To Understand Immigration, Study Western Civilization

American Spectator ^ | April 1, 2016 | Kenneth Calvert

[Twotone]

There’s a good bit of discussion these days about immigration and border policy. While good policy is crucial, so is the question of “why” people immigrate to the United States in the first place.

Historians estimate that between 1815 and 1915, more than 30 million people came to the United States in one of the largest population movements in human history. In the 20th century, millions came from around the world to escape socialist and communist tyranny, not to mention forced population movements in places like the Soviet Union.

A recent report from the Center for Immigration Studies states that 61 million legal and illegal immigrants currently reside in the United States, representing the most recent chapter of this remarkable and often contentious history.

What many Americans seem to miss, especially on our college and university campuses, is why so many millions of people have risked life and limb to join us in this truly exceptional spot on the planet.

A student newspaper, the Stanford Review, recently argued that the reinstatement of a required course on Western Civilization removed from the university’s curriculum in 1988 is one way to fix this lack of understanding. The student petition simply states that American citizens ought to know the roots of their nation’s political culture — both the good and the bad of it.

[Twotone]

I'm always leery of articles dated April 1st, just in case there's a joke in there somewhere. Students at Stanford begging for classes on Western Civilization almost sounds like one.

[Gaffer]

There is a difference between a country wanting to expand its horizons and citizenry with prospective Americans willing to assimilate and blend with this country in a positive way and the purely politically driven, demographically changing goal to destroy it with the world’s bottom rungs unable and unwilling to do the prior.

Today’s purpose is to destroy this country using peoples far more acquainted with the hate of this country and a desire to cripple it with the largess of entitlements they so completely understand at first landing on our shores.

[Twotone]

But a well-constructed rational course would teach exactly that. America is an idea. You come to it because you understand & want to be a part of it. There is no right to come here with your hand out.

[Gaffer]

They aren’t coming here to be a part of it and to be part of it. They are here to transform it or destroy it if they cannot convert it. It is just that simple.

[Twotone]

The article isn’t about what the current group of immigrants wants. It’s about educating our young men & women on HISTORY. Which is why it’s astounding that the students realize there’s a big gap in their knowledge.

[Gaffer]

Young men and women can’t be educated on the truth because history belongs to the apparent (effective winners) leaders. And those ‘leaders’ are liberals bent on destroying traditional America. It is no wonder they don’t know anything that contains any part of truth..