Opinion: A House Divided

by Joshua Golden, host of Politically Correct Week in Review

The election is over, “The People” have spoken, confirming once again that their voice is far from the harmonious state of unity that real social progress requires, and far too often a cacophonous din of discord that seeks to blame, punish, and demean.

Even in our deep blue North West California bubble, we have significant disagreements about the best way forward. Kamala Harris leads, at the time of this writing, anywhere from 22.2 percentage points in Humboldt County to 61.3 points in Marin county. Leaving a significant portion of the population dissatisfied, or down right horrified, by the results of the election. The final results aren’t in yet, but the nation seems even closer to a 50/50 split where half the population of eligible voters, who actually voted, were willing to ignore and normalize documented aberrant behavior, unto an actual felony conviction for fraud.

“A house divided against itself, cannot stand” intoned Abraham Lincoln in 1858, this was not an original thought, the expression “a house divided against itself” appears three times in the Bible, going beyond not standing- to include warning: “…Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; every city or house divided against itself shall not stand…” Chief amongst the divisions in our “house” is a trope that the president elect has been honing from the start of his political career- demonizing and insulting migrant populations. Encouraging fear and hatred for “the other” has been a basic tool of authoritarian leadership through history. While there is little disagreement that there are problems with border policy, blaming a political opponent for that problem and stoking suspicion and hatred among your faithful followers for an entire class of people is misguided and in no way addresses the root problem. Neither will promised tactical mass deportations that can only become a ridiculous abuse of human rights – rights protected by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaimed by a founding document of the United Nations in 1948. Article 7 of that document reads: “All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.”

Would immigration be less controversial if we used the more accurate term: migration? As a natural impulse migration is a survival mechanism that has always added to the success and survival of living beings. My immediate experience of sufferable migration is limited to my status as a domestic refugee, fleeing the twilight zone of affluent suburbia, unable to afford housing in my high rent home town, making do, near the busy boulevard, El Camino Real- the kings road, in a drab apartment building- the pathos appeased by a tiny swimming pool in the din of neo-urbanity. Later a move to pleasant sylvan slum in the unincorporated county fringe, was a step up despite our sublet converted garage ending up flooded in winter. In search of greener pastures found me in the under belly of San Francisco predicated on the recognition of the fact that cities are where they keep the money! The plan: go there, get some, and get out. My mission was accomplished by heading to the hills and forest I now call home. A humble version of my ancestor’s search for their place in the sun.

My grandparents were born variously in: Japan (via the diplomatic corp), Mexico, New York, and San Francisco, from widely different backgrounds. What they all share is a family history of migration in search of better circumstances. Both sides of my father’s family were in California by 1852 with great grandparents of Bavarian and French descent, at least one of their progenitors left their homeland to avoid conscription following the 1870 Franco-Prussian war and the German Empire’s annexation of Alsace-Lorraine. Not content with merely immigrating to a new continent, they pushed onto the roughest edge of the frontier to find their fortune. Opportunity knocking in the form of the gold rush drove my great, great grandmother’s family, when she was only two year old, downriver from Arkansas to San Francisco, crossing pre-canal Central America on donkey backs. My maternal grandmother’s parents were from the foot of Italy- Calabria and Sicily. Landing in New York, they eventually headed west for semi rural merchant class entrepreneurship, along with a more familiar land based lifestyle. My grandmother learned to speak Spanish by tending the family store that served the Hispanic population of the former Mexican territory of San Jose. A newer immigrant would become my grandfather -from small town rural post-revolution central Mexico, his mother was half French, dating from the migration of soldiers and colonists that followed Napoleon’s brief acquisition of Mexico. I’m not certain how Grandpa entered the U.S., but it is a safe bet that walking was involved, and I imagine trains. If trains were his link to the U.S., they also made him a middle class American with his lengthy tenure as Southern Pacific Rail man. Working his way up from gardening in San Diego, to mineral mine track man, to Rail Yard Supervisor, he ended up in his in-law’s tri-lingual, home on the edge of San Jose. When my mother came of age she vowed to never again live in San Jose, and moved along the old mission trail, El Camino Real, south, and back again San Diego to Carmel. My father following opportunity migrated to Hawaii in 1967, where his grandfather had once sold imported Panama hats.

People seek their place in the sun- or snow, like my families Japanese exchange student, who returned to attend college in Oregon and Los Angeles, now lives and works in Switzerland. We all want to find the place we can prosper, live in peace, and enjoy life with family and friends. Like my sister-in-law, part of the ethnic Hungarian minority of Slovakia who followed love to California and now as a US citizen, is happy she has the opportunity to vote, yet sorely disappointed by the outcome, as she is with the right wing leaning of the former Soviet republic of her homeland. There are literally billions, of variations on the story of human migration that have made our country and the world what it is, serving our common purpose and adding the rich attributes of cultural exchange.

The idea that a nation is tied to a unified race, a mono-linguistic identity, and unchangeable and logical borders is a relatively new concept, a philosophy of the 18th century that championed the fad of patriotism and national identity that we eventually saw blossom into fascism. The flux of national boundaries and what they have represented over the just span of our modern history proves the folly of nationalism. Old Europe finally subverted the major cause of centuries of war by intentionally tying the economies of Europe together as one common union with open borders, consciously subverting the “need” for armed conflict among themselves. In the new world, the 19th century “Great Liberator” Simon Bolivar dreamed of an organization of American states to settle disputes and provide mutual protection, and a unified Latin America that serves the needs of all the people. While today the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is demonized by the U.S. for a system at odds with U.S. desire, punished with sanctions that have contributed to a crashed economy where 7.7 million, roughly 22.5% of the country’s estimated population have emigrated to surrounding countries. One of the largest population exoduses in recent history, and the largest in Latin America.

Migration is an unavoidable consequence of being human, and having empathy for our fellow humans as they search for opportunity, safety, and prosperity would be a recognition of that reality. Unless an unlikely global redistribution of wealth occurs, needful migrations will continue, and can never be criminal acts. Support of immigrant rights is nothing less than support of human rights. The fact is, all humans aspire to the same things, and the borders that “protect” us also serve to isolate us from the potential of unity, serving those that control our economies. In our unjust world national borders often act as pressure valves for desperate people, close that valve and the pressures south of the border will continue and inevitably splash over all of us when it finds release. Fear of open borders is in part a fear that our standard of living falls as the flood of immigrants overwhelms us, and change what some expect to never change. How long can our border really avoid the natural leveling effect of population, exploitation, and aspirations? Eduardo Galeano, Uruguayan journalist and writer, observed in his historical indictment of imperialistic colonization, “Open Veins of Latin America” that when we, the civilized societies of the north, look to the south, we must realize we are not looking into our primitive past, but rather into our future- the logical result of 500 years of abuse, exploitation and nationalism.

Joshua Golden