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A review by ninanarang
A Nation of Immigrants by John F. Kennedy
4.0
I really enjoyed reading this impassioned essay from my former President. It was insightful, despite the fact that it is now a bit dated. I had never realized the extent to which JFK really believed in the foundational importance of American immigration, so this was eye-opening in that sense, even though the immigration landscape of the 1960s and the present day are significantly different. Despite this, at the same time, even despite all of the differences and the current divisive tension around this topic, much of JFK's wisdom and earnest sentiment about the topic really comes through.
There were a variety of good lines in this read but the one that stuck with my the most, perhaps because of it's immediacy, were the final few lines:
"We must avoid what the Irish poet John Boyle O'Reilly once called
Organized charity, scrimped and iced,
In the name of a caution, statistical Christ.
Immigration policy should be generous; it should be fair; it should be flexible. With such a policy we can turn to the world, and to our own past, with clean hands and a clear conscience. Such a policy would be but a reaffirmation of old principles. It would be an expression of our agreement with George Washington that "The bosom of America is open to receive not only the opulent and respectable stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all nations and religions; whom we shall welcome to a participation of all our rights and privileges, if by decency and propriety of conduct they appear to merit the enjoyment."
While it would be anachronistic to imagine what Kennedy would have to say about the current antagonism surrounding immigration, particularly from our Southern border, and in terms of Syrian refugees, I can't help but think that he would be flexible to modern needs, and view America's increasing isolationism with as much alarm as many of us do today.
There were a variety of good lines in this read but the one that stuck with my the most, perhaps because of it's immediacy, were the final few lines:
"We must avoid what the Irish poet John Boyle O'Reilly once called
Organized charity, scrimped and iced,
In the name of a caution, statistical Christ.
Immigration policy should be generous; it should be fair; it should be flexible. With such a policy we can turn to the world, and to our own past, with clean hands and a clear conscience. Such a policy would be but a reaffirmation of old principles. It would be an expression of our agreement with George Washington that "The bosom of America is open to receive not only the opulent and respectable stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all nations and religions; whom we shall welcome to a participation of all our rights and privileges, if by decency and propriety of conduct they appear to merit the enjoyment."
While it would be anachronistic to imagine what Kennedy would have to say about the current antagonism surrounding immigration, particularly from our Southern border, and in terms of Syrian refugees, I can't help but think that he would be flexible to modern needs, and view America's increasing isolationism with as much alarm as many of us do today.