All of the current angst over immigration and immigrants in general has hit close to home.

Because I happen to be an immigrant.

Dad served in the British merchant marine during World War II. He was primarily stationed on troopships, and not infrequently his ship would ferry American GI’s from the States to the war zones.

He told me how impressed he was with those GI’s. They were cocky and self-assured.  They were brash. They were optimistic. They were independent-minded. They were going to kick Herr Hitler’s butt, and, most importantly, they were going to make it home.

Not all of them would. They knew that, but they didn’t dwell on it.

It could take weeks, and sometimes even months, for his ship to be assigned to a convoy, and during those layovers, he got to see America for himself. He liked what he saw. Ultimately, nothing would do except taking a chance on America if America was willing to take a chance on him.

In the winter of 1950, with a steamer trunk, a couple of hundred hoarded dollars, a wife and 2-year-old kid in tow, he made it to New York.

The family ended up here in Kokomo. Now in his mid-thirties, he went into factory work for the first time in his life. He lost one job thanks to Tail Gunner Joe McCarthy. The factory had defense contracts, and he was let go because he was not a citizen.

He found work in another local factory, and would stay there for the rest of his working life.

He became a citizen – as soon as he could, was assimilated into American culture, and was just like any other Hoosier – until he opened his mouth. He never lost his broad Scottish brogue, and what he was saying was an ongoing mystery to most folks until the day he died.

He worked hard. Paid his taxes. Sent a son through college, and then law school. He was a contributing member of society, and society was better for this immigrant being here.

For a country made up of immigrants, America has a checkered history with immigrants. It has always had a strong nativist streak starting with the Know Nothings of the mid-19^th Century down to the present day.

In their turn, it was the Catholics, or the Italians, or the Jews, or the Irish, or the Germans, or the Japanese, or the Chinese who were seen as a clear and present threat to the United States and the good people who live here.

And each of these threats, in their turn, were used to gin up bogeymen who had to be protected against. Protected against by whom? Typically, politicians with agendas that had little to do with immigration, and much to do with exploiting the public fear they themselves had engendered in the first place for political gain.

Today it’s the Hispanics and the Moslems.

We are told the Hispanics are murderers and rapists. There might be few good ones, but you can’t be sure. Every Moslem is a potential radical Islamic jihadist who, even if only a 5-year-old child, might kill us in our beds.

Look, it’s a dangerous world out there. There are those who would do us harm. We should have secure borders. We should be able to assure ourselves that those coming to these shores do not pose a threat.

But let’s call a spade a spade.

What is motivating this frenzy is not a desire to protect Americans, but rather a cynical political calculation that a population fearful of its own shadow is more amenable to being led anywhere with few questions asked by someone who promises they will make the fear go away.

It is a strategy that has been used elsewhere throughout history. It rarely, if ever, ends well.

As for my Dad, I’m glad he’s not around to see the progeny of those cocky and confident GI’s running around like chickens minus their heads, or being afraid of things that go bump in the night.

It would sadden him greatly.