America 2.0: Immigration Conundrum for USA

A little over 14 million immigrants lived in the U.S. in 1980; by 2014, the number had grown to more than 42 million. There is simply no precedent in istory for the sheer number of human being who recently come, legally and illegally, into America. As a percentage of the entire population, immigrants are now very close to the peak of 14.8 percent set in 1890.

by: Andrew Sullivan

New York magazine (Jan 23-Feb 5, 2017)

Andrew Sullivan, the journalist for New York magazine,  emigrated to the United States from Britain. He seems more honest than most writers about the United States' extraordinary ability to absorb the 42 million immigrants, many from Mexico, Latin America, and Asia, and he credits our country with the flexible approach to the demographic and racial shift that has occurred. Pressure seems to be building though, and the rise of President Trump is a clear indicator of the tensions that arise when a population experiences so much change. Trump speaks about wanting people who "love our country" and share our values but it seems like a thinly veiled (no pun intended) reference to racial, cultural and ethnic pressures. The racial composition of the USA is changing in fundamental ways. That's a big deal.

Ironically, the immigrants seem to have made the United States a better place to live. Trump talks about "Make America Great Again" but from my vantage point, living in a prosperous city (Austin, Texas), America seems pretty great already. I remember New York City in the 1960s being a dirty, lousy, dangerous place. Remember Taxi Driver (1976), Martin Scorsese cinematic depiction of the mean streets of New York? New York now seems revived and safer and I credit the immigrants as a big part of that improved environment. In fact, back in the 1970s most American cities seemed like dreary, abandoned, economically depressed places with the white middle class having moved to the suburbs. American cities have been revived by a combination of hardworking, law-abiding immigrants and a return of the white intelligentsia back to the urban centers.

Everything works pretty well in America. We have always had great infrastructure-- clean drinking water and highly efficient electrical and utility services. Now we have even more luxury. The land is blanketed with an amazing electronic computer network and almost every citizen has a computer (called a cellphone) in their pocket that would have been the envy of the NASA scientists who put a man on the moon. 

I understand that rural America does not feel it is enjoying the economic benefits of the present day. The jobs have left their communities. The wonderful cars we drive are often built by Japanese or Korean companies. Even in the great Apple iPhone is manufactured in China. If you walk past a construction site the crew of workers usually speaks Spanish. The quality of the work is impeccable on new home construction and in the home improvement projects done by Hispanic workers, legal and illegal. Everything in Austin is humming along-- from great restaurants to clean streets.

None of this solves the problem. Many Americans feel treated and under siege by the vast numbers of people who do not look like the original white European settlers and citizens. The Europeans and African-American population brought here forcibly and enslaved dominated the North American continent from 1600-1950-- a 350 year run of dynamic change and prosperity, though clearly not for everyone. Now we seem to be on America 2.0. And the upgrade, just like computer upgrades, seems to have advantages and flaws. 

The question remains-- does President Trump have any insights into how to work out the bugs and problems that plague and drag down America 2.0?

Summer Nights in Queens, New York (1959)

My parents told me we were moving to a "middle class housing project" in Queens. I guess they were right. The Arverne Houses, a series of 6-story red brick buildings, stood between the Atlantic Ocean and Jamaica Bay. The jets out of Idlewild Airport, later to be named JFK, flew overhead with great frequency. The noise didn't bother me. Actually it felt like freedom and power. Our family left crowded Manhattan for Far Rockaway and began a new life in these wide open spaces. The smell of sea air lingered all around.

On summer nights the kids would all gather around a grassy area, demarcated by chain link fences. Our building, 353 Beach 54th St., loomed nearby. My parent could summon me by shouting from the window of apartment 3E. The windows had steel frames. The utilitarian apartment buildings were built to last and they continue to last to the present day.

The kids, almost 90% Jewish, along with a few Catholic families and a sprinkling of African-American kids, found summer nights a good time for staging mock track meets. We had the animal strength of youth. We would circle that grassy patch, an asymmetrical oval, running and competing for stamina more than speed. Who could make the circle 10 times? 20 times? 30 times? We would walk the tops of the chain link fences like tightrope walkers, just to burn off energy and impress each other.

Ten years old and the pre-pubescent hormones had started to kick in. Who was out to impress? Myra, maybe Myrna or maybe Tina, all crushes from my sixth grade class. My best friends were three Jewish kids, Ira, the son of a bartender, and Larry, an Orthodox kid, and Joey, whose father had a tattoo signifying his survival of the concentration camps in Germany. The memory lingers, burned into my consciousness, a sold pillar of youth. Finally we would retreat back to our apartments. This was our America, red bricks, egalitarian, full of crazy kids games like Ringolevio and Johnny-On-The-Pony. One big kid named Eisenberg could not be brought down in Ringolevio-- maybe a future fullback for Far Rockaway High School?

We broke into teams for Johnny-On-The-Pony and the pony was a fire hydrant. The goal, pile as many teammates as possible on top of each other with the fire hydrant as a center of gravity to support all of us.

Feels like a Jack Kerouac vision before I knew about On The Road or had much of an inkling of west of the Mississippi. The innocence of youth, a Fifties America. I loved everything-- Mickey Mantle, the United Nations and the Disney TV show on Sunday nights. My frontier land stood just outside the apartment building.

Baltimore-- The Revolution Will be Televised

Remember Gil Scott-Heron's famous song-- The Revoultion Will Not Be Televised? He produced the song in 1970, and maybe started Rap music with that poem spoken to congas and bongo drums. A brilliant song, no doubt. But I think Scott-Heron guessed incorrectly on one point-- the revolution actually will  be televised.

Marshall McLuhan, the brilliant media philosopher, felt print media, books, newspapers, etc. had not been especially kind to the situation of African-Americans. The electronic formats-- radio, television, computers, cellphones, Twitter, etc.-- make things more immediate and personal than the traditional forms of written communication. Digital communication has changed all of us in profound ways, as McLuhan correctly surmised.

The Civil Rights movement really got started in the Sixties with the rise of television. Now we have an array of communication formats- and individuals participate on their own through Twitter and Facebook.

CNN covers the race riots in Baltimore and Ferguson and amazingly nobody, or very few, get killed. Everything is up close and personal and moves in an instant-- the news creates news. The digital world of instant communication brings us all closer. Changes happen faster. The digital universe seems a add an element of compassion for fellow human beings that was lacking in the pre-digital days. If television ended the Vietnam War, maybe the social network and electronic vortex ends racial discord-- or at least turns the corner on racial divisions.

We see a cellphone recording of Eric Garner being  killed on the streets of Staten Island. Demonstrations happen. Some police officers are ambushed and murdered, seemingly in retaliation for Eric Garner's death. The demonstrations subside. The information comes to us in a steady stream. Each event becomes a media event and another event rises from it. Ferguson, Missouri follows a similar pattern but the demonstrations turn violent.

The next development is a recording that shows Freddie Gray being arrested on the streets of Baltimore. He screams for help. His legs seem immobilized and he mysteriously dies while in police custody. The immediacy of the horror brings people to the streets almost instantly. Young kids communicate via cellphone and organize a plunder of the local mall. But, the riots end in a single day. Everything moves quickly. The peaceful leaders of the African-American community move into the streets. College kids come to Baltimore and immediately start sweeping the streets clean of debris. The Bloods and Crips put their hatred aside and work together! We meet an impressive "Mom of the Year" popping her son in the head and successfully getting him out of the riot. We admire her courage. We learn about each other quickly and suddenly community leaders take control of the streets.

Baltimore does not get burned to the ground-- like the neighborhoods that went up in flames following the assassination of Martin Luther King in 1968. The violence never reaches the epic  proportions of the riots in Los Angeles in 1994, following the Rodney King beating.

The revolution actually is being televised-- along with a million other forms of coverage by the citizens-- but it still is a revolution, a revolution of compassion. Mr. McLuhan got it right! But he said there would be all kinds of disharmony and a cacophony of voices and opinions rising in the new environment-- just like any other village.