Anti-US Visitors & Better Angels in Our Nature

Have some foreigners among us made it clear they hate America? So, “why do they come here?” one citizen asks. Is real Q, “How can we not hate their hate & helpfully show them the door as it hits them in their ungrateful butts?” Or, is there a better way still to resolving the issue?

The first Q & even the second was put forth recently in a WSJ commentary titled, “If You Hate America, Why Come Here?” The author, Matthew Hennessey, set the table by noting, “Mahmoud Khalil [the Columbia U Hamas supporter] is an extreme example, but many immigrants seem to revile the U.S.” He observes that “Not all the hungry, poor, huddled masses who come to this country year to breath free. Some come to mess with us.” Most of us will at least agree with Hennessey that “Americans have a hard time accepting” that we are not beloved by all others in the world. Nor is that observable anti-US feeling partisan, the author argues, since “they hate Democrats & Republicans with equal fervor … It isn’t our foreign policy or economic system. It’s personal.”

So again, Hennessey asks, “If America is so racist & imperial & bad,” why come her in the first place? Some of course had no choice, having been forced by dictators to flee for their lives. Yet, for others, is it just plain old-fashioned jealousy? That is, since the ungrateful visitors seem to like all the benefits American Society has to offer them, up to & including the freedom [desired in “every human heart”] to vilify us so long as they don’t get violent? Says Hennessey: “They wanted what we have – opportunity, prosperity & big cars, the things they profess to hate about us. They probably hate themselves for that.” So, then, maybe the third & real Q is: “How do we help such folks see Americans’ real guiding light & what makes us tick, i.e., Lincoln’s “Better Angels" in Every Human’s Nature?

Davd Soul