Robert Klein Engler
Robert Klein Engler lives in Chicago, and is a graduate of the University of Chicago Divinity School. His book, ''A Winter of Words,'' about turmoil at Daley College, is available from amazon.com.
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The Obamination of Immigration
The Houston Chronicle reports that at a recent Democratic debate in Austin, Texas, domestic policies dominated the exchange between Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.
Senator Clinton tried to portray Senator Obama as the candidate who lacked experience. She should have added also a lack of knowledge about United States history to her accusation.
When the topic of illegal immigration came up, Senator Obama remarked, "We are a nation of laws, and we are a nation of immigrants, and we can reconcile those two things. So we need comprehensive reform..."
Earlier, on the Senate floor, Senator Obama said, "I will...argue against amendments that contradict our tradition as a nation of immigrants and as a nation of laws."
These statements during African-American History Month are a surprise coming from a man who may be the first black president of the United States (Bill Clinton, aside).
Voters should know by now they cannot trust a politician who claims "we are a nation of immigrants." Any long view of United States history shows that we were first a nation of settlers, and then, only later did we become a nation of immigrants.
George Washington was not an immigrant. He was a subject of the British Crown until he revolted, the United States Constitution was adopted, and then he became a citizen of the United States of America. Most soldiers who fought in the Revolutionary War were not immigrants, but subjects and settlers.
Abraham Lincoln was not an immigrant, either. This fact deserves repeating: We were first a nation of settlers and then became a nation of citizens, and then immigrants came to the United States.
Most glaring, however, for Senator Obama, is for him to regard most black Americans as immigrants. How can the junior senator from Illinois, (The Land of Lincoln) be ignorant of the most important fact of African-American history, especially in the month of February?
For the most part, black Americans did not immigrate to the United States. They were brought here as slaves. Their experience for hundreds of years in North America was the experience of slavery, not the experience of immigration. The War Between the States was not a war over immigration, but a war fought to free the slaves.
The next time Senator Obama claims we are a nation of immigrants, some reporter from the drive-by media should ask him about the African American experience in the United States.
Then, they should ask him who he intends to persuade by this uninformed claim. A president who does not know the history of his own country is a president who is a hollow patriot.
