhelm the system.
To accept the notion of diversity as our strength, I would think it wise to make efforts in balancing that figure out, maybe? Then again, maybe since times have changed, these people are best suited for the type of work that is needed to be filled, maybe.
All this is beyond my pay grade. I'm only reacting to the time worn remarks that I feel need to be questioned. Thanks for accepting my post.
https://immigration.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000845#countries
1
@arthur In fact, the largest group of undocumented immigrants in the US is Asian. But since many of them overstay visas which obviously is hard to film, Trump and his administration concentrate on Central and South Americans showing up at the Southern border. The visuals keep his base well fed.
1
@MD
Thanks for the reply.
Other than the link I provided, I really hadn't put much in the way of supportive research into that question.
I agree, I have no doubt that our leaders will choose the most effective means to further empower themselves.
1
A Sage of Baltimore, Henry Louis Mencken moment and wondering how he would write of this moment and times.
1
Racism is borne directly from ignorance. When I see photos of Trump supporters I look into their eyes and try to imagine how they somehow missed out on the most basic education, missed out on a spiritual foundation from which they could navigate society. Quoting the singer Rhiannon Giddens latest recording, 'there is no Other". There is no such thing as us and them. To believe an Iranian boy playing soccer in Tehran is any different than an American boy playing soccer in a Nebraska field is complete nonsense. The future of the world depends directly on this basic truth. Without it, we can only decline.
3
I don't want to besmirch the thrust of Stephen's column today, but it must be pointed out that Nebraska and other states in the Great Plains, such as Kansas, Oklahoma, the Dakotas, et al -- all settled by immigrants from Eastern Europe, Scandinavia and Germany -- are today bedrock Republican supporters of the oaf in the White House.
What happened?
3
Brett Stephens wrote: “... that’s largely because the getting in was easy.”
I think you need to visit the museum at Ellis Island before you tell me my grandparents did it the “easy” way. Then, take a tour of your local cemetery and note the flags and names on the graves of the immigrants’ first generation sons who were sent to Europe and the Pacific in the 1940s to defend and die for their new country by the hundreds of thousands. Nope, they did it the “right” way not the easy way, and risked all all they held dear in order to call themselves Americans.
1
Calvin Coolidge 1924,"America for Americans". Jeff Sessions 2017, Civil Rights act reversed the 1924 act.
Willa Cather also wrote O Pioneer
The contributions immigrants made to this country to help it prosper as well as the suffering and the horrible conditions immigrants had to endure.
Similar to today with Mexicans disenfranchised and compensated with minuscule wages
Have you noticed that a Mexican delivery “Boy” more like Man” never looks at the customer in the eye but looks away? Or the size of the tip as if they’re not worthy of anything more ?
SAD
1
If you take the time to be a student of your own family’s genealogy, you will ultimately see your own immigration status and in that your ownership of being an American, and your responsibility to welcome others. Not since high school, too. But I am off for a re-read of “My Antonia” and May I capture the exhilaration that I originally had! The treatment of immigrants not only sickens me, but wears me down and this is NOT a time to give up!
1
‘We can erase it by recalling what we’re really about, starting by re-reading “My Ántonia.” And by never ever voting for a Republican ever again.
3
I would expect Stephens, who equates anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism, to write of industrious immigrants settling land and making it productive with no mention of the aboriginal genocide that made it all possible. And that's what I got.
My paternal grandparents settled the Central Valley and made their little farm productive. I don't know if they thought much about California's first people. I know I do, because history must include all truths, otherwise it is myth.
1
The perfect antidote to the racism of President Trump?
There is no antidote to the racism of Trump because America, on all sides, is a racist nation. America is caught in a race battle with no honest discussion and no honest solution. The right wing is compared to a pack of National Socialists such as existed in Germany in the early part of the 20th century, and the left in an ironic twist uses socialism to gather what it perceives as aggrieved minorities against whites and especially white males to rectify injustice.
We essentially live in a society which on all sides twists socialism in service of race, sex, gender, etc. Either you are right wing, National Socialistic or you are a left wing pack of socialistic aggrieved minority races, ethnic groups, females, LGBTQ against the perceived dominant race in America, and probably the only essential difference between the right and left wings in this socialism is that the right is more likely, for all religion, to use biologic/scientific explanations to explain racial differences (books such as the Bell Curve) while the left refuses any nature explanation whatsoever and leans entirely on the side of nurture and treats the dominant race, whites, specifically white males in an entirely Marxist praxis view as being privileged, parasitic, exploitative over the rest of society and needing to be dislodged from power so society can flourish.
It's an environment in which all terms--race, capitalism, socialism--are confused, mangled.
Trump supporters love immigrants that come to the country the right way. I’ve seen comments claiming middle America is all white with no immigrants, which is totally ignorant & outright wrong. Legal immigrants come to this country for the love of freedom and opportunities it provides, which is the same reason patriotic citizens love it. Their families are small business owners, Dr’s, teachers, professors, etc. A very large majority of legal immigrants also support Trump. Legal immigrants fled countries with socialist/corrupt policies just like the left want to implement here, which is something Democrats don’t seem to understand.
Dear Bret, so do many Americans rise to the occasion.
Here is our song for America:
THIS IS AMERICA
When you walk across this land
You will understand
We have all it takes to be one nation hand in hand
As you look at every face
Look beyond the race
Then you'll see we're all American
This is America
The dream for all to see
This is America
Our strength is you and me
We have come from near and far
To get to where we are
Some have had it easy and some have had it hard
But as different as we seem
We all share a dream
And we won't let that dream be torn apart
This is America
United we will stay
This is America
The dream lives on today
America, the dream lives on today
© Stevie Holland and Gary William Friedman
the music can be found on the internet...
1
Poem by Emma Lazarus "New Colossus" on a plaque at the Statue of Liberty;
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "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-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
This is the welcome that greeted my maternal grandfather, an Italian orphan who came here in the late 1800's to work in the coal mines of Scranton and build a good life in the land of opportunity.
We will drive these nativist, white supremacist monsters from our government in 2020 and bury their philosophy, cruelty and greed with them.
2
Shared privation or a shared external threat are the grease lubricating immigrants' assimilation. Those who first broke the plains with one mule and a plow knew hardship and the unforgiving mistress of Mother Nature. The menace of war after Pearl Harbor pulled us together so closely we dropped many of our prejudices if a man could pound a rivet into an airplane wing or grow crops destined for combat rations. Even the wrongfully interned Japanese-Americans were engaged to fight and did so in the heralded 442nd RCT in the European theater.
Now we heed the siren call of the nativists led by a president who claims to be a populist while engineering a wholesale rape of the nation's riches for the patriarchy and for himself and his own.
If we but opened our eyes, we would see a common threat and common purpose in combating climate change and poverty and hunger throughout the world, the forces which drive migration in the Northern Triangle of Central America or Syria or Southeast Asia. Few among us would sit quietly and watch our children die when we could walk to the next town or to the next country to save them. We are the animals fleeing the forest fire of our own making.
2
Over 40% of Americans reading the book wouldn't understand it's message.
1
My Grandmother, first generation German born in the US in the late 19th century, told me about so many Germans who overstayed their visas to avoid the Kaisers army. Too many Americans believe their ancestors cam legally & it’s all a lie’
1
It’s noteworthy that immigrants once thought learning English was going to help them achieve success. Yet now we have those who have been here for years not being able to speak English.
1
If religious beliefs were not accepted as sacrosanct much of what passes for freedom would be revisited as welcoming invented and unprovable tenets into our governance. While these tenets are well and good within houses of worship they have no place whatsoever in guiding the citizenry of our nation
I note this as Representative Omar's religious belief is essentially promoted not only by her words, but her dress as well. While she is not alone she is certainly the most obvious. She is not being "bashed " as an immigrant so much as one who flaunts her religious belief which runs counter to the more prevalent Christianity of the nation.
The separation of church and state is a tenet which has allowed our nation to gather those holding personal religious ideology to serve as representatives of all, not only those who hold similar views.
Words in praise of Allah or "In God We Trust" as stamped on our coinage have no place in the governance of our purportedly diverse society.
We can overcome historical prejudice, but only if much of it is understood as emanating from religious institutions.
The coin which touts freedom of religion has another side; freedom from religion.
2
From the first paragraph, I suspected comments “but they were white” would materialize. America really was the first major melting pot. And, yes, at that time blacks and Chinese were treated differently. At that time, countries were more naturally based on nationality, defined as much by culture and language as race and religion. The American story is not perfect, but the values and freedoms that keep moving us forward should be appreciated vs. the continuing shame we hear from the left. It’s not dissimilar to how on a few short years we plowed through LGBT marriage rights, with about- faces from CA, which voted against gay marriage, and Obama and Hillary who also evolved their positions. We, too, will move beyond Trump. He is not a dictator. We are free to oppose him. But reaction to him is like he defined us. Not in this country.
1
Perhaps our readers should revisit Philip Roth’s novel, PLOT AGAINST AMERICA, which is chillingly prescient about America’s society and values today. The comparisons in his 2004 work will stun you.
2
My heart aches. May our American perseverance see us through this terrible time.
The great American poet, Carl Sandburg, son of Swedish immigrants wrote, “For we know when a nation goes down and never comes back, when a society or a civilization perishes, one condition may always be found. They forgot where they came from. They lost sight of what brought them along.”
God bless us. May we not let Trump and his hate filled followers allow us to forget who we are and where we ALL came from.
In my heart of hearts I do believe we, the majority, will save the day. We must.
541
@Hortencia Beautifully put and Amen.
23
I actually don’t believe the majority of Trump followers are hate-filled. Yes, he dog-whistled the extremists into his camp. But most, like others, are raising their hand and saying, “What about me?” They see the left worrying about everyone but them. And they boil at the inability of Washington to work. No doubt, Trump is the wrong vehicle for their cause. But, at minimum, they’ve been ignored. At maximum, stereotyped as religious, gun-clingers. The right Democratic candidate will pull a subset of GOPs and Independents the other way, and overcome the electoral college. But that candidate isn’t visible to me now.
7
@Alberto Abrizzi
They are not saying "what about me", they are saying get rid of them.
5
If 99% of Americans can't or won't read one page of the Mueller report to understand how their democracy is being destroyed, how the hell are they going to read (or ever comprehend) a WHOLE BOOK? This country is entertaining itself to death and its anthem should be changed to "Comfortably Numb".
12
@Michael Doane
Michael, "My Antonia" is a relatively slim book and not difficult to read in terms of style or structure. Avid readers can finish it in one or two days. It is not Joyce's "Ulysses."
The Mueller Report is full of minutiae, replete with references to statutes, notes, and other technical details. There is no sensory or aesthetic rush. How many Congressmen do you think read the report in its entirety? Any bets on the incumbent?
The Mueller Report is why people some people drop out of law school and why some people are drawn to law school.
1
Yes, a lovely book and a good read. More disturbing is the fact that the Occupant (not a President by any definition) does not/cannot (not literally but emotionally) read. Think about that for a minute.
5
Thank you for this kind reminder of both a wonderful novel and our better selves.
4
I am in full sympathy with the immigrants, and the immigrant story in the US and Canada, but that does not stop me from asking: Are There Limits? Our cities are overwhelmed and our natural resources were exceeded long ago. The issue of immigration must be one part of the larger challenge of creating a population policy.
4
I am reminded, as I ponder this piece and consider how much I learned from reading widely as a child, teenager, young adult and on and on into now..,, my old age, that Trump does not read. And has never profited from learning how others live, think, feel.
I am reminded of a wealthy man, Carnegie, who endowed libraries. Versus Trump who has no real wealth (not that he’s willing to divulge or even share), but clings even in old age to greed and denigration of the unfortunate who flee violence for a better life.
So much to ponder. If only Trump could...
842
Of course, Carnegie also destroyed the unions in his company so he could work his men 12 hours a day, 364 days a year for bare subsistence wages (patriotic Andy gave them July 4 off). No model he.
43
@AJBF...which is why Mr Barr was doing so well with his Mueller Report Interpretation...until the media made the Report Public...but few Americans took the time to read even a small portion of it for themselves. Which is why there were readings of the Report ....and even a play..,,,sad that..most of us won't read !!....
21
@TheraP Don't hold your breath waiting for Trump do anything as generous as endowing a library, or as intelligent as actually reading a book.
25
I frequently disagree with Bret Stephens. Not this time. This fourth generation American thinks everyone should read this column.
4
My family immigrated to the US in the late 1950's. My father had a fourth grade education--he was set to work early--and my mother a tenth grade one. My sister and I, both born abroad and naturalized citizens, both have a Ph.D. and have contributed our share to our country. And for whatever it's worth, we're part of a minority that was--and sometimes still continues to be--looked down upon and is discriminated against. One swallow doesn't make a summer, but our story is the story of America. I don't want that story to change.
7
The difference between 19th century and now is vast. It may have been easy to get in, but much more difficult to survive. Perhaps it is today’s safety net that attracts so many to our southern border.
I am a refugee from 40+ ago coming from hard circumstances. I had to wait overseas before I could legally enter US. I struggle with the basic question: why is it that I had to wait overseas whereas today many just show up at the southern door and expect immediate attention instead of waiting to be processed at home? It is a question of basic fairness and equal treatment for all who aspire to come here.
More questions. I got help from Jewish organizations that made asylum process orderly and helped many of us get on our feet in America. And I am grateful. My question is: why is it that the Jewish community can exercise political and financial strength to help my people, and Hispanic community cannot do same for theirs to avoid the crisis we have now?
5
Jewish people take care of their own, they have for centuries. They know persecution and progroms from their own personal history going back to Moses and the Exodus from Egypt.
I just saw Fiddler in Yiddish on Broadway as a reminder. Worth going!!!
Maybe peoples of Hispanic backgrounds don’t see it the same way that Jewish people do.
Maybe they don’t feel a sense of responsibility towards others of Hispanic decent?
Maybe they are not that organised?
Maybe it’s cultural traditions?
I am a child of a Jewish refugee from the German invasion of Holland and Belgium on May 10, 1940 who came to the US that same year, 5 months later.
@ManderineIt is too easy to advocate community spirit and family value and then send me a bill for brining your family over. I am amazed that no one is asking this question of responsibility for your own kind.
You would remember Tevye the Milkman from Fidler on Roof who fancied himself as a philosopher. He would say that “on one hand” it is this and “on the hand” it is that, to state that there are least 2 ways of looking at same thing. Yet, when it came to his youngest daughter taking up with the gentile he concluded that there is “NO other hand”, there is no other way for him to look at it. He is correct in a sense that there are things in life that are so fundamental that you can only look at one way. Like anti-Semitism – for which there is “NO other hand”. It is very upsetting that many in my tribe give young congresswoman a pass on anti-Semitism in the name of a greater good.
1
No one is bashing immigration per se. They are bashing illegal immigration. Let me repeat, for Mr. Stephens's benefit: illegal.
The Czech immigrants that Ms. Cather talks about were legally entering the country. And those legal immigrants believed in the melting pot, a concept which today's illegal immigrants and the Progressives abhor.
Apparently, Mr. Stephens and the Progressives he now wants to be identified with want no limits on our borders and who can come across. This is insanity, And he and they know it. But it will bring in many future voters for the Progressive agenda.
4
Progressives have suggested ways to control our borders. Republicans aren’t listening. Poor desperate people should be treated with humanity, legal or illegal.
Also perhaps USA should stop interfering in Latin America causing economic turmoil, violence, and the displacement of populations.
3
@Zejee From 2008 to 2010, Obama and the Dems had veto-proof majorities and could have passed whatever immigration and border laws they wanted. But they did absolutely nothing. And the Dems who now control the House could also pass such laws, so that voters can see what they actually want by way of border control and immigration. But they do nothing.
So don’t try to put the blame on the Republicans. Dems don’t want to solve this problem.
I read "My Antonia" in high school, and enjoyed it very much, though I'm more partial to Cather's "O Pioneers". The heroine is strong, intelligent, and inspires less pity, and its depiction of how a good life can be coaxed from a hardscrabble existence is inspiring. And quite frankly, the adolescent male narrator of "My Antonia" is somewhat insufferable.
1
Great piece Mr. Stephens. It’s people like you who make people stop and think.
1
"That would certainly include Minnesota’s Representative Ilhan Omar, whose rights must be defended every bit as vigorously as many of her views should be opposed."
What we are now witnessing is no longer merely in the realm of opinion as to whether or not Trump is racist or sexist. Trump swore an oath at his presidential inauguration to "... preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." The First Amendment guarantees Omar the right to free speech without threats or intimidation from the president that she will be deported ("send her back"). Trump is in clear violation of his oath of office. He should be impeached and convicted.
6
Willa Cather would be taken aback at flouting of immigration laws by employers in agriculture, hospitality, and construction. Cather would have no clue about mudslides in Guatemala or gangs in Honduras.
“There was nothing but land,” Cather writes. “Not a country at all, but the material out of which countries are made.”
Yeah, Bret, now there is no more open land. This is not a virgin continent anymore with unlimited resources. We are not an extraction economy based on agriculture, minerals and timber.
We are not even a smokestack industrial economy anymore. My grandfather came from Bohemia also. He headed straight to Sharon, PA to get a job in a steel mill. My father went there also, until he got enough money saved to become an ophthalmologist.
As everyone knows, that method of upward mobility is not available anymore
We do have a high tech economy, or as Alvin Toffler called it, a "third wave economy,' which is dependent on people being healthy and getting a good education.
Not only do these sorts of jobs provide a means to earning a living, but they integrate people into communities and preclude antisocial acts.
We need not Willa Cather's fiction, but a paradigm shift in society to deal with Trump who is but a symptom of climate change and the growth of industrialized countries around the world which take our jobs.
Good luck at getting the unlettered Trump mob to listen to that. Any proposal is met by them with a label of "socialist."
5
@Wordsworth from Wadsworth. Garbage. How is Trump a symptom of climate change? Did it start in 2017? And by the way, illegals crossing the Rio Grande won’t be getting jobs in our high tech economy.
Thank you, thank you.
American literature helps trace and record our fragmented, often cruel and vile, yet resilient, courageous, humorous, generous American history. We have Melville’s story of a whaling ship in which the “immigrants” (Ishmael calls them “savages,” yet honors Queequeg, Daggoo, and Tashtego, all “blacks”) stand up in tippy boats and dart the harpoons. There’s Thoreau throwing himself on his belly on a frozen pond to look at bubbles. And Twain’s story of a boy and a slave spinning down a river ... sometimes happily. Let’s not forget Sarah Orne Jewett’s reports of salty people in an aging town of fishermen and seagoing women on the Maine coast. And Hemingway writing about World War I. And Toni Morrison telling the tale of Sula and her Ohio town of black men and women on the hill, above the valley.
And yes, we have Willa Cather, whose clear prose seems to have been carved from the shapes of the prairie.
Ohh. Our country has been in trouble before. Worse trouble. Read Whitman’s reports of our savage, blood-soaked civil war.
And we are in trouble now.
Not many Trump supporters will read Willa Cather for enlightenment, but those of us who have read her books should remember to be hopeful and to fight, resist Trump’s evil influence.
He is familiar. Many villains figure in our stories. And he represents the worst America can spawn. He’s not hard to categorize. Let’s hope and vote to make sure the good guys win in this contest.
6
Stephens joins Brooks in making amends for his 2016 tepid response to Trump's hypocrisy and the bigotry of his followers.
Sorry, damage done. You had your opportunity three years ago to condemn Trump and his base in the strongest terms and you didn't take it.
Expect to see Douthat's apology shortly.
8
My Antonia is about immigrants from “white” Europe and the problems they faced. A few decades ago immigrants from the former Soviet Union also faced discrimination and problems when they came, but largely moved past those issues as they learned about where they are and the culture. At this point it is unlikely that anyone would ever yell “go back to where you came from” to an immigrant who is white. The generous laws at the time of My Antonia didn’t apply for people who were not white, and it is that racism - unaddressed - that still haunts us and is at the core of the anti-immigrant sentiments in the current Republican Party.
9
@Merlot. You seem to overlook that it’s ILLEGAL immigration that people are against.
1
A bit different having open borders 100 years ago when the country was mostly uninhabited versus today when the country is bursting at its seams.
5
Our nation is not “bursting at the seams. “
4
Thank you Bret for sharing this amazing expose. It really speaks to the education we get from reading our history. The presents times are so heart breaking for those Americans who are really in the majority that believe in being fair, compassionate, empathetic, kind and charitable to those less fortunate than ourselves. Instead, we have in the White House a group of rich, entitled, greedy, corrupt and racist Americans who have no interest in any of the qualities that made America the shining beacon that it once was around the globe. For many Americans, once they prosper, they have little interest in putting out a hand to help others realize their dreams.
1
Willa cather was a great writer who had to hide her homosexuality, narrating a crush for a bohemian girl through the eyes of a young man but the feminine gaze comes through forcefully. at least in that sense, the US has made strides, if not with regard to immigrants
2
all true.
and i'd like to thank stephens for not perpetrating the nonsense that this story is true--never happened anywhere else--only in the united states of america.
2
It is different for today’s South American immigrants because of racism. Note Trump suggesting a welcoming hand to Norwegians. His cynical ban on seven Muslim countries preys on fear of terrorism even though the most guilty nation of said terrorism is Saudi Arabia- not on this list for financial reasons. Yet I do believe this great nation’s fever will break.
1
The problem with MAGA is not the rabble who happily chant "Send her back!". It is the educated leadership who don't care about childish xenophobia, but who are frighteningly successful at manipulating adults who still think like children.
I suspect that Trump's 43% approval conceals a far higher percentage of people who find his race-baiting so juvenile, that they still don't self-identify precisely because of it. Do not forget that four members of the Supreme Court voted to sustain Trump's racist attempt to scare Latinos from participating in the census.
3
@Sequel. Perhaps you can explain Omar’s 8% approval rating.
Thanks for the reminder and sentiments. The rabid followers of Trump's racist policies who believe that their ancestors are somehow truer Americans should read this book among others and remember that it wasn't "hard work" that gave them their privileges, but the immigration policies of earlier times that gave them a chance to work hard. But honestly, Trumpers don't care. Remember the face of the arrogant boy in Washington rudely staring at an elder Native American protesting Trump policies? I think one of them shrugged at the robbery of Indian lands. They don't care about fairness or American values; they teach their children entitlement and to despise the poor. Trump has given us a cultural Civil War, and may already have rigged the next election.
1
It seems to me there is one in particular who needs to read that book. You would think with an immigrant mother, an immigrant wife, and an immigrant ex-wife he should know better.
3
My mother, a high school English teacher for 25 years, named me after My Antonia. She used to say, "Antonia knows how to work and she knows how to love, and there's nothing more important in the world."
How ironic that I grew up to immigrate to New Zealand, for the affordable housing, education, and healthcare.
7
Mr. Stephens,
You are right, an antidote, but it works only if taken.
Perhaps you can get one of your friends in the White House, if you have any left, to sit down and read it to the SCP, who we are told doesn't read.
I doubt that it would help, but I am desperate.
1
Any novel is an antidote to Trump.
3
New book about Angela Merkel mentions incident where Trump pulls a piece of candy out of his pocket and tosses it at the Ms, Merkel saying don't say I never gave you anything. Ms,Merkel ignores Trump's ugly gesture. Another example of how Trump has degraded the office of presidency in dealing with powerful women. Powerful women can bring Trump down as he fears them as much as he cowers before Putin and giggles like a lovesick school girl with murderous Kim. Women from Trump's days were timid but today Kamela Harris would make Trump lost for words when she points out his numerous foibles.
6
The Democrats have been accusing Republicans of being racists and sowing division and incitement to violence from quite a long time. Consider this quote from Dem house representative John Lewis from 2008 "As one who was a victim of violence and hate during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, I am deeply disturbed by the negative tone of the McCain-Palin campaign. Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse. George Wallace never threw a bomb, He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights. Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama." Is it any wonder that this sort of rhetoric from the left is repeating itself today? This was said about John McCain the current Repub hero of the left that people want to go back to. No wonder the Republicans don't trust the Democrats when it comes to race, they play the same card every time. The only difference now is Trump isn't afraid to fight and punch back and the Democrats and the MSM hate it!! We are all responsible for Trump because we broke and constantly break our own rules. Trump is a symptom, not the cause.
Now Trump has created a climate where US Congresswomen are threatened with violence.
2
Beautiful and pertinent writing, Bret. But let’s cut the equivocation. It’s ALL about Race, and Gender. I don’t think your version of conservatism is palatable to Trump, his Collaborators or Fans. They have been waiting a long time to to MAGA, which is code for White Men RULE. “ Send Her Back “ is the new “ Lock Her Up “. They aim to rule, with an iron fist and black boots.
6
Wonderful book about a time long gone. The descendants of these characters are emblematic of the anti-immigration movement espoused by Trump and his followers. We must learn from the past to make the future better. We need to stop examining the past through filters that may distort our vision for the future.
There is a real world and in that world there is an obvious, ready "antidote" to Trump: it's called "the Republican Party." If the the party that controls the Senate had the slightest interest in stopping the depredation, Trump would be out in weeks.
Let's rephrase. If the Party that Mr. Stephens supports wholeheartedly was not fully invested in deforming the country to its desires, then Mr. Stephens would not be feigning high school-level cultural sophistication to cover his support for those policies, would he?
2
It is hard to say enough about "My Antonia". It is perhaps the best book about immigrants in the pioneer West. Like other Cather books, it is so beautifully written. She has a unique ability to convey the deep sense of place. The reader can certainly feel the alienation Antonia and her family felt when their American Dream failed. That is an insight few of us really understand about an immigrant family's unique struggle. A century later, Cather is one of our most underrated writers.
5
Sounds like a great book, Brett. However, many commenters here seem to think the people who believe our immigration laws should be enforced are hostile to immigration and immigrants. Nothing could be further from the truth. We simply realize that America today cannot the open-borders America of the mid-1800s. People who want to come here need to be vetted through the legal process. There are people all over the world waiting in line to come to this country. What are we saying to them when we turn a blind eye to those entering illegally across our southern border? The right immigrants are indeed very good for our country. They come here intent on being law abiding, hard working, contributing members of our society. They should be accepted and celebrated. However, allowing unchecked illegal immigration is an insult to them and to our current citizens.
2
So let’s hire more judges and lawyers and speed up the vetting process—which is what Democrats have been urging.
2
Bret, What you and all the other opinion writers in the NY Times keep tell us is that there is a clash of world views in America.
Well, we all know that unless we have our heads stuck in the sand.
What we need is answers to the question of how are we going to resolve this conflict of world views.
I for one do not see any possible way reconcile these two world views any more than the country could reconcile the two opposing world views in 1860.
Unless someone comes up with a way to reconcile these two world views, either we will end up with an authoritarian state with one world view oppressing the other or we will end up with a civil war.
So, how about stop telling us all about what we already know and write about some concrete way we can avoid what I think is coming in the next couple of decades.
7
Since Bret's choice of literature seems to be at issue with some readers, I would also recommend Edith Wharton's "The House of Mirth," Sherwood Anderson's "Winesburg, Ohio," Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle," and William Faulkner's "Light in August."
Now you know why academics fight over the so-called canon.
5
Outstanding piece. We too came here when it was easy. But some even "jumped ship" so came in without passing through immigration. Essentially they walked off their ship into NYC and disappeared into the crowd. That man's descendants did well too. And since my family are all blue eyed and fair haired, we disappear easily into the indistinct white crowd.
Sadly, we need the Lindsey Grahams to say this very thing, but they don't, instead they say that what the president is doing is a fight against socialism. Oh - my grandfather was a bolshevik. Even still the family stayed on, fought in WW2, some in Vietnam, and are just part of the invisible mass of undifferentiated Americans.
Hopefully, the children of the Korean dry cleaner who speaks broken English will also disappear into the mass of Americans. And with him the many others from places as close Guatemala or as far away as Bangledesh.
9
My Antonia is a great book, well worth re-reading. What we have, that Willa Cather didn't, are the cartels. The thugs who control the Rio Bravo/Rio Grande border, rent children to help immigrants cross in, exploit and sometimes assault women coming here, all the while murdering the Mexican photographers, journalists, and honest law enforcement officers who try to limit the cartels' power.
In 1888, there were no Reynosa, Gulf, Sinaloa, or multiple Los Zetas cartels astride the Missouri or Platte rivers, no MS-13 assassins, and close to zero Nebraskans addicted to drugs in 1888.
The positives of healthy, hardworking immigrants coming in are just the same as ever -- that's where this piece gets it right. But believing that a border has a reason for existence beyond bigotry is not an example of hate. It's common sense.
Yes, the Koch brothers and the corporate elite love cheap labor coming in, the more the better. It keeps wages down and profit margins close to record highs. It wasn't homesteaders in Nebraska that the United Farm Workers' Cesar Chavez tried to keep from coming here illegally.
Crude exploitation is not pretty, sentimental, or romantic, and no-one can just come in and start farming anymore. Try Willa Cather's Antonia as a Mexican working and living in Nuevo Laredo today, or as a young Guatemalan mother trying to come in, totally dependent on the coyotes and the cartels that control her fate.
2
Are we over thinking this?
Bret considers how Americans treat the others and asks us to stop the frenzy of for and against for a moment. Who are we and what do they want?
Argumentation and debate of facts and ideas are essential to human life. But it is worthwhile setting these aside to step back for a moment to ask, who am I, and what do they want?
The selection of Cather's My Antonia is a great choice here. It presents the land and the people on it. Landscapes and personalities that are at first glance, the same and simple. Most of the characters wish to improve their lot as they move away from their past and work toward a better future.
It is simplistic and easy to be threatened by what appears to be a threat to ourselves. But if we know who we are and accept that the others are more like us than different, than we more clearly look at challenges with a brain and heart engaged. The result is not open or closed borders, but instead are sensible well thought out limits and plans, but also include the morality, common sense, and heart that is America.
5
there are any number of novels, essays and films that remind us, similarly, of our values and the struggles endured to defend them (what it means to be american)...do we need to be armed with anything more than fredric march's speech as president in "seven days in may" on our democracy AND the ways and means we have at hand to adjust it....is there any more eloquent indictment of the dithering congress than jean arthurs's speech to new senator james stweart, ("mr smith goes to washington'") on the journey of a bill from concept through the tangles of procedure before debate and vote are even remotely in sight.
the value of these, especially film, over meadering op ed landscapes such as mr stephens's today is that they are stated clearly by writers who know that they have only one crack at making their point as the film passes (even more so in the days before recording and "on demand" replays).
rather than parsing several aspects of the immigration upset, mr stephens, for one example, blends them with his commitment to trash trump instead of pushing back at the congress which, for decades, has ignored their sworn duty (and perhaps, instead, instructing them on obvious solutions that would eliminate distress at the borders and the strain on resources, human and material).
"you don't have to favor sanctuary cities and the abolition of ICE to be on the right side of this debate,"...how about an outline for such a debate, no ad hominum attacks, no false equivalences?
2
Brett, you make a good point, however, the starting point is legislation that fixes the immigration problem. Most of the 11 million plus immigrants currently in violation of the law arrived before Trump announced his candidacy. Obama, Bush, Clinton were all in charge. More importantly Congress is charged with fixing this, a President merely manages. Let’s assume an immigrant has been here more than 5 years and at least 5 citizens will affirm knowing him or her and they have been supporting themselves. Give those people, probably 90+%, a temporary green card with an option to renew assuming continued self support and no criminal activity. People who show no visible means of support could be removed...likely a small number. Make the case for why this is good for our country.... an easy case to make. Are any Democrats offering any plans. Nope. They all blame everything on Trump hoping voters won’t notice they are plan less. Of particular note are those in congress who have done nothing but observe and complain. This is fixable and would be an economic benefit to all.
7
Pretty good ideas...are you considering running for office?
As it happens, I am re-reading My Antonia because it is one of my favorite books. Cather's ability to evoke the harsh beauty of the northern plains is, as ever, spectacular. But this time around I am moved by Antonia's serial transformations as she grows into herself and becomes an adult. I guess I was in the midst of a similar process when I read the book as an undergraduate so I didn't notice how willful and creative were her masks. She flings herself into each role, each task, each persona. She marvels and basks in her considerable physical strength, as does the narrator. She is always transforming but always Antonia. She reflects and absorbs Nebraska and never objects to the hardships her family absorbs. She is as open as a sunrise.
At least half of my forbears came to America in the wake of the Second Famine, around 1848. When I read this masterful book from one of our best storytellers, somehow I am sitting with them all sharing a simple meal, grown by hand as much of our own food -- if you want to stand beside your ancestors, grow your own food -- and ready to start another hard afternoon's labor. Nothing about America is easy, but it is not intended to be. But sharing a dream makes it all possible.
10
I,too, loved "My Antonia," but a good novel set over a century ago should not be the basis of modern immigration policy (even though we should acknowledge the ideals expressed in "My Antonia"). The country has changed since 1892. The rise of the welfare state means that every immigrant costs taxpayers tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in education, healthcare, WIC, and other public services. Income and payroll taxes, not present in 1892, are often not paid by illegal immigrants, so they have an automatic competitive advantage versus citizens when it comes to jobs. And every citizen bumped out of the legal workforce then goes on the dole. We can't accept a million illegal immigrants a year when each one consumes $500,000 in lifetime benefits while paying little or no tax.
4
Not true.
2
I never read "My Antonia" but it is apparently an inspiring story about how a colony of immigrants succeeded through persistence and hard work. It wouldn't have been much of a story if it had simply ended with the president telling them to go back where they came from.
4
None of them ended up on welfare rolls either. Big difference between coming here to work hard for a better life and showing up demanding a living.
1
What makes you think these poor desperate people are not coming to work?
Who do you think is picking the fruit and the lettuce? Who is cleaning the toilets and scrubbing the floors? Who’s taking care of grandma and the kids? Who’s doing the cooking and the dishwashing? Who’s mowing the lawns and cutting the hedges?
Illegals don’t qualify for welfare
3
Unfortunately and tragically, there is no antidote for the decline we all know as trumpism.
Trumpsim is more than the sad spectacle of the man Trump or the even sadder spectacle of his followers, or the profoundly sad spectacle of his enablers.
Its a deep personality flaw of the American character.
Ever since our founding we have struggled with our higher and lower spirits.
We are still struggling and sometimes, like now, the darkness wins out over the light.
The struggle is who we are. Its not a bug. Its a feature.
8
I loved Willa Father’s novel and I agree it’s a celebration of the immigrant spirit which created America - and many other commentators seem to agree. But, I wonder if it would even be published today? Rather, the way the world is now, wouldn’t it be viewed through a negative perspective - white, European immigrants staking their claim on western land - taken from Native Americans? Isn’t that the story we are all suppose to rebel against? What about the narrator? Isn’t he a more privileged character? This is where we are. I bet editors would be terrified to touch it....
3
This is a refreshing change of pace Bret. An avowed conservative celebrating the lessons of “My Antonia” over the insights of “The Wall Street Journal.” Your observations here, in conjunction with your views in “Only Mass Deportation Can Save America” (June 16, 2017), are rather persuasive.
Willa Cather’s own life offers a more instructive commentary on contemporary American life than her most famous novel. Cather, originally from Virginia, actually spent very little time in Nebraska, spending most of her adult life in New York City’s Greenwich Village—on Bleecker Street—with her partner, Edith Lewis. This aspect of Cather’s life might put a different spin on the significance of “My Antonia,” but to her credit Cather does not overly romanticize Midwestern farm life.
American youth, in conjunction with new immigrants, are flocking in droves to large coastal and Midwestern cities, fueling the process of urban renewal. Most flyover states are underpopulated—especially with visibly immigrant populations—except for cohorts of seasonal agricultural workers and laborers.
Immigration reform that addresses these disparities and allocates new immigrants to underpopulated flyover states would do much to mitigate the corrosive blue-red divide plaguing the country. Immigrants can revitalize sagging local economies with a little federal assistance and become readily assimilated. Longtime residents in turn can learn from the inherited cultures new immigrants bring with them.
Win win.
6
Trump supporters will not read the book and they wouldn't accept it even if they did. America is at an inflection point. I just hope enough voters in the swing states recognize that the nation is headed in a destructive and immoral direction. I am actually praying for a recession in 2020 to ensure people don't use the "great economy" as a reason to vote for Trump.
7
Great article. Wouldn't it be wonderful if every time Trump attacked the Dem nominee in the debates, the Democratic nominee opened a book by Cather or some other great writer and just started reading out loud.
4
Dementia in the White House is wide spread, from Trump, Miller, Kushner, Mnuchin, Bolton, Pompeo, to the resident golf caddies.
They are all terrified by the prospect of living next to immigrants, yet have no answer to the questions:
Who will work on the farms, do the menial service work, and support all the factories that will arise because of the China tariffs.
Even an average grade school student knows that if unemployment is at 3%, as boasted day and night by the electoral college/Trump University graduate, and we deport more workers, and factories rise like mushrooms when China's factories move to the U.S.A, as promised day and night to the "base", the basement,. we will need more workers than we have. Robots, aside from the White House crew, cannot solve that problem.
So, Sirs, who will pick the strawberries, clean the toilets, deliver the mail and pizzas, push the strollers, cut the White House lawn, build the factories and your real estate high rises, who?
Dementia at the head of our great country, that I can tell you, believe me.
10
One of my friends is an immigrant married to an immigrant and a Trump supporter. Her customers include immigrants.She buys into the line that liberals want to give everything away for free. She hates socialism and claims Social security and medicare aren't socialist because she pays for what she'll use. She won't read anything that explains she will use more than she pays. I asked if anyone told her to 'go back where she came from' and she immediately got angry and said that wasn't racist - the squad are un-American. If only exposure to others cured Trumpism. Unfortunately, it goes with deep abhorrence of facing facts.
21
Regardless of why or how the immigrants came in the 19th century, that was then and this is now. The ideals behind which they came have been eroded over time particularly by the successive generations who fear losing the dream (wealth) acquired by their ancestors. It's a natural fear developed as we become attached to material believed necessary for survival.
What is not too natural ,is for the leader of our country to openly and defiantly fuel the fears of citizens, at the expense of others trying to achieve their dreams. But Trump's monstrous assault on immigrants dovetails with several previous administrations neglect of an immigration system which has had citizens of all denominations clamoring for reform and which for whatever reasons was ignored.
The question for the American people today is not whether the system of immigration needs to be reformed but how it will ultimately be reformed. We know "open borders" will not be acceptable, yet we cling to the American ideal of providing opportunity for "the others".
2020 is the due date for a decision which will ultimately decide what America becomes for the next several generations. But it is in the hands of the citizens to exercise their freedom. It's up to the two political parties to give the citizens viable alternative choices for how future immigration will be handled.
4
Loved your nuanced comments
! The impracticality of open borders has eluded both parties although Dems less so.
Still, as u say, fidelity to the facts is what is missing . Heaven help us.
When my father came to this country as a 40 year old refugee from Nazi Germany with my mother and me in tow, he saved string.
He arrived nearly penniless, had very little English except what he could discern as a result of his gymnasium classes in Latin and Greek and found a job at a May Company Department Store as a worker in their stockroom.
Thrifty by nature and upbringing, he was astounded to learn that large quantities of string were being discarded every day and began saving the string for reuse later.
For his trouble, he got laughed at by the other stock boys and his boss, all of them native-born Americans.
Skip ahead a few years, and my father and mother had opened a tiny store where they and several female chocolate-dippers produced chocolates that ultimately came to be appreciated far and wide, which in turn enabled them to purchase a small house, pay my way through college, help support our synagogue and achieve a large piece of their American Dream.
The department store is now no longer, and I guess the stock boys who laughed at my father went out of business with it. Doubtless, many of them who still survive and their children are currently members-in-good-standing of Trump’s angry army.
Not all of the refugees I have known made out as well as my father, but virtually all of them ended up enormously grateful to the country that adopted them and spent their work lives and personal lives proving it.
15
Opposing Omar's views might be more doable if Trump didn't so consistently lie about them. As it stands, I will listen to what she says and see what she does, not what Trump says about her, because it has been shown he lies. Something you don't seem to grasp well enough Mr. Stephens, is that racism is as rampant as it is and out of control largely because the president of our country - the president! - is pouring gasoline on the fire. The fire has always been there, since our white ancestors dragged our black ancestors out of Africa and enslaved them, since that Chinese Exclusion Act you mentioned, since the extermination of the Native Americans, since the imprisonment of Japanese (but not German!) families during WWII, since Jim Crow and Black Codes and now with Donald Trump. Until we accept our baser instincts, we can't even greet our better angels, much less accept them and strive to be like them.
14
The perfect antidote to President Trump, specifically with respect to racism emanating from Trump/Republican party?
There is no satisfactory antidote to Trump/racism in America publicly articulated, whether you want to speak of the right or left wings in America. America over most of its history has demonstrated a Darwinian racial struggle, white immigrants overcoming the Native Americans, enslaving blacks, and most immigrants to America up until fairly recently have been white and folded, wherever they originally came from, into the white stream.
The major solution to racism publicly articulated today, and emanating from the left, is a Marxist, nurture over nature template, which is to say although Marx originally applied his theory WITHIN races, pitted proletariat against capitalist, the left in America today is satisfied portraying whites, and specifically white males, as the privileged capitalist class, and that racism, sexism and other problems of inequality can be overcome only by a quite racist objective in itself: Subordinating by all means the dominant race, that there can be no other explanation for inequalities in society (certainly no biological/natural explanations or that some cultures are superior to others) than the dominant racial group exploiting all the other groups.
Essentially American solutions with respect to racial problems has involved either raw Darwinian struggle or racist application of Marx's theories. Time for people to just interbreed?
This piece was nice to read.
Oh, for a required reading list for Administrations and Congress! With group discussions!
Is one book a month too heavy? That would be 120 books in ten years! Imagine this Administration and Congress discussing Charles Dickens and Ernest J. Gaines.
I know. Impossible to even imagine.
7
Oh boy. After providing your take on a book from an 8th grade required reading list, Mr. Stephens, you conclude that the rights of Minnesota’s Representative Ilhan Omar must be defended and the generalization that “many of her views should be every bit as vigorously” opposed.
That reads to me like the same unfounded and irrational form of generalization spewed by Trump and swallowed by his disciples. Or can you specify which and elucidate why her views should be opposed?
And one more question of interest: did you ever hear of agrarian socialism?
4
@bjmoose1
Bret is referring to Omar's "It is all about the Benjamins, baby" remark.
Trust me, Bret knows more about US foreign policy in the Middle East than you and Omar put together.
As a good writer, Bret understands that to comment on Omar here would be a major digression, an especially untimely one at this point in time given Trump's tweets.
But if you do a cursory search of the NYT--rather than take refuge in false indignation--you might discover one of his previous articles in which he addresses this specific issue.
Willa Catha is wonderful, but I'd vote for Ilhan.
4
A difference between those who emigrated to the US in the late 19th & early 20th century and those who immigrate here today, is identification. Those from Europe ( my ancestors were in that group) are always identified by their country of origin. Even today, Americans will say that they are (fill in the blank), that they are "half this & half that" and name a nation in Europe. In the 1970's the Nixon administration adopted the term "Hispanic", to refer to those from Spanish speaking nations. This was not done by accident. Today, we hear that term all the time, and it is used commonly. We also hear "latino". And, to be sure, people from Spanish speaking nations refer to themselves as such. But, what is Hispanic? It is vague, it erases individual identity and culture; it lumps people of diverse nations into a nebulous grouping that lacks a distinct identity. And, this makes it easier for some Americans to see those people as inferior, as lacking culture, as lacking the same humanity as Americans/ Europeans. The perception of some is that people at the southern border are less than the characters in My Antonia.
6
Those 19th and early 20th European countries of origin were not always accurate. Borders changed, countries that exist now did not exist then, and vice versa. For example, Poles and Lithuanians were likely deemed “Russian”. Other “countries” in the area included Bohemia, Ruthenia, Suwalki, and more.
Thank you. I need to read the book....maybe send it to some friends in farm states. Another timely column from you.
3
I am a Jew. It was after the Holocaust that Canada's Minister of Immigration said "One is too many."
My father left a comfortable middle class existence in Poland in the 1920s because my grandfather understood the banality of evil. My parents never permitted racism, ethnocentrism or even Tribalism to darken our door and when the Rabbi asked what my father would like said about him at his funeral I told the Rabbi my father would like to be remembered as someone who harboured ill for no man. The Rabbi of course could not understand.
My fathered hated bigotry and ignorance but he saw what happened and had attended Catholic school in Poland and understood the banality of evil.
My father read at least two newspapers a day and was a news junkie. I still remember watching the 1964 GOP convention at the San Francisco Cow Palace and the GOP platform. It was a month after the Civil Rights Act and the martyrdom of three fine young patriotic Americans Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner.
For most Americans the banality of evil brings to mind Hannah Arendt and Adolph Eichmann if it brings on any memories at all. For my father and now for me the banality of evil brings to mind Buckley, Goldwater Nixon and above all Reagan.
One would have to search the world to find a being as small and insignificant as Trump it took true banality to destroy America.
7
A descendant of Polish immigrants who spoke imperfect English, I have for my entire life felt sympathy and solidarity with immigrants, no matter how they got here. The current president's native - and perfectly vile - English aimed at immigrants of color says all we need to know about him and validates the quest of desperately poor people seeking a better life in America.
4
"My Antonia" is a wonderful and nostalgic piece with some dark undercurrents that became evident in Cather's writings as she aged: https://www.audible.com/blog/arts-culture/bloody-dark-and-real-the-willa-cather-they-didnt-teach-you-in-school/ .
The reason I mention this is not to denigrate Cather, a wonderful and deservedly revered writer, but point out what a more complex character she was: https://cather.unl.edu/cs001_redemption.html .
Still, I enjoyed the column which does serve as "...a reminder of the timelessness of America's bigotries..."
1
"There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
- Isaac Asimov
The Republican Party has worked hard to make many Americans illiterate, uneducated, misinformed, disinformed, propagandized, resentful, xenophobic, racist and angry.
Trump is happy to carry that torch of right-wing ignorance and white spite and send the flames of hate higher and higher until it nearly burns down the country.
All my grandparents and mother were immigrants, as is my wife.
If this country were named after its people, it's name would be the United States of Immigrants And Their Offspring.
But there will always remain tiny, tiny, little white men like Trump and his Republican, right-wing Machiavelli's who happily manipulate white spite and medieval tribalism for personal profit and national ruin.
Try to think of any contributions to American society by Republicans since they perfected the Southern Strategy in 1980 when Ronald Reagan chanted 'states rights' to a sea of white southerners at the Neshoba County Fair in Mississippi.
The modern Republican party is little more than a neo-Confederate party fueled by white spite to support their modern version of the Grand Old Plantation.
The perfect antidote is to vote Democratic in record numbers.
15
Thank you, Bret. Thank you for talking about the transcendent power of literature. For reminding us of what it means to be 'American'. North American, anyway. My only quibble. Don't use the euphemism 'traduce'. It let's those who traduce off the hook. Now's the time for all good Americans to speak hard and true to power. Don't mince words. Call a slur a slur.
3
The Republican voices of advice on cable and in the Atlantic, New York Times, and Washington Post are notable because they arrive like Rip Van Winkle, "Oh, what a mess," totally oblivious to what they trumpeted for decades. It's their support for the party that has been asymetrically radicalized to champion a racially pure fascistic state. The media refuses to describe the Republican Party in such terms because they would be accused of being partisan, rather than being accurate and analytical. All of these Republican wisemen avoid, as Bret does here, the issue of race and labor history. Of course, so do most high school history text books used in the South and Midwest.
4
It's far more than a stain. In conjunction with all the other lawlessness going on here, we are reliving the fall of Rome.
3
Perhaps your finest piece! My father was a first generation immigrant and although he came on a student visa to study a for a doctorate and worked three jobs he couldn’t hide his ethnicity, or his accent. Many years after he obtained US citizenship and became head of his department at a university in which he taught he would often be asked where he was from. Massachusetts of course, he replied. The only real natives to America are the Indians, we are all immigrants he explained. Where are you from? His answer was a refusal to get singled out into that basic first step of race baiting games.
2
Thanks Bret for bringing up this great novel.
3
Please tell us which of Ilhan Omar's policies should be vigorously opposed. Do you mean her insistence that our foreign policy reflect our core American values? Or her determination to make healthcare, education and a prosperous life a reality for all Americans? Or maybe you disagree with her positions that we need to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fund renewable energy? She's representing her district impeccably and we couldn't be more proud.
16
A difference between those who emigrated to the US in the late 19th & early 20th century and those who immigrate here today, is, identification. Those from Europe ( my ancestors were in that group) are always identified by their country of origin. Every today, Americans will say that they are (fill in the blank), that they are "half this and half that" and name a nation in Europe. In the 1970's the Nixon administration adopted the term "Hispanic", to refer to anyone from a Spanish speaking nation. This was not done by accident. Today, we hear that term all the time, and it is used commonly. We also hear "latino". And, to be sure, people from Spanish speaking nations refer to themselves as such. But, what is Hispanic? It is vague, it erases individual identity and culture; it lumps people of diverse nations into a nebulous grouping that lacks a distinct identity. And, this makes it easier for some Americans to see those people as inferior, as lacking culture, as lacking the same humanity as Americans and Europeans. The perception of some here is that the people at the southern border are less than the characters in My Antonia.
5
I also read this book in high school, which, was taught to me by an English teacher, who was Jewish, and whose parents had escaped the holocaust. I still remember that class and that book and how skillfully she wove together her background with the experiences of the immigrants in the book. I would add, that I know intellectually that humans are capable of doing some really bad things given the right circumstances. But it is terribly depressing to see an intellectual abstraction play out in real time.
5
There is little relationship between the 19th century and 21 century immigration other than the flight from poverty and political instability. The national economies of the past were simple. Now Fortune 500's are multinational. They need not abide by any laws other than their own. Economic stimulus, like tax cutting and free trade may grow large companies, but how much of that growth ends up in Small Town USA or Honduras? Ask our own Puerto Rico. Ask Wisconsin. How much of this helps the poor? Will an immigrant take your job? News once came from newspapers, vetted for truth. Now news comes from social media without any consideration for facts. What experience do Red States like the Dakotas have with actual immigration? Why does the news repeat DT commercials, rather than the facts bout what "liberals" really did say about immigration? Morality was different in the 19th century. In the past, religious leaders were important, and now they are just immoral. There were local climate problems in the past, like the potato famine, but will this compare to mass global warming? When Miami and New York are flooded, or when a new disease becomes epidemic in the Midwest, who will welcome us ?
5
Note to Mr. Stephens: It’s not 1890 anymore.
In the late 1800’s, the U.S.:
1. Needed vast numbers of immigrants to work in factories and settle the land
2. Didn’t have a modern, high tech economy
3. Didn’t have social welfare programs to combat poverty. (Some argue that the Homestead Act was government assistance. Perhaps. But it was a program to “share” land that we “acquired” essentially free of charge from Native Americans and distributed it at no cost to settlers. Certainly nobody would argue that such program is either feasible or justifiable today.)
You can have good wages and sustainable social welfare programs, or you can have an influx of millions of low-wage illegal aliens.
You can’t have both.
4
No one is advocating for an influx of illegal immigrants. No one. Orderly, controlled, compassionate management of migrants who come to the US seeking asylum is what the USA has always been about. Trump is destroying the heart of what America is.
5
@ Hugh CC
Well, the current system is neither orderly nor controlled.
What is the Democratic plan to bring order and control?
1. Decriminalize illegal entry
2. Prevent the construction of any border barriers requested by Customs and Border Protection
3. Disband or severely handicap ICE
4. Hinder the repatriation of asylum seeker whose claims are denied
In short, “open borders”.
Just like the Koch Brother want.
1
In the 1850s an anti immigrant political party, aptly named ' Know nothing' party took root in Louisville,Kentucky. Today Trump's main enabler,Senator McConnell from Louisville,Kentucky who swore to kill the Affordable care act pulling it out by branch and root, has himself sprouted from that xenophobic root of Know Nothings. We will need something more powerful than glyphosate to rid us of those insidious ,soul rotting ideas.
2
When I was younger I always felt so sad and sorry for the children of those who left NYC to head to the boring white bread fortresses of the suburbs. I still feel that way. Yes, I know all the problems of the cities and know there were places for kids to play and all the usual arguments in favor of the exodus to the suburbs, but to me what they gave up for that carbon copy existence is overwhelming. What an education the city offers, what diversity, what challenge and on and on. The problem today is not only with the more rural type of t slave, it's also reflects the insular suburbanites who worship their sameness and their keeping up with the Jones's lifestyle which, because of a changed economy, has become less feasible and has generated a lot of the anger raging out there . . . I know from conversations with some that in today's economy, it also involves racist elements stemming, I believe, from fear of competition.
3
@Jan. At least here around NYC, the suburbs are not so homogeneous anymore. The diverse people from the city, as well as from other parts of the country, have been populating the towns. And there are some larger towns that have a very large percentage of central and South American immigrants.
1
@Treetop That is good to hear. I began to see change happening a while before I retired to FL, but I wanted to remark on that mindset and the fact that it's still there. So many nationalities suffered prejudice and other injustices . Eventually they were part of the mainstream, I'm praying we will survive today's insanity and
that will happen again.
"Father Latour judged that, just as it was the white man's way to assert himself in any landscape, to change it, make it over a little (at least to leave some mark of memorial of his sojourn), it was the Indian's way to pass through a country without disturbing anything; to pass and leave no trace, like fish through the water, or birds through the air. " Willa Cather. Death Comes to the Archbishop.
One of my favorite quotes and so true today.
19
In around 100 years, after a millions of Americans were given U.S. land to homestead, they went from being almost penniless new arrivals to now a propertied upper-middle class group of Trump supporters.
On the Miss. River delta, after the 27 flood, the U.S. Corp of Eng. began a vastly expensive engineering project of levee construction and riparian maintenance.
Millions of acres of land in Ms., Ark. and Louisiana, that prior to the levee was all but worthless,
in a few years became the most productive and expensive agricultural land in the world.
And much of which is now owned by AgriCorporations.
It's a leap, in two generations or so, from have-not to have.
And without hard work, self-denial, love of family and sacrifice it all would have failed.
But now that it's all sewed up?
There are no more infrastructural miracles, no more thousands of square miles of free land, but there are millions of equally motivated human beings and their families, who are pleading for just a chance- for much less than that which was given to our great grandfathers just a few years ago.
And now, within that same time frame, unless we somehow manage to re-invest billions and change the energy use of the whole world, we will see an unimaginable eight foot rise in sea-levels, flooding and temperature extremes that threaten agric. production world-wide, while many will find themselves increasingly automated out of a job.
And they say democratic government is the problem,
not the solution.
7
“But, more powerfully, Cather’s novel is a story of a country that can overcome prejudice.”
A lovely essay Mr. Stephens. You rightly point out on often missed point. People change. There is still time before this election. Racism and bigotry are powerful, but not all-powerful, nor is Mr. Trump.
We all have hard work to do for our country over the next many months.
11
What a lovely and inspired idea: Willa Cather as antidote.
Cather's family had been in America for generations but when, at the age of nine, she moved to Nebraska, she fell in love with the vibrant and diverse cultures she found there. Looking back years later she realized that the immigrants "spread across our bronze prairies like daubs of color on a painter’s palette. They brought with them something that this neutral new world needed even more than the immigrants needed land."
Cather also understood how difficult it was for those who immigrated as adults, how alien the new land and language seemed, but they came for their children, they came as an act of faith in a better future. This faith in the future may be the most crucial value immigrants brought to America in Cather's time, and that they bring in ours.
I
11
I haven’t read “My Antonia” but the narrative sounds compelling ,as does your OpEd on compassion.It highlights exactly what I am witnessing here in Maine where I have spent a lifetime of summers.Several hundred Congolese were bused from the border to Portland Maine.These immigrants had fled the murderous lawlessness in the Congo.They were welcomed by Portland and housed temporarily in their Expo Arena where hospitals sent medical teams and non profits collected necessities.Over a million dollars was raised immediately.On the 4th of July the city gave a huge picnic for these immigrants in a local park.They were treated to games,balloons, flags and hamburgers and hot dogs.Portland has a population of 67, 000-they have a big heart and are treating their new residents with caring and compassion.I am so heartened by the response of this State-it is the home of my ancestors.
11
Thanks. Too many Americans have lost sight of their immigrant ancestors or they have glorified them into some purified, idealistic version of their real selves. Today many disparage anyone who is 'only' an economic immigrant, yet many of our ancestors came for precisely that reason - for a better life. Who among us would not migrate seeking a place where we could reliably put food in our children's mouths and a roof over their heads?
The POTUS claims that America is "full," that we have no room for more immigrants. Nothing could be further from the truth. We need those economic immigrants and others for they bring a work force we need (yes, even the unskilled ones) and youth. The latter is increasingly important as our population ages and our birthrate declines. Such young immigrants are an important piece of the workforce which will keep this country moving forward. The Trump supporters who want to keep them out might also consider who exactly will be paying for their own Social Security when they get old. Unless we have a larger, younger workforce, there will be no Social Security.
7
“As many of her views should be opposed?” I enjoyed your article until I got to that part. Why? Because she wears a hijab? She seems to be more an advocate of Western enlightenment than our Dear Leader, President Trump.
Regarding her statement on Israel, I’ve heard people argue that much of the news media took it out of context, that she was arguing that U.S. citizens shouldn’t face a loyalty to Israel and its policies test. I’m an American Jew who can’t support the current Israeli government, which goes against so much of the idealism during its founding.
12
I enjoyed reading this piece and remember fondly reading 'My Antonia' as a young adult. I do agree that if more people read it, they might get a better grounding on the important role immigrants made to building this country though there are many other books I would also recommend on this topic to those who are inclined to read. Where I depart with the idea that reading it could be an antidote to Trump. It's not. What could be an antidote is elected representatives who stand up and push back at him, who can work together to address some of the major policy issues we face as a nation, improvements in our educational system including teaching civics, and a system of opportunity that includes everyone.
The current occupant of the White House is merely a symptom of the challenges we face. I would love to think that the election in 2020 will change everything for the better, but that's "magical thinking." If we do not hold elected leaders responsible for addressing some of these underlying problems, not much will change. I'm willing to put in the effort to contact them daily, if needed, on issues of importance. Are you? Only complaining about it is not a solution.
1
"You don’t have to favor sanctuary cities and the abolition of ICE to be on the right side of this debate. But you do have to recognize that the newest immigrants have as much claim to the country and its lawful freedoms as any other American."
Thank you, Bret Stephens. Peter Baker wrote this week that the next election will hinge on the timeless question, "which side are you on?"
Will you follow the man who claims the sole right to determine who is a genuine American, who's patriotic, who loves this country, who belongs here?
Or will you admit that without immigrants who shaped and developed this country, America would be far worse off than she is today?
What makes me angriest about Donald Trump is his view that critique of America is a rejection of it; that naturalized citizens don't have the same rights as the native born; and that the color of your skin largely determines your love for this country.
That takes brass coming from a man who's complained about this country all his life.
12
I wish curing the disease was as simple as reading a novel. Where's the novel where a huge number of people are somehow infected with a disease that brings their worst instincts out into the open, endangering all and sundry and putting the existence of a democratic republic at risk? Or is it better to turn to sci-fi movies. "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" leaps to mind.
5
It’s a very moving novel about the hard lives of immigrants on the Plains, with one of the most gorgeous closing sentences in literature. Thanks for highlighting it during this week of gruesome public rhetoric from Mr. Trump.
5
A lot of this conflict is about land and population. The west no longer has vast land being almost given away to people who would make the hard, long journey overland from the more populated cities for a fresh start.
The population of the world is way out of control now. This has dimished the intrinsic value of human beings to virtually zero. Genocide and war has become the only way that populations have some kind of control. All countries are in a "protection from immigrants mode". I think Canada has it about as right as is reasonable. They have a skills and education based criteria and they care for those they accept until they begin to find their way. They are a northern country which helps stem the flow of refugees.
The real answer is world population control that has some consistent and reasonable basis. It would also help save the planet from destruction. But humans are not able to work together very well on a large scale. However, population control is at the base of all this misery and agony over protecting what resources still exist.
It is long overdue for some international intensive help for birth control, for the pope to endorse birth control, for all countries to fund birth control. For growth not to be the aim of economic systems, rather a steady state equilibrium that is balanced. For manufacturing that does not have planned breaking points to encourage trash and buy. For rape and pillage of the earth to become illegal and immoral. You get the point.
11
Well said.
Mr. Stephens states that the right of Minnesota's Representative Ilhan Omar to express her views should be defended as vigorously as many of her views should be opposed.
This column would have had far more credibility if Mr. Stephens had addressed his opposition to the views of Ms. Omar.
That part was unfortunately left out.
4
I think you’re missing the point
1
I love reading Stephens, and I think it is because we share a similar background that informed us; of immigrants in Latin America. We can hold opposite policy positions and be present to each other's decency while doing so. Anyone who "others" and hates them hates that part of themselves. Jung called it the shadow. To become conscious of that would be the antidote.
1
Yes! Read! because "education is the true foundation of civil liberty." --James Madison
If our electorate were educated in the inherent but different truths within fiction and nonfiction, this editorial could not be conceived.
8
My mother-in-law was an immigrant who came to the USA from a village in what is now Poland, but she was not Polish. She sometimes talked about her feelings about the treatment her family received in those early years. To a proud Ukrainian, the worse epithet might have been Bohunk.
"We weren't Bohunks," she would say.
Despite that and other insults, she was almost religiously proud of her citizenship. She missed the opportunity before the immigration laws were tightened in the 1920s and it was a challenge to get the documentation she needed.
We took her to visit the Statue of Liberty in the 1960s and she cried unabashedly. She loved this nation passionately.
Her children missed the opportunity to learn the language of their heritage. She always thought they were smarter than she was because they were better able to deal with the complexities of life in this new land.
Some of her surviving children are Trump supporters. They hate "illegal" immigration. They are also suspicious of these "new" immigrants who might worship differently. (That was also a problem for their mother who was Russian Orthodox,)
It's true we can't take everyone who is suffering from poverty and violence. Our challenge ought to be to contrive a compassionate solution that shows respect for the humanity of those who want to come here. It's sad that so many see their suffering as a threat and them as a danger.
10
Part of the problem with the current occupier of the White House is that he just doesn't read. His attention span won't allow it. I doubt that he's ever experienced the sheer joy of being transfixed by a great novel, unable to put it down until the final page has been turned. I doubt he's ever read so much as a single chapter of even a trashy novel.
Reading enables us to travel to other times, other places, and experience the worldview of people in situations completely alien to what we know.
A great novel, a great biography, a great history can enrich our lives in so many ways and sadly this man who claims he has great wealth is instead greatly impoverished.
I was first introduced to Willa Cather and "My Ántonia" in a 20th Century American Literature college course taught by the great Hemingway scholar, Professor Philip Young. I found Cather's tale a wonderful read as were all the works we covered in that all too short semester. I've returned to her works time and time again.
The reality television usurper might learn a lot from books written by great female writers about strong female immigrants who persevere in a harsh environment and help make it a better place for all of us.
He might... but he won't.
26
The only way Trump would ‘read’ any book is if it was a picture book without much writing.
One reason established citizens came to respect immigrants in Cather's day is that they worked side by side, in the same communities. It's an inescapable fact that when you live close to people and see how hard they work, and how they love their children, and how they cherish their families, it is very hard to hate them. We see it today in California: the Korean family that owns the local dry cleaners, with the children doing their math homework while tending the cash register; the Mexican family with the ten or twelve year old helping their father cut grass on the weekends; the Chinese family with the grandparents lovingly watching the children while the parents work late. The irony, the tragedy, is that many Trump supporters in the midwest and deep south live in communities that have very few immigrants. Many Trump supporters do not have traditional American values. Because they are not living a traditional American life -- which involves extensive exposure to immigrants every day in all life situations.
1277
@Cal Prof
Great point. I’d add that this also shows the flaw in the common conservative argument that people will be more accepting of immigrants if we have fewer of them, and the mix is skewed more towards skilled immigrants.
In many Midwestern cities, the immigrant mix is exactly what conservatives want, small and high-skilled. The problem is that this immigrant population then tends to cluster in a few upper-middle-class college towns, neighborhoods, and suburbs. These upper-middle-class areas then become more liberal, but the majority of the region continues to have no exposure to immigrants and anti-immigrant attitudes harden as having immigrants around becomes associated with the lifestyle of the urban liberal elites.
76
@Cal Prof a caveat on immigrants in the South. There are relatively large and growing Latino populations in North and South Carolina. The pork/meat industry in NC would not survive without them, as it would not in other meat processing states, Kansas and Iowa.
96
Important point. I would add that even where those immigrants arrive, they largely reside and occupy different space in the community. In many places, we are as a practical reality segregated by economics and lifestyle choices, and of course by race. When we do not live with each other, each "other" is easily transformed into someone to blame and to fear, and to dehumanize.
46
Reading is a fabulous intellectual and emotional exercise; it transports one into another place and the perspective of another.
What a sad indictment that so many people are so lacking in empathy and uninterested in getting out of themselves.
A little compassion and curiosity would do our nation a world of good.
702
@NM As someone who works in a public elementary school where many of the children read below grade level, I would encourage caring individuals to inquire at their local elementary schools (especially Title One schools) to see if there might be need of "reading buddies." Volunteers can listen non-judgementally to children read. It's easy and fun.
100
@NM
My thought is a sad one to be sure. One hundred years of public education have somehow resulted in just what you describe. What a waste of generations. Our country could have been so much better.
30
@NM Agree. Values both moral and educational, are taught to children in a thousand ways. When parents have an interest in reading and speaking with compassion and empathy, children take the cue.
18
"To fourth- or fifth-generation Americans who now say their ancestors came here legally, unlike today’s undocumented workers, that’s largely because the getting in was easy. "
It was more than easy. My great grandfather who homesteaded in the Northern Plains was given a quarter section of land taken from the Native Americans and was allowed to keep it if he could "improve" the land for five years. The value of that land today is about three quarters of a million. We descendants are the beneficiaries. Imagine the uproar if the government gave a handout of that size to an immigrant today to help them get started.
987
@dnt My grandfather a 15 year old orphan from Italy spent about a day on Ellis Island in the late 1800's and was going down into the coal mines of Pennsylvania soon after.
57
@dnt Good point.
section=one square mile=640 acres
quarter section = .5 x .5 miles, 160 acres, which was
the standard amount of land that could be homesteaded
51
@dnt
"My great grandfather . . . was given a quarter section of land taken from the Native Americans and was allowed to keep it if he could "improve" the land for five years. The value of that land today is about three quarters of a million. We descendants are the beneficiaries."
Beneficiaries, that is, of land stolen from Native Americans. And that doesn't bother you? I'm not sure what your point is. It seems to be that your immigrant ancestors were more deserving than the people who were here first.
38
Seems to me all Bret really ever wants to counter Trump is more of the same:
A group of wealthy people using religious people and their ideologies to save themselves money....while acting against the economic interest of the working class.
27
@EC
Ouch.
But absolutely, yes.
And it's not just "religious people", it's even more so secular humanists.
2
My great-grandmother was a lot like the characters in the novel except she was Swedish. And she would be furious at your dishonesty. The central point, the one you conveniently ignore because it doesn't fit your political narrative, is that above all, she wanted to become American. Which meant obeying our laws, not using her children (i.e. my grandfather, who began his career picking up nails in a foundry, which he eventually went on to own) as political props, and mostly, relying on hard, hard work to get what she wanted rather then being used by lying politicians. Pretending that the difference between illegal and legal immigration doesn't matter is appalling. And I absolutely guarantee that if she could see where we are now, over a century after she arrived, with a hundred thousand people a month trying to game the system and pour over the border, she would vote for Trump.
15
@John Pettinore I didn't have that same takeaway at all. He's saying that we are a country built by those who sought a better life, that what we currently consider to be illegal immigration was once both legal and encouraged. We've sold the world a promise of a better life, and now we're telling them that we're at capacity. It's irresponsible, and though we did not sew these seeds, they're ours now and it's our moral responsibility to maintain them.
126
I do not the no we have signs at the border saying rooms available. Best thing would be if Honduras would become a beacon of opportunity and justice. Attract immigrants to their country.
1
@johnpettinore Statistically, today’s immigrants (legal and illegal) are more law abiding than immigrants at any other time in history. Look at the Irish in New York in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a mix or hardworking and totally lawless. They flowed in by the hundreds of thousands and were associated with way more crime and corruption than you see in any immigrant group today. The Irish stayed and assimilated just like today’s immigrants will do if we let them.
3
Interesting that Mr. Stephens cites "My Antonia" by Willa Cather as the perfect antidote to Trump. Many of Cather's writings demonstrated the Antisemitism of the era, and the immigrant family in "My Antonia" were white Christians from Europe.
So I am a bit at a loss as to what Bret Stephens is trying to convey here, at a time when non-Christians and brown-skinned people are demonized by Trump supporters. There are many fine pieces of American immigrant literature that have been more accurate "antidotes" to Trump that Stephens could have chosen. Perhaps "Call It Sleep" by Henry Roth (addressing the Jewish American immigrant experience) or "No No Boy" by John Okada (chronicling the internment of Japanese Americans) would have been more appropriate works here.
But focusing on idealized stories such as "My Antonia" for the current immigration debate places Mr. Stephens squarely in the camp of many Trump supporters, who want to take this country back when the vast majority of our citizens were both white and Christian. The selection of "My Antonia" as his exemplar here is, in effect, a backhand slap to those immigrants who are neither white nor Christian. As if the family's experiences in "My Antonia" in any way accurately reflects the experiences of our immigrant ancestors who were neither Christian nor white. Sadly, Mr. Stephens had a wonderful opportunity to choose a much better "antidote" to Trump here, and for reasons only he knows, chose not to.
33
@Noah Drummer
The liberal education instructs us to consider the argument or story on it's own merits. If the novel is not conveying some denigrating message, then let it be.
36
@Casual Observer,
I am not criticizing the work itself. I am questioning whether Mr. Stephens' selection of it is appropriate for his argument here. And for the reasons I stated, I do not believe it is.
12
@Noah Drummer I think "My Antonia" exists alongside the other books you mention, which I'm sure are fine and informative reading. I doubt any of the books invalidate the others. They offer different perspectives, that is all. To say that selecting "My Antonia" instead of a book you prefer makes Mr. Stephens an anti-semite and Trump supporter is not only absurd, but deeply divisive as well. I doubt your charge has any intent other than to malign. Consider also that an immigrant family from Bohemia may well have been considered "other" than white in late 19th-century America.
72
Ms. Cather had that remarkable ability to empathize and to help her readers do the same by walking in other people's shoes. Tara Westover wrote Educated. She grew up off the grid in Idaho and didn't go to school as a child. She taught herself enough to pass the ACT or SAT and was accepted to BYU. There and in England, where she also studied, she learned much about a world she had known nothing about. She learned that the way she grew up and was treated by her family is not the norm, to put it mildly. She learned what the holocaust was. She said something like this: Being Educated means knowing enough about the world and the people in it, its history and religions, to become the person you want to be. That's a lifelong pursuit for me.
Since 2016, I've joined multitudes in reading Hillbilly Elegy and The Politics of Resentment. I just finished a 2019 novel called The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek. It's set in 1930s rural Kentucky. Cussy had a disorder that caused her skin to have a blue tinge. She faced horrendous discrimination but remained kind. Sometimes, it feels like we haven't made much progress since the 1930s or earlier.
I've tried to understand what it must be like to grow up and live in rural Kentucky, Ohio, or Wisconsin. Some Americans live in pockets of the U.S. where immigrants and people of color face discrimination. I wish more rural Americans would broaden their understanding by reading books like The Hate U Give and Enrique's Journey.
4
Thank you, Bret. Right on the mark.
2
Immigrants today are being scourged for doing the same thing for which our grandparents have been lauded-- leaving an untenable situation and bravely trying to build a better life for their families.
9
Gee, this is lovely. So we'll all read "My Antonia," and the bigots in the White House will go away. The millions of people who cheer hardline immigration policies and don't bat an eye at separating families will have an epiphany, and pine for Obama. Those who think "send her back" is the way to make America great will have a change of heart, and open their arms to those desperate people seeking a better life.
Please Brett, spare us this Pollyanna fairytale. The xenophobia into which Trump has tapped and that he constantly stirs up didn't arise because people have forgotten their immigrant past. It exists because of the fears and problems that a large swath of Americans face in the present. Neither Republicans, Democrats, nor Trump are actually solving those problems, but what Trump knows is that blaming others is a great distraction.
"My Antonia" isn't going to distract or persuade anyone.
136
@Gdawg -- Disagree. Great writing and great writers always persuade society as a whole, if not the individual "Might makes right" person.
39
@feitswv Who are you kidding? Reading a book, even a short story takes time. Understanding and digesting what is read takes a little bit more. In the age of celebrity worship, social media, and instant gratification, there is little time for anything like reading more than 240 characters.
25
Not the troglodytes, no. But for those of us looking for some reason not to completely give up hope, it's good to be reminded of that great American novel.
46
Thank you Bret Stephens for reminding us.
Your selection of the quote “Not a country at all, but the material out of which countries are made.” is simply sublime. Can we also say that the immigrants, our grandfathers and grandmothers, were "the material out of which Americans are made"?
3
I remember "My Antonia" from my grade-school days. You're right. Time to go read it again. Thanks for the reminder.
3
My stepmother, a white woman in her 70s who loves Trump and all those conservative judges he is appointing, reads several hours a day. Unfortunately, her reading material of choice is either the Bible or fake news on Facebook. These choices make her self-righteous, misinformed, and somewhat insufferable. If only she would read a novel...
384
@BC
...Or read a history book. Except for native Americans, all of us came from somewhere else, a fact most Americans conveniently forget.
13
@BC,
A bit of wit for you from Orwell depicting the itinerant 'Book-Wallah', in Burmese Days:
'His system of exchange was that for any book in his bundle you gave him four annas, and any other book. Not quite any book, however, for the book-wallah although analphabetic, had learned to recognize and refuse a Bible. 'No', sahib, he would say plaintively, 'no. This book (he would turn it over disapprovingly in his flat brown hands) 'this book with a black cover and gold letters - this one I cannot take. I know not how it is, but all sahibs are offering me this book, and none are taking it. What can it be that is in this black book? Some evil, undoubtedly'.
21
Go out and buy her the book and give it to her as a present.
17
Well Mr. Stephens step right up, the stage is open. For any sane and eloquent republican who long’s for Ike, maybe Reagan, we’ll even be fine with W right now. Willa Cather is a great American, and a good book. And great guide for our time:
I’m an immigrant from the former Soviet Union. My parents came here with $800 and I got full ride to an elite school. I love this country. But I can’t stand it at times as well. We’re family at this point after 40 years.
This week, the “send them/her back” is the first time I was ashamed to my core. Don’t get me wrong, Trump is unfit, a clown, etc. He became the danger that we warned about that night. He became what we all feared would happen because of what resides in so many of our hearts. A misguided fear of the other and an assault on status.
Xenophobia is a form of racism. A more fleeting form, the fever takes 1-2 generations to break.
Racism is much more entrenched in our collective psyche. It’s been there since the beginning, a large part of it hasn’t left.
Trump is filling up the racist side of our psyche. We must push back on that. This is a great example of how to do it.
We love America enough to want to improve it when it’s starting to go astray. We all disagree on how to get there, but I think we can agree that taking a Nativist turn is the wrong directions. If that is un-American than you need to get McCarthy back in the party.
We can never let this happen again
7
Wonderful description of what America once was; truly a city on a hill, beckoning to all who want and need succor, a haven for the desperate and the frightened and the ambitious. What a tragedy that we have a leader and his following who think it is a closet for those who want to hover in fear against the outsiders.
Bravo Mr. Stephens!
3
What America, with all its warts, means to Americans who love our country is freedom and opportunity for our children. What America means to immigrants is safety and hope for their children. What America means to Trump is plunder and losers. What America means to Republicans is white power, white privilege.
Some may argue that Thomas Jefferson was the greatest Founding Father for his contributions to our beautifully expressed Declaration of Independence. Some may say the greatest was George Washington for winning the war of independence. Others might claim James Madison's contribution to writing the US Constitution makes him the greatest. They were all born in what would become America.
But consider this - it was Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, a poor immigrant from a Caribbean island, who made the greatest contribution to getting the US Constitution ratified, thus giving birth to the United States of America. It was he who set America on a path of financial stability and economic prosperity. Immigrants have made America. Selfcentered fools denounce immigrants to their own detriment.
7
Trump has gotten away with his racism because many Americans are concerned that most asylum seekers are being dishonest about their circumstances. They are gaming the system. Many Americans are also upset about the huge quantities of lethal drugs that are coming up from the south. Lots of our kids are dying from those drugs.
What will it take to bring down Trump? War. A war in the middle east, or Asia. A war that could have been avoided. A war that Trump provoked.
So, pray for war? What would Willa say?
1
"..."Ilhan Omar, whose rights must be defended every bit as vigorously as many of her views should be opposed."
Her rights should be far more vigorously defended - or how about not even challenged in the first place - than should her views be opposed, even if you disagree with them. In fact her views are very much a part of her rights. And vigorously opposing this right is where Trump's evil lies.
3
@Larry Figdill
Rights = Views? Rights ARE Views?
No!
Support the rights.
Judge the views.
1
Trump would be a side show if not for the support of the right wing media. Their unstinting support gave the presidency on a platter. His popularity is propped up everyday by Fox and conservative radio talk show hosts.
Trump is renting the fabric of the country apart and destroying international alliances built over decades of diplomacy. But in the overall scheme of things, he is also a puppet, just like Hannity and the rest. It is the hidden puppet masters (owners of Fox, Clear Channel, etc.) who are really driving the agenda of this White House but the First Amendment ensures that their hands are clean. Not sure about their conscience though.
2
Your point is well taken and I don’t mean to detract from it, but Willa Cather also authored one of the most disparaging treatments of the Spanish-speaking population of northern New Mexico in Death Comes for the Archbishop. This is a population whose continuous presence in the United States pre-dates the *founding* of the United States. Yet for as much as can be gleaned from that book, she had little tolerance for the social habits and mores of a lowly brown people in America speaking a language other than English—immigrants in their native land. Perhaps another author could have been suggested as an antidote to Trump’s institutional xenophobia.
Even though my grandparents from both sides were immigrants - I shamefully did not focus on this until Stephen's piece.It might be worth it to calculate what percent of voting age Americans are first, second or third generation.
I'd guess a huge majority.
This would include the Trumps.
Apparently, white-ish immigrants are not the issue these days, even though they were demonized throughout most of the last century.
Descendants of slaves might well join those off the Mayflower and indigenous Americans as 'true' natives although the rabid nativist bigots would object. They'd like to send most of us back to where we came from if we expressed our dislike of their Mr. Trump. Laughable if nit weren't so horrible.
2
I sometimes wonder if Trump would be better adjusted if he had had a dog as a child. I also now wonder if Trump would be more empathetic if he had been a reader as a child. He might be more empathetic if he were.
2
Count me a skeptic. While agreeing with Brett that reading "My Antonia" would be a perfect antidote, I know the folks who refuse to read the "Mueller Report" will never pick up the book, let alone start turning the pages.
2
There was a time when meadow, grove, and stream,
The earth, and every common sight,
To me did seem
Apparelled in celestial light,
The glory and the freshness of a dream.
It is not now as it hath been of yore;—
Turn wheresoe'er I may,
By night or day.
The things which I have seen I now can see no more.
2
It's not business, it's personal. This is your best column, not because it revives a long forgotten author, though that is a good thing, at least for someone like who has read Willa Cather, but because you tell us who we were and who we should be.
The white bread America Donald Trump touts is in part who we are but it is far from exceptional. In reeking in prejudice against others, Trump's America is a pedestrian copy of earlier societies gone to rot.
Trump hasn't figured out how to give us bread but he is quite skilled at giving us circuses. If we are stupid enough to re-elect him we will have abandoned all pretense of becoming "a city on the hill", in Governor Winthrop's words, memorably revived by Ronald Reagan.
1
America is not nor ever was great. It's big on the map, that's all. Great American people, and there are quite a few of them, all come directly or indirectly from elsewhere. Neither they nor their more average neighbors have managed to keep their country out of the criminal mess it is in. Great, isn't it?
So, Mr. Stephens, what about the people's we drove out, destroyed, and minimalized to make room for these immigrants? What proud history do you have on that?
Bret, one of your best columns ever. You miss one point. Trump approves of white immigrants. Two of his wives are immigrants, the current one immigrated under dubious circumstances. He is a racist and attacks immigrants of color. I would hope those immigrants in Cather’s novel would have had equally if they had been black or Hispanic. Of course, many have and the point is that rights apply to all colors, gender and religion.
2
Thanks for the reminder of "My Antonia" -- at turns sad and beautiful and uplifting but always haunting. Let us also remember "O Pioneers!" whose protagonist Alexandra Bergson, a Swedish immigrant, bends the rules of gender: "Fortunate country, that is one day to receive hearts like Alexandra's into its bosom, to give them out again in the yellow wheat, in the rustling corn."
1
"A Perfect Antidote to Trump."
The title alone of this piece gave me hope. And it certainly starts well. Decades ago I read everything I could find by Cather. My favorite was "Death Comes for the Archbishop." Reading "My Ántonia" was like reading about my own family which included many bilingual Ohio farmers. They farmed in white shirts, which somehow never got dirty, and black ties. They read the English language newspapers every day, cover to cover. Were it not for the anti-immigrant prejudice, my family would, no doubt, be bilingual still. Maybe this explains my own puzzlement vis-a-vis the words and behavior of the Trump supporters. I never ever even thought of those folks as immigrants at all. They were always just Americans. I have often, on this site, asked the good people, who have made the terrible mistake of supporting this racist demagogue, to take a good hard look at themselves in the mirror. Do they like what they see? In the prayer of the grandfather, Cather expresses it perfectly: "that if any man there had been remiss toward the stranger come to a far country, God would forgive him and soften his heart." My own Ohio relatives fed everybody who came to the door--including immigrants from all around the world.
233
@Robert I grew up in upstate NY with many families of Polish and Italian descent. Lots of those families had grandmas at home who spoke only Polish or Italian (and a parent who spoke it too) It was common enough to be unremarkable. I’m always surprised at the “English only” folks ignorant of our common past.
13
Then something must have changed in Nebraska. They voted 58.7% for Trump.
8
I find Willa Cather's work wonderful. She is probably my favorite American writer.
She was hostile to the progressives, especially the progressive women, of her day, as the original introduction to "My Antonia" makes abundantly clear.
Some years later, she evidently revised that introduction, toning that hostility down considerably. That was a smart move, because the revised introduction strikes me as much better, even though I, too, am hostile to progressives.
For some unfathomable reason, almost every publisher today offering an edition of "My Antonia" (which is a lot of publishers, as the book is in the public domain) prints the inferior original introduction rather than the revised one. It's crazy.
4
The perfect antidote to Trump is 1.) Direct election of the president (no more electoral college); 2.) Term limits for Supreme Court justices; 3.) An end to gerrymandering in Congressional elections. This will require political action in the form of amendments to the Constitution, but will be more effective than reading 19th-century novels, no matter how good they are.
23
@Greg Wuliger
And let's not forget Congress. Term limits for them too, please.
Were I to utter my craziest thoughts, I'd even suggest we "elect" Congress by lottery. Yep, just like getting called for jury duty, Congress would be made up of individuals who were chosen at random (of appropriate age, although that might be a questionable demand since some 10-year olds have more honor and powers of reason than more than a few Senators and Representatives), and serve for a single term, regardless of position.
After all, they call it Public Service, so it should be an obligation, a duty, not a well-paid cushy position that puts a person in a position to quid pro quo to their own personal benefit whilst receiving a great salary and wicked good benefits.
It should be a job no one really wants to do for very long, aside from the pride of doing one's American duty...
...if that isn't too much of an old-fashioned, non-monetary, selfless thought.
@Greg Wuliger Cather is a twentieth-century novelist.
1
Very touching, very inspiring. But in this day and age it’s hard to read about the ‘settling’ of America without remember the immigrants displaced indigenous Americans. Always amazed how little attention the latter receive. Amazed they aren’t demanding reparations.
14
Many Native American leaders have demanded reparations over the years. They got casinos instead.
1
This column reminds me of sitting on the floor of my modest country home, without running water, at six years old watching Dr. King's "I Have a Dream Speech" on a small black-and-white television and hearing the song, "We Shall Overcome."
America, for me, is never a state of being. It is a state of becoming.
These are difficult times, but having lived through the tumult of the late 1960s -- the assassinations of Bobby and Martin, the riots, the Chicago convention, My Lai, Kent State -- I know things could be worse and, eventually, we somehow find a way to move forward.
Tears rolled down my cheeks on in November 2008 at the election of Barack Obama, but now, tears occasionally roll down my cheeks like when I saw the footage of President Trump's "Send Her Back" rally this week that looked like the German American Bund rally at Madison Square Garden in February 1939.
Still, I read this column, and sing to myself:
We shall overcome
We'll walk hand-in-hand
We shall live in peace
We are not afraid
We shall overcome,
We shall overcome,
We shall overcome, some day.
Oh, deep in my heart,
I do believe
We shall overcome, some day.
50
@Didier Yes. Beautiful.
1
What did un-acculturated immigrants in the 19th century bring to America? The ability to work hard at simple tasks; manual labor. That's pretty much what most immigrants still bring today, with the difference that today automated systems are progressively devaluing what the immigrants have to offer. So, since the economy does not much need what they bring, what's left? Their dependency; their ability to get into the welfare line. Is that a 'gift' America needs? Why do they feel they don't get the respect they think they deserve? Is it usual for dependents to be treated as equals by those on whom they depend?
1
Who cuts our lawns? Who makes our sandwiches at the deli? Who builds our houses, minds our children, and cares for our elderly? And who works the fields of California, Arizona, Georgia, and Florida?
Not robots.
3
@Ronald B. Duke
Every human being should be treated as an equal. If they come here out of desperate circumstances and want a better life we do not get to look down on them. We do not get to separate the truly dependent from their parents. We do not get to cage them in horrific conditions. We do not allow our president to “send back” citizens he disagrees with.
All of us in this country are dependent on our Constitution and our government to protect our way of life. trump and his ilk are trying to remove all the protections we are dependent on.
Immigrants are not the danger, ignorance is.
4
It is a sad reflection on the state of America that @Ronald B. Duke thinks that farming is merely "The ability to work hard at simple tasks". I grew up on a farm, I have a garden. I know that to bring forth fruit from the land is a high art.
That Mr. Duke doesn't recognize the inherit dignity of work is a stain.
5
I suppose I am cynical, but is there no "antidote" to Trump that exists in the here and now? Stephens offers us an antidote - dressed like the lady she was somewhere around 1910. The good ole days of Teddy Roosevelt.
Don't get me wrong. Stephens has hit on an important fact which is that GOP is trying to reverse every advancement in social tolerance since the Know Nothings and every piece of legislation aimed at social welfare, from chemical regulations to labor law, going back to Teddy Roosevelt, a time when Cather's long white coat dress was fashionable.
But still.... If Willa Cather is what we have to offer as an antidote we are in trouble, because she wrote "My Antonia" about a hundred years ago.
Surely we have someone, here, now, with a voice to take on Trump.
11
In the good ol' days of Theodore Roosevelt, we had a president who cherished our wilderness and created our National Parks; who worked hard, wrangled Congress, and befriended muckraking journalists on behalf of clean water, hygienic food, shorter workweeks, better living conditions; engendered hatred among Southerners because he had a black leader to dinner at the White House; and in general spent his presidency striving for a "square deal" for all Americans.
Add to that, the guy was a polymath, a linguist, an ornithologist who knew 2,000 bird calls, a historian, scientist, and author -- who in Portsmouth Harbor brokered an end to the Russo-Japanese war -- yes, much better days in terms of having an energetic, learned, compassionate man at the head of our government.
3
@Cathy...I don't think there's any shortage of Voices to take on Trump...the issue in my mind seems to be the willingness of too many American Voters to endorse and support his divisive rhetoric that has been going on since the Primaries! The MAGA crowd and Fox Nation are determined to squelch the Voices of reason crying out ENOUGH !! There have slowly been less endorsers of Trump...no more Sarah Huckabee,rarely see Kelly Ann...look at all the administration's resignations and firings due to Public Outcry! Even Ivanka had to close her store. But it's been a uphill climb because too many of us still choose to endorse and support Trump...in spite of it all. The Majority must speak loudly...it reversed the Gov't ShutDown...and I haven't heard much about the Wall in a while. Outcry works...slow...and steady wins the race !!
1
@Cathy
Try "we the people." Anybody but Trump.
1
Here's the thing, it's not about the immigrants, it's about the volume. In 1986 Reagan introduced amnesty to try to clean up the mess and make people legal. At the time the population was 240 million. Now the population is 330 million, and at least ten million (or more) are illegal. Most of the more than 100,000 people who are arriving each month, will not live off the land, they will live in cities. There is no more land to be divided up, and they will take up resources and they will live like American causing further strain on the climate. Everyone who talks about us being a country of immigrants, is not talking about today, they are fantasizing about yesteryear. My grandparents were homesteaders, I love Willa Cather, but my grandparents lives were hard and cold. Today my cousins oversee the farms and work second jobs to make ends meet. My parents never went beyond grade 8, there were no books to read and no time to read them. But this is not the world we live in today, and millions of illiterate, unskilled workers is not what we need, because it isn't 1880. Yes, it's lovely to read a book about the bucolic lives of immigrant farmers living together, but sorry, that world is gone. Garrison Keillor's world view has been replaced by Ilhan Omar, and trying to imagine it's the same is ridiculous. Just ask the Swedes, who welcomed more immigrants per capita than any Euro country. 5 years on 90% are still on welfare, still can't speak Swedish and live in public housing.
28
@thewriterstuffon the other hand, immigration produced you, who actually tries to present an environmental justification for immigration restriction, as if that is one of your concerns. Ironies never cease.
1
@thewriterstuff Planet Earth. You are 100% correct about today's reality that we are way beyond our abilities to absorb unskilled illegal migrants without exploiting cheap labor. I see it as slavery II. One hundred years ago, the legal immigration wave began and lady liberty settled millions who built modern day America but kind of America that many in congress and the Democratic party are envisioning today will result in a dysfunctional and divisive America. I don't agree with the way Trump's comment are twisted around but I do think the old failed ideas need to return to the country of origin from which they are being pedaled. We certainly do need failed ideas from failed corrupt countries to find fertile ground in America. No one can condone racists from either party .
1
The author is not writing about the problems of contemporary immigration. He is writing about the prejudice of Americans. He uses literature and history to undermine and contradict the bigots assertions.
2
Perhaps the greatest of many Trump ironies is view on immigration and immigrants given his own history.
Trump’s grandfather, Friedrich, came here in 1885 a poor immigrant from Germany, from stock originally named Drumpf.
Friedrich’s son, Fred, became very wealthy in real estate. Fred made a great deal of money from the federal government, as he took advantage of posy-war programs subsidizing the construction of housing.
As has been well-reported, Fred began transferring wealth to his son, Donald, when the latter was a toddler and continued doing so up until the day he died. Donald has had a well-chronicled business career comprising a relatively few successes, many failures including multiple daddy-bailouts and bankruptcies, and thousands of lawsuits. Donald nearly had to declare personal bankruptcy in the 1990s. He took hundreds of millions in tax losses in the 1990s and paid little or no taxes to the federal government for 15-20 years. His wealth was then largely reconstructed not through business, but through the dumb luck of being cast in a TV show that unexpectedly made him famous.
So we have a president who fancies himself some kind of entitled American royalty but who owes everything to a country that opened its doors to his grandfather, subsidized the wealth-building of his father, and had a tax and legal system that allowed him to recover from his own massive business failures.
Given his history, surely a stable genius should be able to see the irony here.
195
@Jack Sonville, great summary. I bet if you recounted that to his loyal followers, they would simply write it off as fake news or irrelevant.
Most of the uber wealthy in the U.S. have similar stories of privilege and forgotten (hidden) family stories.
27
Well, some do.
On the other hand, there are plenty of rich people today whose parents were simply lower-middle class, honest Americans whose kid had an idea, worked very hard, and made good.
Like Michael Bloomberg.
5
@Jack Sonville
I fear that the fake conservative class lacks any sense of irony. For reference think of Jim Jordan or Louie Gohmert screeching like banshees to defend every kind of falsehood with overweening arrogance.
These are only two examples out of the great deluded goper hordes, who tend to cling together within a swarm-like mind and generally betray a lack of any sense of irony. So they hide behind the once respectable sounding label, conservative, which is supposed to provide cover for their mendacity.
5
Thank you Mr Stephens for a surprising and lovely article. I love Willa Cather’s writing; it is so clear and concise, always with the perfect words selected. My favorite is also part of the Prairie Trilogy: “O, Pioneers” about a wonderful female character, Alexandra, who is smart and strong. She is a pre-feminist heroine. Also love the stories of New Mexico she wrote “Death Comes for the Archbishop”, another lesser known, wonderful story that actually tackles race and immigration, as well. Nice to read that Ms Cather has so many fans of her work, still, and that it is still so relevant.
29
I am curious to hear someone explain intelligently which one or ones of all the qualities attributed regularly to Americans ("this is what makes him/her an American") is exclusive to Americans and is not encountered in other peoples in other countries around the world.
Here's a heretical idea: the only country in the world that possesses a unique quality not found anywhere else is Germany. It is the only one that has found it within itself to truly, honestly and totally atone for and regret its collective sins. Japan hasn't. Britain hasn't. And America surely hasn't. Look who is in the White House.
85
@P Konstantinides, As an expat living in Italy, I find your question to be very important. Most Americans never travel outside their borders, learn a foreign language or engage with people of other nations. They think the "american" dream is somehow patented or is protected by copyright and exclusively meant for them.
Most of the Italians I know wouldn't trade their lives here in Italy to live in the U.S. Despite all the problems here, watching the sad show across the pond in the States is incredibly painful and sad.
25
@mrfreeze6 I get the gist of your points but they’re very over-generalized. In American cities far more diverse than Seattle (I’ve been) we “engage with people of other nations” every day. I too live in Italy now, and armies of unemployed young people, especially from small towns, would gladly take your offer to swap.
It’s too early to draw conclusions regarding Italy’s and the EU’s rising authoritarian xenophobes.
3
@P Konstantinides You’re right of course, since Americans come from everywhere including Greece. American exceptionalism is the EMBRACE of true global diversity in a single nation, obviously still a struggle for many, but the source of our greatest strength, energy, and creativity. It’s nearly impossible for non-Americans to fathom the degree of diversity here: try to imagine Athens 60%! nonwhite like Chicago, even more in NYC. No one has anything to fear from demographic change, as most of Europe does (I’ve spent much time) very much including Germany and France whose citizenship laws are among the most draconian anywhere.
3
Cather's novel is splendid, but it shows the nativist bias of early 20th Century America, classifying immigrants according to their capacity to assimilate by adapting to WASP norms: the author does not consider Swedes and Bohemians, French and Russians as equal. Some are hard working, others 'naturally' lazy. In that regard, the novel is not an "antidote" to Trump but rather a way to better understand his ideology.
8
@Patrick Vincent Do you really expect the citizens of this country, or any country, to not want to hold newcomers to their norms? Can you offer examples of real countries that are (in your view virtuously) indifferent to how newcomers behave?
12
@Patrick Vincent Guess we should imitate Switzerland, which is of course well known for opening its borders and citizenship to people of all races and circumstances...as long as they bring with them numerous bags of money.
Stephens asserts the "perfect antidote to Trump." But where is Stephen's antidote? Anyone else see it?
The people who recall "what we're really about" are already doing so, have always done so. The people who do not recall "what we're really about" are not about to recall it. They're at Trump rallies.
You may also notice that even though perhaps even a majority of us recall "what we are really about," which I assume we were also doing way back in 2016, Trump still won the election. And Trump is still capable of winning re-election.
So, Stephens has proposed no viable antidote at all. Thanks for the less-than-useless pablum, Stephens.
17
@Robert Henry Eller, it seems to me that sitting down and reading a book and then thinking about it are very much antidotes to Trump.
35
@Robert Henry Eller...
I often find myself impatient with the Republican Mr. Stephens' presumption in constantly telling Democrats what we should do rather than telling Republicans what they should do.
Yet... I enjoyed this piece and couldn't help thinking about what Miss Cather's own people would have thought about her had they understood that she was a Lesbian?
As it would have required a response a bit different than... "Go back to where you came from."
4
@Kathy only in one’s head. Antidotes are real world not fictional.
1
I just returned from a quick trip to Lincoln for a fiftieth nursing school reunion. It wasn't quite the same "going back" as my father passed in April at the age of ninety-six. My little brother continues to live on the family farm that was settled by my paternal great grandfather in the late 1800's, coming from Moravia with his brothers. My maternal grandfather came to the midwest through New York's Ellis Island from Bohemia when he was sixteen, declining to serve in some national army. My maternal grandmother came to the USA as a small child, on a cattle boat with her mother and siblings, enduring a rough passage. My maternal grandparents moved often it seems, at first only able to rent land and finally able to settle in eastern Nebraska.
Mr. Stephens aroused my memories while providing thoughts of a different perspective around the immigration of my ancestors. I fell in love with Willa Cather the first time I read her descriptions of prairie life. I had not made any connection to the family stories that I heard of "The olden days", but I know that I sincerely appreciate the arduous challenges they endured.
My mother did not speak English when she started school, although I never heard her say it was hard for her. My father fell in love with her the first time he saw her.
I always knew my family history was not unique. My family, like all my Czech neighbors were determined and grateful, and I am going to read "My Antonia" again.
34
I was feeling a bit grumpy tonight, but seeing one of my favourite authors given a garland for her beautiful, strong head has lifted my spirits right up. She describes life so clearly, so simply and her writing is so very timeless and refreshing.
31
Mr. Stephens,
I am an environmentalist and in 1850 the world population was believed to be somewhere around 1.2 billion + or - 200 million.
169 yrs later in July 2019 that number is 7.7 billion. How can that trend continue? Some of the poorest countries are those with the fastest growth in numbers. Each additional child is a step further down in poverty. Let's tackle that problem!
We should do everything possible to encourage these countries to develop family planning programs and increase the standard of living in their countries because they will have no immigration outlet to other more prosperous places.
So Mr. Stephens, wearing rose colored glasses as you look back in time does not alter facts on the ground. It is a different world and the 19th century cannot be overlaid on the 21st. I would really appreciate your offering some realistic solutions instead of a romanticized version of history..
51
Most of that is not true.
Residents of developing countries now earn per capita more than they ever have, the poverty rate is historically low and many of them are moving into the middle class. I could post links but a simple search will turn up the facts.
And, by the way, China abandoned its one-child per couple rule years ago because the cultural and gender effects were very high and because publicly provided elder care is sparse and families generally rely on sons/daughters to take care of them. They demanded more children.
Try implementing a nation-wide family planning policy in another country on the heels of that disaster.
1
@Blanche White
“How’s can that trend continue?”
It won’t. All available data is set to flatline at about 11 billion and then fall from there. Also, you display the ignorance of those who think that poor people/countries are making any significant contribution to global environmental problems and that their immigration to the US will do the same. The link between environmental damage and immigration is basically non-existent (hence environmental racism isn’t a nonsensical concept with no supporting evidence). Immigrants contribute a fraction of environmental damage relative to our obsession with beef, pork and other meat. Let’s focus on the problems that data tells us are real problems born made up ones.
@Blanche White
With a growing population soon to be 8 billion stressed by
climate heating, it would seem that Bret's romantic view of the world may be out of touch with reality.
1
If President Trump can say despicable things (apparently without consequences) and appoint Cabinet members who actively seek to dismantle our institutions (Scalia's son is a perfect example), then elected representatives and regular old folk such as you and I have the right to speak our minds as well. Perhaps their "great" America simply doesn't correspond to the FOX News, Rush Limbaugh version of reality (which is a truly sad reality).
27
Unfortunately, it’s an antidote only effective for people who would never fallen for tRump’s poison in the first place.
23
The Squad may be left of centre, but hardly not far left by international standards. They want universal health care, a decent minimum wage and affordable education, which most other civilized countries enjoy.
When Christopher Hitchens visited Australia, he was asked why universal health care was such a hot issue in America. He replied "wake me when it's over". Americans have a peculiar idea that life should be risky.
Thank God my doctor doesn't think like that.
56
@We'll always have Paris
Not Americans, conservatives, and only risky for others, whereas subsidies and entitlement are for themselves.
7
Talking to a friend today whose son has a new job with a financial firm... he gets a $900 allowance per month for his vehicle and $90 per month for his cell phone. This, along with a golden health care package, none of which gets taxed. They system works very well for the rich or soon to be rich!
7
@We'll always have Paris
Christopher Hitchens is, very sadly, no longer with us. I would love to read what he would have to say about our current President and his administration......I imagine it would peel the paint off the walls.
2
As a third generation Tex-Czech, I too fell in love with Willa Cather and My Antonia any years ago and have reread the book several times. What I cannot understand today is that the same people who glorify and mythologize our earlier immigrants feel such animosity towards those today. The reasons given are often that the new immigrants don’t care to assimilate or aspire to be “good” Americans.
It might interest some to know that neither my great-grandparents nor my grandparents ever learned English. They listened to their Czech radio stations and read their Czech newspapers and carried on their Czech customs with their Czech neighbors. In fact, my grandma use to tell her ten (adult) children when they came home to visit, “In my house you speak my language!” I doubt she even thought much about being an American; she was too busy feeling twelve people. But her three youngest sons and at least three sons-in-laws fought in World War II and fully participated in the American life. Our newest immigrants are doing the same, except that they seem to assimilate (at least in Texas) much more quickly than in the past. So, welcome all!
84
I suppose the difference which has not been alluded to here is that a large amount of immigrants enter illegally today. I get that in the 1800s there were virtually no barriers to immigration and everyone was let in, but that doesn't take away from the fact that illegal immigration happens today and seems to be the main cause of the angst. Its a real thing. Better to admit this than deny it or dismiss opponents as mere racists.
@Janis Barnard What a wonderful post!
2
"That we have a president who doesn’t believe this, and a party bending constantly to his prejudices, is a stain on the United States. We can erase it by recalling what we’re really about, starting by re-reading “My Ántonia.”
We can finish the erasing by erasing Trump from the White House. When I read Bret, or David Brooks, I wonder why, with the Republican party so thoroughly corrupted by Trump, these writers still maintain the fiction of being Republicans. There are plenty of decent people who call themselves "Republicans" still. But really, being decent people, how many beliefs do they really share with Trump's party? How much of Trump's policies are they complicit with through their silent complaisance? Can you really warrant being a 'decent' person, and excuse, ignore, or overlook Trump's depravities, his deliberate cruelties, his endless corrupt grasping personal dealings? Rep. Amash has the honor of his convictions to declare "Enough!" and withdraw his complicit endorsement of Trump by being "Republican". His policy positions are now no less "conservative" and libertarian-focused, he is no less contrary to "liberals"... but he is honorably on the record as 'not with Trump'. All the silent "Republicans" who privately abhor Trump's malfeasance, but stay silent, are enablers by their silence. Withdraw, and withhold the complicit support for Trump's corruptions. The action has value as 'messaging', which Trump understands very well. Honor - or Trump? - a simple choice.
67
My Antonia is the story of my family from Bohemia, and so many of us from everywhere. The novel was one of my favorites as a child, and made me understand the sacrifices my family made to begin a new life here in America. It sickens me to see how immigrants are treated now. It is never okay to say a citizen cannot dissent; dissent enlivens our national conversation. It is NOT okay to express, or sanction, racist name calling, or make personal attacks like a 10 year old in a schoolyard. I am still gob smacked that Republicans stand for this. Thank you Mr Stephens
38
No need to read/re-read "My Antonia."
Just say, an American Congresswoman has the right to speak her mind and to hold a president to account, because not only is that her job, but her right as an American citizen. A baby does not have less rights as a citizen than someone born 100 years ago as an American, simply because the baby has been a "citizen" for fewer years. Every American has the same rights. That's the only "American" that counts.
We don't say Trump can't criticize others because he and his father concocted crooked deals and implemented racist policies, or that Trump's immigrant grandfather ran prostitutes to start the "dynasty."
Let's not let the fact that an American citizen and Congresswoman happens to be an immigrant (or an American born woman of color), allow anyone to question her right to speak her mind. And let's not allow those that raise such questions, to set the terms of debate, or to put their targets or us on the defensive.
America, love it. Not going to leave it. Going to attack (not physically, but in every other way) anyone who threatens its values and principles.
46
"That would certainly include Minnesota’s Representative Ilhan Omar, whose rights must be defended every bit as vigorously as many of her views should be opposed."
Um no. Not "every bit as vigorously". Opposition to "many of her views" is not nearly as important as defending her rights. That's actually the whole point.
30
They are both important but which is most important is up to the individual. A strong case could and should be made for each.
2
Another fine column by Stephens. As he suggests, ambivalence toward immigrants has deep roots in this country. On a practical level, employers have generally favored few restrictions on newcomers because of the need for cheap labor, while unions advocated tighter restrictions in order to boost the living standards of their members.
Cultural and political factors also influenced attitudes. In the 19th century, Catholic immigrants faced hostility from Protestants, both for religious reasons and out of fear that the pope would control their votes. This prejudice helped stimulate the creation of the Know Nothing party in the 1850s, an organizations which Lincoln regarded with contempt.
A nation shaped by immigrants and their descendants will always experience the anxiety caused by fears of disunity. A culturally diverse society enjoys many advantages, but it also confronts a challenge in facing a crisis with a united front. In WWI, especially, German-Americans encountered prejudice and extreme pressure to support the war effort.
Over time, nevertheless, as Stephens points out, Americans have accepted immigrants of widely diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds. Trump's exploitation of the current crisis, unfortunately, demonstrates that the old fears and bigotry never entirely disappear. Immigrants help us renew ourselves as a nation and make us more resilient, but each generation confronts the old problem of expanding the political community to admit the newcomers.
13
Immigration can be compared to springs of water that continually freshens a pond. Immigration is what keeps America fresh, young, and vibrant. Many Americans this week saw Ilhan Omar for the first time and were captivated by her charisma, beauty, and her exuding of innocence. It was revolting to see Donald Trump slap her around in such a mean-spirited way. Granted, some of her policy proposals deserve to be rejected, but she's young. We can reasonably hope that she will in time be regarded as one of the important moderate voices in the Islam world. America certainly has a strong interest in cultivating such moderate voices. I would also like to see a beginning of a conversation about the benefits Muslim immigrants provide America. We can start with the good Mediterranean food I enjoy eating at various Muslim restaurants in town. Family values, moral sensitivities, and a strong work ethic can also be discussed. Too often, we frame the issue as one in which we Americans are making a large sacrifice by accepting Muslim immigrants to our country. Instead, let's focus on what these immigrants can do and are doing for us.
15
I just read Cather's "One of Ours," which won the Pulitzer Prize. There is a scene in which young men from Kansas, the sons and grandsons of immigrants, are traveling through New York harbor, shipping out to the battlefields of France in 1918. As they pass the Statue of Liberty, the soldiers salute her and share expressions of wonder and awe at her beauty. The absence of irony, the sincere words of devotion, brought tears to my eyes. Critics often dismiss Cather as a "regional" writer but her vision was always broader than that.
27
@Jamakaya, and the good news is that her reputation as a novelist has been rising for the past few decades, and deservedly so!
7
The last time atmospheric CO2 levels were as high as the present time was several million years ago and sea level was high enough that today around 10 percent of humans would have to move.
That’s 700 million people on the move from that impact alone, never mind those forced to move from drought, heat, conflict and food insecurity.
Within a few decades of continued global warming droughts worse than the Dust Bowl are projected to severely impact the bread baskets of the world causing massive famines and economic decline.
Weakened by that we’d be faced with retreat from the coastal areas where most of our large cities are located as the West Antarctic Ice Sheet crosses a threshold and collapses.
It’s easy to imagine the planet becoming ungovernable within my lifetime, and I’m 60.
14
"What hasn’t changed is that immigrants, on the whole, succeed."
It seems that Trump and his core supporters, many of whom are not by any definition "successful", are immensely threatened by immigrants who have a better work ethic, intellectual curiosity, and ambition than they have.
40
Everyday we are reminded of the shrinking, and now almost nonexistant, middle way in this country. Your article extolling immigration policy that's 120 years old demonstrates a ridiculousness that is mirrored in the hateful policies of the Republican Party.
As a young man I helped to resettle several political asylum seekers, and I count it among those things in my life that I'm the proudest of doing. But, there seems to be a willingness on both sides now to add to the list of problems in the country that have only ridiculous and unworkable solutions. First, we can't deport millions of people and we need to stop thinking that's a potential way forward. Second, we can't have open borders. No other country in the world does. And unlike 1880s American, we can't currently absorb millions of economic refugees every year. No country can.
Hard to see a way forward when you have two sides debating an important issue with such childish and extreme positions.
10
@KCF, we don't have open borders.
1
It was summers ago, when I was nine-years old, spending some time with a British playmate in Catalonia, listening to The Supremes sing 'Stop in The Name of Love', when he smiled, adding 'you are an international mutt'.
It is late in life that I have begun to read some American Literature, and when Truman Capote was once asked about his favorite author, he replied 'Willa Cather'. They were eventually to meet, and have an exchange over tea - one of the highlights of his life by his own account.
It is late in life that I have discovered how beautiful my country is; the open skies and rural fields with magnificent views of the old farms, rolling hills and mountains; breath-taking.
Our president has no presence for this American, but only leaves a feeling of void and the absence of light. When 'Nebraska' was shown on the screen more than a decade ago, I wanted to visit because it reminded me of what might be the true Heartland of America.
It is time to leave Trump behind with his rallies, and move forth again, for we have tarried too long and the call for pioneers and intrepid souls is growing clearer by the light of the day, in The Land of The Free and Brave.
26
@Miss Ley I love Willa Cather's novels. i didn't know that about Truman Capote, but learning of his admiration for, and meeting with Cather, warmed my heart.
10
@Ms Ley- I also loved Capote and read the same. I then learned that Ms. Cather’s Friend, mentor and inspiration was the author Sarah Orne Jewett, from Maine. A wonderful writer of beautifully composed, compact stories, mostly about New England and Maine. My favorite is “Country of the Pointed Firs” and “the Country Doctor”. They will make you laugh out loud, and cry. Ms. Jewett is lesser known, sadly, but so wonderful.
6
@Suzanne,
Thank you for this recommendation and Sarah Jewett sounds familiar. Onto my list it goes.
Maryland has just come in with 'We do not need a Revolution'; in turn this opinion by Bret Stephens has been forwarded to her with the title 'Antidote'.
1
Even the hard-boiled H. L. Mencken was moved by "My Antonia". From his review in The Smart Set, February 1919:
"I know of no novel that makes the remote folk of the western prairies more real than 'My Antonia' makes them, and I know of none that makes them seem better worth knowing...into her picture of their dull struggle she gets a spirit that is genuinely heroic, and a pathos that is genuinely moving...There is not only the story of poor peasants, flung by fortune into lonely, inhospitable wilds; there is the eternal tragedy of man."
20
Hear hear! Great book and great uplifting message for us all. A call to spiritual, artistic and political arms. Thank you.
10
Excellent opinion piece.
Immigrants who have legally entered the United States deserve respect, opportunity and a path to citizenship. These were readily accorded my grandparents and great-grandparents, and should be available today. (I note that my immigrant forebears had been in the U.S. for five or more years before attaining citizenship.)
America has long been strengthened by immigrants and has served as a refuge for the oppressed. This tradition should be renewed, especially in light of the many humanitarian crises abroad.
Emma Lazarus’ words on the Statute of Liberty should apply to today’s asylum seekers from Central America, as they did to previous generations.
20
@ANetliner Right on! One of my grandparents shipped out of Bremen and arrived in NY harbor as a boy of eleven. He was naturalized at the age of forty only after marrying and having several children! Lived his life active in lumberyard business, banking, and served as mayor for a dozen years. He was one among the many German, Irish and Czech immigrants who settled the Great Plains ... aka the American Heartland. They were almost entirely economic refugees rather than political ones. Their descendants have little excuse for xenophobia other than ignorance of our actual history, which our school systems have considered worth little attention in recent years.
6
Read it in rural Ecuador. Fabulous.
4
@Maureen Kennedy
Thank you Maureen-I had to comment! My grandmother remembered playing twilight yard games with Annie Pavelka’s boys. (Annie was the real life model for Ántonia). Grandma Katie died in 1995 but made certain I knew Cather’s Nebraska masterpieces.
8
A woman of Webster County, Nebraska, Annie Pavelka, was the living person who became Cather’s beloved My Ántonia. My maternal grandmother lived near the Pavelka homestead and remembered her as Jim Burden does in the book. As a result, I can't remember a time when I didn't know and love Cather’s writing. In 1961, I first visited Red Cloud & saw her childhood home. In 1973, I spent part of the winter in Red Cloud reading Cather’s then unpublished letters. It was clear then and now that Cather believed in the purity of the American dream of strangers in a strange land.
Today I hope we more clearly understand its immeasurable costs and complexity. However integrity, hard work, and kindness are through line-values in her books and ones we must continue to value if we are to endure.
38
Sounds like they didn't arrive on a jumbo jet with a cell phone, and walk into a corporate apartment.
The situation is far more complex today. My great grandparents escaped the pogroms.
We are trying to solve a multidimensional problem with numerous complex variables. All I know is that Trump ain't the right person to lead our nation. However he has proven Newton's third law. "Every action has an equal and opposite reaction". Ilham Omar is a physicist of another stripe.
My daughter-in-law is Korean. My son -in -law is Persian. We joke about leaving Kimchi, Hummus and Pastrami under the
Chanukah bush.
29
@Texan
The situation is more complex today only to those who seek a way to say NO. Blaming complexity is a great way to rationalize without rational thought.
8
@Texan
I agree, the situation is far more complex today.
2
@Nick Lappos
How do you know that?
Somewhere, between recreating the conditions our new immigrants are fleeing, and the huge wall is the best possible answer!!!
2
we need - on both sides of the aisle - to reclaim our birth rights -- as citizens, as immigrants, as refugees -- that define the American character and way of life. flavored and enhanced by that immigrant experience. this is not the sole purview of the base; take it back should be the rallying cry, and Dems should not hesitate to wrap themselves in our patriotic history - with is glorious, even with all its flaws, including most of all the evil root of racial slavery (from Jamestown on to the present day) and the equally pernicious stain of our modern day racism including our country's history of exclusionary laws, acts, and policies. what was said in Saving Private Ryan - earn it (everyday). time to stand up and be counted.
2
New Immigrants to our great country see something that millions of native born citizens don't: opportunity. We have a standing stack of permanently discouraged citizens, people who don't see a pathway up. This is one factor behind the crisis of the opioid disaster: if you don't see a better life for yourself, if you aren't building something for self or family, why not to rock your brain out on drugs?
New immigrants often come with determination and a skill set, like experience in small business, lacking in our discouraged class. One example: immigrants from India and other Asian nations now operate hundreds of motels across America. They do so in most cases as family affairs with two or three generations living on the property and contributing to the income. Do American families want to do that kind of work and investment in the hope it will pay off in 20 to 40 years, perhaps not until the next generation?
Immigrants are generally prepared to take almost any job available, even those trained as medical professionals or lawyers go to work for 10 to $20/hour until they can find something more suited. Too many of our citizens sit around complaining.
Beyond this, there are many signs that generally we are losing the work ethic that made this nation great. Many people are disheartened to know they will only make less than 50K (for life) while others are becoming millionaires for doing less hard work. Without new immigrants, our fundamental work ethic might die off.
21
@Doug Terry
Citizens are discouraged BECAUSE "they don't see a pathway up". Why is that? Perhaps? ..because there isn't one.
2
@Doug Terry
And yet these people constantly vote for politicians that will dwindle their fortune and health over time. Because abortion, racism and hate of the other are far more important than choosing something that will help improve your own life.
2
I have a friend who came to Nebraska from Nepal to attend college. She is now a U.S. citizen. It took her 12-15 years and $20,000 in legal/government fees to accomplish this.
And people wonder why so many remain “illegal.” Our immigration system is too complicated and too expensive for most humans.
29
Riches were once an opportunity for generosity and compassion, especially among people of the land. Rather than buy more houses or cars (or planes and helicopters), they used their money to help build communities. This doesn't mean they walked around in burlap and retread sandals. They lived well but avoided the kind of profligate spending we see practiced today by our own president and the shadowy donor class too few realize is pulling the strings on our current Republican Party puppets.
9
Your last two paragraphs are beautiful.
Thanks.
4
Willa Cather recreated the miracle that is the United States
out-of the soil,
weather,
blood and bone,
love and loss
Death and birth
Longings and sacrifice
Joy and emotion
Pain and progress
Tenderness and anger
In a space
Wide and fresh
Filled with the history
And flow of rivers of
Immigrants
7
The anti-immigrant rhetoric is not good. "Send her back" is not good at all and not American. Yes, got it. Agree 100 percent. But let's not forget the Democrats are using the immigration issue for their own political gain. Preening like peacocks and bashing the current administration for challenges and policies that have been in existence for several administrations, and have gotten worse in recent months/years. The more famous of those Democrats voted against a widely-supported bill that would provide billions to help those in need on the border. Michelle Goldberg says the extreme right's wrapping itself in the mantle of anti-Semitism is hypocritical. There is a similar argument for the extreme left and the mantle of immigration after that vote.
Imagine if there was a news organization--a paper of record with all the news that's fit to print, perhaps--which delved beyond the political theater and told its readers what is actually happening at the border, whether the US is properly resourced--legally and materially and financially, and provided unbiased and uncherry-picked historical context to help the reader understand better the situation. Not through the prism of political winners/losers or villains/heros. But so the reader can make a reasoned judgment that would inform their voting decisions.
7
@AB, I have read a number of NY Times stories on conditions at our southern border.
2
@AB
More equivalence nonsense. If you continually equate the value of two opposing arguments, positions, or imperatives, you will simply remain in the safe and neutered space of choosing neither. Objectivity is a myth. Bias is everywhere and in everything. It's your job, if you use thought as a means to act, to wade through the flood of "information" and choose what to believe and then act on your beliefs. In the case you cite--the immigration mess--I can't imagine anyone who has any sort of moral compass at all choosing to side with the policies and positions of Trump and his mindless followers. But then that's my bias. What's yours?
3
@AB
False equivalence through and through! No sane person would be a Trump apologist in today's world.
1
What a lovely essay. I never read My Antonia, but will do so.
"Whose rights must be defended every bit as vigorously as many of her views should be opposed." I think that says it all for Representative Omar.
Meanwhile, our president, whether we claim him or not, whose father--grandfather? was an illegal alien? Pah. We need someone kinder, who has a sense of the sweep of history and his own puny, tiny part in that sweep.
We need someone both kinder and tougher. Vote.
8
@Penik
I just downloaded it into my Kindle Ap for 60 cents!
3
Art and literature...to the rescue! I am in my 60s and came of age during the advent of television. My imagination is still sparked by...the original Star Trek. I really believe all of us silly humans should come together as HUMANS, forget these petty man-made borders, and work...to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life...and go where no (hu-) man has gone before.
6
And yet the descendants of the immigrants to Nebraska described by Cather are now mainly Trump voters. I think Stephens needs to explain that and how things have changed since his high school days.
23
@Alan J. Shaw why would it be Stephens explaining Nebraska? It has generally been a conservative state historically, with the addition of Trump's nativism. Is Nebraska nativist? Many midwestern states rely on Latino labor in agribusiness, like Iowa. Does Nebraska?
5
@TimothyCotter
I am a 65 year old life long Nebraskan whose parents were born and raised in Cather’s Webster County. My 100 year old grandmother lived near the real life Ántonia & her family. Many may not know that Nebraska has a legacy of vision: a one house non partisan legislature, public power, and
Natural Resource Districts. These past
monuments to innovative public policy development have become, like so many other aspects of public life, more vulnerable but more valuable than ever before.
8
In this dark time, it is important to tell positive stories. And we should see more of that in our national journalism. That is one very good antidote to to the despair.
13
Conservatives are so poetic when their own power isn't on the line.
This isn't about ideas so much as it is about the piecemeal dissembling of human rights that is taking place as the Trump juggernaut gobbles up the institutions which account for justice, and renders them moot or dead.
Raids, no raids, Muslim bans, illegal policies, vicious threats, pandemonium, asylum rules amended beyond recognition, the breaking of international conventions, day after day of onslaught.
Instead of Cather, how about focusing on the fact that members of Congress do not have access to freely inspect the camps at our borders? That those who went were allowed to see only limited detainees?
That our government is rapidly moving detainees to military bases where by law, there are no requirements at all to allow the press, or anyone else to have access or inspect them.
Omar does not ask for recognition, but that we recognize the human rights of those she is trying to represent.
Please, Mr. Conservative, point your fingers and shout.
There are people being eaten up in a hellish labyrinth that is cruel beyond your imagination.
You could help to rescue them, if you wanted.
41
@Eric Does your self-righteousness have anything productive resulting from it, or are virtue signaling and scolding all you're capable of? According to a tiny minority of our country, everything that is humorous or lighthearted has become forbidden since Trump was elected. The only acceptable posture is the slow-burning indignation that greets every Trump tweet, and lasts from morning to the end of the Jimmy Kimmel Show. I hope you will at least vote next year, and knock on a few doors. Many people who share your intolerance couldn't be bothered in 2016.
How wonderful to remember this wonderful warm and kind book. I have read it several times and now will reread it again. It is like a warm homemade bread right from the Americas ovens.
All of Willa’s novels are worthwhile reading!
20
Another Willa Cather fan, and I've visited Red Cloud as part of a Sand Hill Crane migration trip. There was still the rarity of unfenced prairie land along the highway driving south into Kansas.
The fourth- or fifth-generation Americans, who now say their ancestors came here legally, surely haven't consulted the tribes about that.
22
These endless Trump articles have become a kind of genre now. This giant orange Rorschach blot that inspires every manner of reflection. Some eager young anthologist, not yet tenured, should bring out an annotated edition, although by now it might require the patience and fortitude of a commentator worthy of Dante or Milton. Into the more thoughtful group of articles we might place this piece. The only comment I would offer is that, beyond the sound and fury of the debate, naturalizations and deportations have barely changed under the current administration, so as is often the case reality is rather duller than our more imaginative frenzies. Otherwise, good work. I'll give you an A on your book report.
7
Willa Cather is one of my favorite authors. My Ántonia makes me cry every time. Thanks Brett for giving it some love.
17
I've often thought that if my grandparents were doing well in the old country they would have stayed. If they were arriving today they would be a target for the Trumpists. Who when they arrived were in the same boat.
15
One of my favorite books. I've read it several times and found myself quietly weeping at the beauty of it. The love in it. The respect. The acceptance. The joy of long, deep relationships. Of Children and family. Of forgiveness. Pure Americana. Unlike the times we live in now, it makes you glad to be alive. How in God's name will we ever get that stain out? Thank you for bringing Willa to mind. She was a great one.
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Brett Stephens opines, "These were the people (immigrants) who made the Midwest great." From my perspective, just about the only things worthy of the term "great" are acts compassion and abiding by the Golden Rule. Yet, wasn't it likely that the people living in the Midwest before the arrival of the immigrants were just as "great?" Were not the Native Americans compassionate people and able to make a living off the land?
Despite my above criticism, I applaud Brett Stephens for raising our awareness to the importance of being compassionate to those in need with particular attention given to today's immigrants. By the way My Antonia was required reading in my high school, Great Neck South. I will be curious to see what my classmates remember about this book when I see them at my 50th high school reunion this fall.
7
This is amazing. I was in a used bookstore a month ago and picked up My Antonia. I've read Cather but not this one. On reading the back cover I thought: I need to read this NOW. And I've just finished it and had the same reaction. This book is a perfect examination of the immigrant experience for our time.
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The US is a country of immigrants. Becoming American means adopting a set of values based on what is often said to be an experiment in a new form of democracy and freedom. Yes, it’s complex.. there are contradictions, still, it’s mostly not bad at all
While historically newcomers were from diverse ethnic backgrounds, they shared moral and ethical values based in a shared general religion - though, expressed with variants based on different denominations. That Mexicans or Central Americans are not bombing trains, planes or automobiles has to do with those shared religious beliefs. The trouble starts when religions clash. It’s happened in Europe and to some extent in the US. The fear for some is that the new comers, primarily Mexicans, won’t be so, pliable in supporting the extreme wing of the fundamentalist Christians and their peculiar embrace of Netanyahu, not out of love, but rapturous mystic religious necessity. This has created a stew of opportunities and opportunists.
Canceling the Iran nuclear deal is one example. It’s irrational, except that Netanyahu wants to destroy the Middle East and grab Palestinian land. At home, Steven Miller, Trump’s advisor on immigration issues is the architect of the current wave of hatred and destruction. What we see with our own eyes is how, while silently supporting Miller, “commentators” what to have it both ways by attempting to create plausible deniability by using pithy fictional pictorials.
9
@Ted Netanyahu wants to destroy the Middle East?Who's the real irrational one, Ted?
I've been very critical of you in the past, especially as you inconsistently blamed Trump while pretty consistently excusing his Republican enablers.
Obviously something's changed. Your column is more valuable than other Times columnists because they play Trump’s game, succumbing to outrage culture, and so actually aid him. Instead you offer us a Willa Cather novel as an antidote to Trump. It refutes what Trump is yet he'll never even try to read it, as he reads nothing.
You’ve made clear in past columns you disapprove of Ilhan Omar, and actually offered pretty good reasons for that disapproval. Yet we have this:
"The newest immigrants have as much claim to the country and its lawful freedoms as any other American. That would certainly include Minnesota’s Representative Ilhan Omar, whose rights must be defended every bit as vigorously as many of her views should be opposed."
Well said. You thoroughly disagree with Omar, even consider her left-wing radicalism dangerous, yet you insist she has every right to be in America and must be defended. It is an amazing statement in this toxic political environment. Perhaps other Republicans will read what you've written and understand what it means.
Finally, in saying that both Trump "doesn’t believe this" and neither does the "party bending constantly to his prejudices" and both are "a stain on the United States", you reaffirm faith that there are lines that some Republicans will not cross, nor excuse other Republicans crossing.
112
Cather's work is indeed compelling in this time of divisive, offensive and false statements that seem to erupt regularly from the current occupant of the White House regarding the essential contribution of immigrants to the concept of America. However we must remember that even the uncertain and dangerous opportunities presented to those brave enough and with the fortitude to settle the mid-west in the 19th century came with the genocide and displacement of the native populations that had lived in those lands for centuries preceding the "settlement' of these places. Our healing cannot be complete until we reconcile these basic facts.
14
The 19th century had the endless frontier. Americans didn't have to confront living within a border, they could just go further out west. The land seemed endless. This made America unique. As we all know eventually the west coast was reached and there was no more frontier. The land was not actually endless. Now we have to face reality, our land is limited and we either have to learn to live together or there will be conflict. White nationalism guarantees conflict. It says the white nationalists are superior to everyone else and they want everyone else to leave or accept being second class citizens. Americans of all types need to understand the threat and respond to save the America of diverse peoples.
17
Willa Cather’s “Death Comes For The Archbishop” is my favorite. It’s a fictional account of the real-life Archbishop of Santa Fe, the French-born Jean-Baptiste Lamy. Paul Horgan’s biography of (1979-80), entitled “Lamy Of Santa Fe” led me to the Cather title.
Spoiler alert: I’m Catholic and was in the midst of some spiritual crises of my own. I read, with great interest, the struggles of a handsome priest who was sent into the place that would be called New Mexico, his task to convert what Native Americans and Mexicans he could.
The language barriers were formidable. He was competing for the souls of the disadvantaged with the well-heeled and well-organized Protestant denominations that dotted the frontier. Father Lamy persevered on the strength of a humility and Christ-like empathy for the poor and the marginalized. He established a church and eventually succeeded in seeing it pay for itself out of the hard-earned money of his desperate parishioners. Life was not easy in the late 19th Century of the American West.
The great chapter in the book is the wonderfully moving “December Night;” it needs to be read to be understood. When immigrants don’t have much outside of each other and a dream that seems within reach even as it appears to recede, they become the spirit of an America that has become so ruined by a “bottomlessly dishonorable” man, the imposter who masquerades as our president.
We are a nation of mostly have-nots—save for our citizenship.
Is it really enough?
31
@Red Sox, ‘04, ‘07, ‘13, ‘18 Great summary of Death Comes For the Archbishop. My good friend lives in Santa Fe and first told me about this wonderful book. She has pretty much gone the way of the Catholic Church, I a "Cafeteria" one. Speaking of Santa Fe, there is also a rich history of Judaism and Catholicism unified in the development of this great city. In fact, its cathedral St. Francis of Assisi has the Hebrew letters that designate Yahweh, the name of God.
12
@Red Sox, ‘04, ‘07, ‘13, ‘18
Well said, Red Sox, I’m not religious, but I will check out your Willa Cather recommendation - sounds like a very good read.
Oh, by the way, congratulations on ‘04, ‘07 & ‘13! 2018...not so much - Dodgers fan, just sayin’
5
Nice to be reminded of of one of the favorite writers of my youth. If I read through through her again and watch less TV maybe it will help me keep my sanity.
29
I think today’s immigrants do “yearn to be free” like the immigrants of the 1800s. They share the same spirit and determination.
But the world is radically different. It can take years of complexity and patience to immigrate legally. People seeking asylum on the southern border are desperate. They see no other way.
Of course, many believe immigrants come for the benefits, have no respect for lawful processes and shouldn’t be allowed to have their children become citizens. If they feel so strongly why cant we pass immigration reforms that would make it possible for people whose labor we need to come easily andlawfully?
We have different expectations of life now. In the time and place of Cather’s novel, if people got sick they often died. Charitable aid could be the only safety net. Today, health care and education are plentiful but expensive, and there’s the conflict that brings resentment. But the immigrant desire for freedom and a better life remains unchanged.
9
@CinnamonGirl
Actually, Lazarus' great poem says "yearning to breathe free"
1
My Antonia is one of my favorite novels
Spot on Op-Op. Totally agree with your assessment
11
In the US, as in Australia, we have politicians like Mr Trump and their fans, who want the country to remain the same white hegemony as that of their childhood and the immediate two or three generations.
They routinely fail to understand that their status quo is exceedingly brief within the context of human history, and that what preceded it was far longer, and quite simply overridden by force.
Thus, when they sense some change afoot, such as the immigration of people from different racial/cultural milieux, they react like household cats upon the arrival of the new puppy - fearful, anxious, and finally aggressive - forgetting their own brief existence, not understanding that this new addition to the household will almost certainly benefit them (in the cat's case, a warm sleeping companion, a loud bark to scare off neighbourhood feline competitors, extra food scraps).
As is well known, change is inevitable. Given the current state of division and anger, it is also welcome.
37
"Paul's Case" is a heartbreaking short story by Cather.
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@Conrad Sienkiewicz
Whenever I go to an event and ask for champagne--I think of Paul. Just can't help it.
My Antonia is also preformed as a play which I saw in the bay area decades ago. It was in also in Seattle a couple months ago, so others must see the story's continuing relevance.
3
"O Pioneers" dovetails well with "My Antonia" and is also beautifully written with a reverence for the land as well as for the people. Thank you for this column.
24
The difference between the US of 100+ years ago versus the one today is that there was no social safety net then. If you wanted to come to America, you could but then you had to fend for yourself to make it here.
Today, we have one political party that goes out of its way to promise the heavens to anyone who dares to cross the border illegally and that's not a sustainable model.
If you want open borders, fine. But then abolish the social safety net. If you want to retain the latter, then you need to enforce immigration controls. It's really that simple.
16
@Jason W
The only simple thing is how this issue is framed. People do not come here today because they expect a free hand out. They come for the same reasons they have always come, for a better life for themselves and their children. People these days experience pain, fear and disillusion the same as past generations and they seek to escape it. After this truth is recognized, everything else becomes secondary
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@Jason W
100+ years ago, the government gave many citizens and immigrants large amounts of free land in the West. That certainly counts as a safety net.
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@Rich
I'm sure that "better life" includes Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, federal student loans, SNAP (food stamps), Section 8 housing assistance (as it's called in Los Angeles), and free healthcare since hospitals can't refuse patients in the ER.
Abolish all of that and we'll see how many people choose the US as a destination thereafter.
7
One of my favorite books.
10
Reading like travel is a political act. Travel however is difficult and expensive. Reading means a visit to the closest public library.
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@Robert And reading has a much smaller carbon footprint than travelling, especially if it is a library book!
13
Thank you for this. It's past time for me to re-read this great book and 'The Song of the Lark' and to read 'O! Pioneers' for the first time.
I grew up in the country in the Midwest and remember loving her depictions of the land.
16
@IJMA So happy someone recommended the favorite book of my childhood, "The Song of the Lark.." I too grew up in the Midwest in the country. love opera, and gagged down Lutefisk every Christmas. I'm off to re-read TSOTL and also the Marcia Davenport book with an aspiring immigrant opera singer as the protagonist.
4
@IJMA, "My Antonia" is my favorite novel. Since you liked it, I think you'll also like, "O! Pioneers."
2
In my opinion, reading novels, especially during our youth, encourages and engenders empathy for others.
123
Thank you, Mr. Stephens. It is heartening to read that we must defend the rights of someone as vigorously as we disagree with them. This is not a matter of party or of conservative or liberal politics. It is about who and what we are as Americans.
23
I read this two or three times, because I don't often agree with you. But in this essay you've truly captured the spirit of our country, and what makes it a magnet, and what makes it great.
We're all immigrants' children, and the best of us have risen to make enormous contributions. The possibility of that is really what sets America apart.
60
"My Antonia" (part of a trilogy, 'O Pioneers', and 'The song of the Lark') narrates the resiliency of our human spirit, no matter how big the challenges out there, in need to be conquered for one's survival. And hope, aside from courage, was a pre-requisite. But insofar being an antidote to Trump's cowardly abusing his station just because he can, I'm not sure there is remedy nor hope...unless and until we develop the courage to send him packing. Only then shall hope return, and redemption, if we are willing to put aside petty grievances and unite for the common good. And Cather's Nebraska would agree.
25