Us

January 21, 2021

Sanity, grace, and civility have returned to the White House. It is not yet clear whether these virtues have returned to our democracy or our citizens.

Like most Americans and people around the world, I was relieved yesterday to see the treasonous and disgraced former president depart from Washington. And I was gratified to watch the televised inauguration as a calm, dignified, and humble Joe Biden became our 46th president.

I enjoyed the beautiful shots of our sunny nation’s capital: the stately Capitol building; the spacious outdoor National Mall and its Smithsonian museums; the simple and lofty Washington Monument; the inspiring Lincoln Memorial; the peaceful Reflecting Pool; the colonnaded Supreme Court; the beautiful Library of Congress; and the historic and elegant White House.

And I was moved by the continuity of the civic rituals of our peaceful transfer of power: the presence of former Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama with their First Ladies; Supreme Court justices and members of Congress from both political parties; the administering of the oath of office; the President’s inaugural address; the singing of the national anthem; the recitation of a lovely poem by a youth poet laureate; the presidential review of the military marching bands.

But the very visible presence of 20,000 National Guard troops was a reminder of the physical assault upon the Capitol building two weeks ago by Trump thugs seeking to overthrow our democracy and install Donald Trump as an authoritarian dictator. President Biden acknowledged this near-catastrophe in his inaugural speech when he said “Democracy is fragile.” In other words, we are not out of the woods yet. Our nation and our democracy remain under threat from domestic terrorists fueled by lies and misinformation from social media, some “news” media outlets, paranoid conspiracy theorists, and self serving Republican politicians.

Joe Biden made it obvious in his inaugural address, as he has throughout his long political career, that he is a man of honesty, decency, and empathy who intends to restore a sense of morality to the country while confronting the urgent issues of the pandemic, climate change, a battered economy, increasing financial inequality, and racial tensions. Yet although he is assuming the lofty position of the most powerful office in the world, he gives the repeated impression that, unlike his predecessor, his presidency will not be about him, but will instead be about us: we, the people.

And who are “we,” anyway?

For some of our fellow citizens, mostly Republicans, to be American means to be white and Christian (even though very few of them actually believe in or follow the teachings of Jesus). Jews, blacks, and people of Asian or Hispanic descent may be citizens, according to this view, but they are sometimes considered, unconsciously or otherwise, to be second class citizens. And as recently as the 1960’s, Catholics were viewed with suspicion by many WASPs (White Anglo Saxon Protestants) because it was feared that they would be more loyal to the Pope than to their country. The Irish in America were long distrusted because of their Catholic religion. So in 1960 when the Irish Catholic John F. Kennedy ran for president, many people voted against him because they didn’t accept him as one of “us” (WASPs). Fortunately for JFK he was young, handsome, Harvard educated, and rich, so he was able to overcome enough prejudice to barely win the election. Decades later, Irish and Catholics are considered part of “us,” so now we have our second Irish Catholic president in Joe Biden (Ronald Reagan was Irish but not Catholic). Progress is slow but steady in these United States.

Yet where should we draw the line as to the question of who is American and who isn’t? Are illegal immigrants Americans just because they now live here? For Joe Biden, apparently the answer to that second question is yes. He wants to provide amnesty for the estimated 11 million people who have come here without permission. And for humanitarian reasons he wants to open our borders to increased legal immigration from tens of thousands, probably tens of millions, of poor people who want a better life than they currently have in Mexico, Central America, Africa, the Middle East, or Asia.

Is it the moral responsibility of the American government and people to accept and provide for an endless stream of migrants? If so, how many millions should we accept, or should there be no limit? I believe that President Biden has an obligation to be up front with us as to how many millions of poor people he is willing to bring into this country, and how he will take care of them.

For me the question is not whether we should assist people in need; of course we should. The question is how can we do so wisely. I am not in favor of increasing the population of the United States; in my view, we have too many people already. From 200 million Americans in 1967 to 330 million today, that is a rapid population increase driven almost entirely by immigration, leading to a dramatic demographic change that is socially and politically destabilizing and environmentally destructive.

But if we are to aid our fellow human beings, how do we do so without overburdening our schools, health care systems, welfare agencies, freeways, criminal justice systems, and housing?

The answer may lie in helping people to stay where they are through assistance from NGO’s (Non Governmental Organizations) to help with security issues, food distribution, education, and family planning/birth control. The question of how to alleviate world poverty, corruption, and migration is beyond the scope of this essay, but it does raise the issue of identity: are Americans simply citizens of the United States, or world citizens with a responsibility to help all of humanity? Who should we include in “us” in the U.S. – the entire human race?

Is President Biden attempting to live up to the ideal written on the Statue of Liberty?: Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Or should he try to take care of American poor first?

I appreciate President Biden’s generosity of spirit in wanting to welcome millions of legal and illegal immigrants to our country. But while I do not support these proposals, I do support his overall agenda and his mission to preserve and protect this democracy for future generations. I hope he can heal our divided nation, and for that reason I wish him a long and healthy life and a successful four or eight year term in the White House. We the people, all of us everywhere, need him to succeed.