While we are often quick to make heat-of-the-moment judgement about social matters, history would teach us to have more reservations. The immigration issue burns hot in our national consciousness, albeit a distant second to the "economy.". Whether you rank immigration linearly or see it as one of many overlapping, intersecting circles that make up our "society" you can't escape a heated debate of the issue in news coverage and water-cooler chat.
Tough talk abounds and rarely do we put some distance to this issue and take a long view.
History is a saner judge of these dust-ups, and our collective socio-political struggles really do develop political consciousness, despte the cynicism we are told is pandemic in this country. The Underground Railroad, led by Harriet Tubman, is for example, revered today but viewed as a crime during this country's long tenure as a slave colony, which turned human beings into property and enshrined this human rights abuse into our very US Constitution. We look back - back! - and admire Ms Tubman for her courage and ponder not well enough her stunning observation that she could have liberated more men and women had they known they were slaves[!]
Compare old views of the Underground Railroad with our visceral reactions to Illegal Aliens today. Compare our view of Harriet Tubman t with Roberto Canchola, an Underground Railroad Conductor if ever there was one. Canchola is the longtime LAX worker who was arrested last fall for using his LAX security clearance to allow undocumented immigrants to bypass immigration and customs officers and into the country. To use the old Negro parlance, he "stole" them away.
We cannot say that in the former example of Black slaves that these were citizens, and the illegals today not. US Supreme Court Justice Roger Taney was quite clear about the fact Blacks were not and could never be citizens. We cannot say the Undocumented weren't slaves in the countries of their birth given the official poverty imposed on them by law, union-busting, and the lack of any social service, just so a few privileged familes can live to excess.
Harriet Tubman was a thief yesterday, just as surely as Nelson Mandela was once branded a terrorist by the US and British governments. But today, our political elite know to get a little catch in their throats and tear in the eye when speaking about these yesterday's villains, today's heroes. When will Mr. Canchola, a 23 year employee and vetted by LAX and the federal government for his security access, be declared a hero? I suspect first when those undocumented immigrants he successfully got out of their poor countries and into our much less poor one are invited to the White House and honored for their bravery. Second, if history instructs us, with the passage of time Canchola's meager efforts, kindling in a current debate, will make school kids yawn tomorrow. Hopefully the time enough will elapse before the three years Canchola was sentenced to federal prison in a plea deal. When, Bernard Shaw's St Joan asks, when will be ready for our Saints? When?
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