French: ‘Superman’ Is MAGA Kryptonite

Good post:

…Think for a moment of the immigrant experience. If you’re a child, you come without your consent. You find yourself in a place that you’ve never known. Even if you’re an adult, and you want to make America your home, you start out in a state of isolation and vulnerability.

Is it any wonder that new immigrants often create or seek out ethnic enclaves? From the Irish and Italian quarters of cities in the 19th century to the barrios of the 20th and 21st centuries, immigrants can ease into their new life by holding onto remnants of the old.

We look at immigrants and often demand that they assimilate. Be like us, we say. Conform to our culture. And that’s usually an easy ask — after all, adult immigrants want to be here. They want to participate in American life. For children, assimilation tends to happen quickly. Immigrant children who grow up in America quickly become more American than they are Mexican or Nigerian or Polish.

Assimilation doesn’t mean abandonment. There are millions of patriotic Americans who are also proud of their national heritages. When the waters of the Chicago River turn green on St. Patrick’s Day, we celebrate with Irish Americans. Should Mexican Americans experience any less joy on Cinco de Mayo?

When I served in Iraq, I served with immigrant soldiers who expressed pride in their homelands but fought in one uniform under one flag, and no one in our squadron ever questioned where their ultimate loyalties lay.

But if we ask immigrants to assimilate, then our nation has its own obligation. We must adopt them. If we want immigrants to love us, then it is our sacred obligation to love them back. Nations can’t love immigrants like adoptive parents love their children, but there is a parallel — a nation can tell a person, “You are one of us.”

That doesn’t mean that we open our borders to anyone who wants to come. Of course we should regulate the flow of immigrants into our country. Too many people arriving too quickly can overwhelm social services, strain local economies and create the conditions for rivalry and conflict that destabilize our politics.

But our default posture should be one of open arms. We should take immense pride that people want to come here. And we should welcome as many as we can reasonably absorb. This is our national heritage, marred though it is by sometimes-long periods of backsliding….

Source: ‘Superman’ Is MAGA Kryptonite