A nation of immigrants
By Brendan O’Brien, Great Grandchild of Irish Immigrants
We’re about to mark 250 years since the founding of these United States, and it’s a good opportunity to reflect on our history. What we could really call our histories. Because the thing about this country is it has never been just one thing. Not one religion, one cuisine, or one culture. Not one story. At least not a simple one. Because you’d have to tell about the long march many took across the Sonoran Desert. And the long march many took from Auschwitz. And the long march many took along the Trail of Tears. You’d have to tell about the march across those sub-Saharan lowlands and the march across that Emerald Isle. And all we are is but a people walking. And all we are is but a people boarding a ship. Who’d been so thoroughly stalked by the specter of violence and famine and persecution that we’d eventually had to leave our beloved homeland and set out for an unknown land.
Some people feel threatened by this, like we must forget where we came from in order to be here. But we did not come here with nothing. And the Immigration Coalition of the Quad Cities recognizes that the we’re better for bringing these parts of ourselves—our music, our food, our language, our past—with us. We welcome our most recent immigrants because we were once strangers in this strange land, ourselves. Every story makes us stronger. Another stitch in the flag.
By Patricia Bird of the Immigration Coalition of the Quad Cities
On July 4,1776 the second continental congress officially adopted the Declaration of Independence. This document severed the colonies’ ties with Great Britain and established the United States as an independent nation.
But what does it mean to be an independent nation? Are we a country that manages without the assistance of others? Are we inhabiting the earth with no interaction or contribution from other nations?
Historically, our country has moved forward from the contributions of independents. Those who fled their homelands to build a better life not only for themselves but for the good of this country. We accepted the Albert Einsteins, the Madeleine Albrights, the Gloria Estefans – all fellow humans in need of refuge. In return, they enriched not only their own lives but our lives as well.
This is our heritage. This is our history. America is a country of independents, those who fled to this soil for equality and those born on this soil who continue to seek it.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men (and women) are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
250 years of independence created and upheld by immigrants.
Please subscribe to Immigration Coalition of the QC's Substack here.
Allison Ambrose
We’re about to mark 250 years since the founding of these United States, and it’s a good opportunity to reflect on our history. What we could really call our histories. Because the thing about this country is it has never been just one thing. Not one religion, one cuisine, or one culture. Not one story. At least not a simple one. Because you’d have to tell about the long march many took across the Sonoran Desert. And the long march many took from Auschwitz. And the long march many took along the Trail of Tears. You’d have to tell about the march across those sub-Saharan lowlands and the march across that Emerald Isle. And all we are is but a people walking. And all we are is but a people boarding a ship. Who’d been so thoroughly stalked by the specter of violence and famine and persecution that we’d eventually had to leave our beloved homeland and set out for an unknown land.
Some people feel threatened by this, like we must forget where we came from in order to be here. But we did not come here with nothing. And the Immigration Coalition of the Quad Cities recognizes that the we’re better for bringing these parts of ourselves—our music, our food, our language, our past—with us. We welcome our most recent immigrants because we were once strangers in this strange land, ourselves. Every story makes us stronger. Another stitch in the flag.
By Patricia Bird of the Immigration Coalition of the Quad Cities
On July 4,1776 the second continental congress officially adopted the Declaration of Independence. This document severed the colonies’ ties with Great Britain and established the United States as an independent nation.
But what does it mean to be an independent nation? Are we a country that manages without the assistance of others? Are we inhabiting the earth with no interaction or contribution from other nations?
Historically, our country has moved forward from the contributions of independents. Those who fled their homelands to build a better life not only for themselves but for the good of this country. We accepted the Albert Einsteins, the Madeleine Albrights, the Gloria Estefans – all fellow humans in need of refuge. In return, they enriched not only their own lives but our lives as well.
This is our heritage. This is our history. America is a country of independents, those who fled to this soil for equality and those born on this soil who continue to seek it.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men (and women) are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
250 years of independence created and upheld by immigrants.
Please subscribe to Immigration Coalition of the QC's Substack here.
Allison Ambrose
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