Poll: Tolerance Toward Immigrants Increasing

In a world and in times where so little of the reported news could be considered 'good" news, there comes a report of an apparent rise in the level of tolerance for immigrants, and the perception that immigrants are a positive influence in their adopted communities. This perception runs counter to the appeals and exhortations to bigotry and ethnocentricism of the GOP and the far right base of the GOP party faithful. The Bush Administration has painted immigrants a threat to the American workforce, a threat to national security, and even proclaimed that singing the National Anthem in a foreign language [so that an immigrant might express the same sentiment of patriotic loyalty in words that he or she fully understands] is a threat to the social fabric and history of this nation. Unfortunately, Bush was a low "C" student at Yale and probably learned little of the actual history and founding of this nation, built as it was upon the hopes and aspirations of immigrants who spoke different languages but were bound together by a common purpose.



Perhaps the news report is a signal of a popular backlash against the bigotry and intolerance that has permeated the White House and Congressional leadership offices. It is possible that the American people are beginning to feel that enough is enough. There is a simple truth that it is harder to hate someone that you know personally, than to hate and fear someone that you know little about. As Americans grow more acquainted with immigrants and experience personal relationships that belie the stereotypical aspersions, the public appeal to the baser negative emotions of Americans may be losing impact. We might even go so far as to project that the American people will reject leaders that play to hatred, bigotry and intolerance and select leaders who give more than lip service to the promise of uniting the people of this land. And these thoughts may be a pipe dream. But the value of good news is that it restores some measure of hope. And that is a resource in short supply after years of GOP control and corruption which has led to our current state of despair.