View From a Prairie Home

by Hege Hernfindahl, Columnist

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” Such is the poem inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty.

Of course, not all immigrants saw her as they reached our shores. The first people yearning to breathe free, arrived in Jamestown in 1607. The native Powhatan Indians were not happy with the newcomers. They dressed funny, didn’t speak their language and didn’t worship the same god. But one young girl, Pocahontas, felt sorry for them and helped them survive by teaching them the ways of this new world. Maybe she had never heard of Jesus, but Pocahontas was a Christian in that she helped her neighbors and didn’t judge them for the color of their skin or their strange ways.

Another Native American, Sacagawea, helped Lewis and Clark on their way to chart the unknown territories west of “civilization”. She helped the expedition not only find their way, but she spoke different languages and mastered the art of interpreting. She also taught the men on the expedition about native plants. Amazingly, all the explorers (except one that died of appendicitis) survived and could tell the world about the possibilities lying in wait out west.

And the tired masses came in waves upon waves. Many did not take kindly to the newcomers. The Norwegians were “Norskies”. The Germans were “Huns”. The Irish came in great numbers during the potato famine of the 1840s and -50s. Some were called “donkeys”’ because it was cheaper to hire an Irish immigrant than to use a donkey for hauling coal. Others were called Micks or Paddys. The blacks, of course, did not come by their own free will, but were imported like so much cargo to slave in the fields and be sold at auctions. Even after emancipation, prejudices against blacks continued. I would go so far as to say, it even persists today.

When we recently celebrated Indigenous Peoples’ Day, formerly known as Columbus Day, I learned from reading the New York Times, that Columbus Day was instituted by President Benjamin Harrison in an effort to quell anti-Italian sentiments due to the assassination of the New Orleans Chief of Police, David Hennessy. The rumors circulating were that the immigrants, the Degoes, were responsible. In response, the police began rounding up Italians and putting them in jail. Most were released and the rest put on trial which resulted in a hung jury. The outraged citizens broke into the jail and lynched the eleven Italians remaining there.

But despite the hard times had by most immigrants, our nation has prospered to the point that it now is the most powerful nation in the world. And why? Because of our people. Because of the diversity of our people. Because here, we are not told how to think and whom we should worship. So, people dare to dream big. Thomas Edison grew up in poverty, but became one of the greatest inventors of all time. The inventor of the automobile, Henry Ford was the son of Belgian and Irish immigrants. Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer and Werner von Braun, political refugees from Nazi Germany, developed our space programs that put a man on the moon in 1969. That man, Neil Armstrong, despite being a child of the Depression, managed to follow his dream of flying to the point where he could navigate space. I could go on, of course. Steve Jobs. Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World-Wide-Web. The non-disputable fact is, they were all here, in the land where one is allowed to breathe freely, when they made their inventions.

So, now, when new waves of immigrants are reaching our shores. From poverty. From wars. Yearning to be free. To think and dream. And eventually give back. Shouldn’t we welcome them?