Animosity toward immigrants is like disliking vegetables. We need them both! Construction for The Great Wall of China was started in the 7th century BCE and considerably expanded in 220 BCE by Qin Shi Huang (first emperor) and much later by the Ming Dynasty in the 17th CE. Our proposed wall would be a flimsy and hugely expensive imitation and not a viable candidate as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We need foreigners: Youthful, brave, energetic, hard-working parents, students and . . .
Lifestyles?
Who Votes?
The framers of the Constitution assembled at Philadelphia in the summer of 1787 were educated students of history familiar with the philosophies of Locke, Montesquieu and Aristotle. In 350 B.C.E., Aristotle wrote in Politics about three forms of government and how they evolve: Form: Starts As: Becomes: Rule by One Monarchy Tyranny Rule by Few Aristocracy Oligarchy Rule by Many Polity Democracy Aristotle had some interesting warnings about “Democracy”: The poor can outvote the wealthy and ruin a state by . . .
Mercenary War Globalism
Talk about Globalism: Blackwater or as it has called itself since 2011, Academi, is now a division of Constellis Holdings based in Reston, Virginia. Marketing Description of Services: “integrated security and technical operations, domestic and international training, security assessment and analysis, risk mitigation, and technology solutions.” In plain words: Runs an army for the United Arab Emirates using recruits from Latin America, Sudan and elsewhere to prosecute the Saudi led war in Yemen with a wink and support from the . . .
Dignity?
Revenge Delayed? … a dish best served cold. Being a bully must be its own reward, and intoxicating. But obsessive hatred of people from a foreign land doesn’t bode well when luck takes a turn. Even considering the options selfishly or as America First, where is the advantage denying help to refugees, reneging on humanitarian aid, or placing heavy sanctions on people already hungry? In the East there is a cultural value to ‘saving face’ or mianzi in Chinese. Dignity is . . .
51st State
It is time for Puerto Rico to become our 51st state. The People: With 3.337 million people (2017) Puerto Rico has a larger population than 21 states and a density higher than all 50. As a state it would fall approximately between Connecticut and Iowa. The largest city is San Juan, the island’s capital. It has a population of 395,326 (2010), making it the 48th largest city in the U.S. History: Prior to Columbus’s discovery in 1493 on his second voyage . . .
Nationalism or Globalism
Globalism: Goods, capital and people should be able to move freely across borders. Versus Nationalism : Asserting sovereign control over one’s country. Nationalism is at the core of Brexit and the US election of 2016. A troubling aspect of this nationalism is its penchant for xenophobia and for ethnic and religious exclusion. It panders to fear of threats to linguistic, religious and cultural norms and wants to weaken global structures such as the World Trade Organization, NATO, the United Nations or . . .
Big Enough?
How much is enough? Let’s face it as a species we misbehave. We require the police to maintain daily decorum and using history as a predictor, we need a military just in case. The DoD request for 2019 for $716 Billion says they need more: “To address the scope and pace of our competitors’ and adversaries’ ambitions and capabilities, we must invest in modernization of key capabilities through sustained, predictable budgets. Our backlog of deferred readiness, procurement, and modernization requirements . . .
Humble Power
Humility: noun a modest or low view of one’s own importance An under appreciated source of power? Humility promotes: Understanding and learning. Empathy Openness to different opinions and ideas Perspective Credibility A lack of humility leads to: Closed thinking Misjudging one’s importance Undervaluing others Missed oportunities Being less persuasive We should insist on humility in our leaders! It is a source of power that helps get things done.
Blended Cultures
We are not replacing ourselves. But,we need more workers. Maybe immigrants could help? The National Center for Health Statistics has calculated the US birth rate for 2017 at 60.2 per 1000 women between 15 and 44 or 1.76 lifetime per woman (3% lower than 2016). This extends the 47 year US sub-replacement trend. This means that as older generations age out of the workforce, there will be an increasingly skewed ratio of retirees to working Americans. A thoughtful immigration policy could . . .