Rejectionists

Rejectionists Fail to Learn from History
Canadians Got it Correctly

My wife and I are visiting our middle daughter in Owen Sound, Ontario. It is a small waterfront community on the eastern shore of Lake Huron, nestled in Georgian Bay. We went to a local park where a memorial to the African-American slaves who fled the American South prior to the Civil War via the Underground Railroad and ended their journey in that community. 

Many came north fleeing oppression and confinement through Wisconsin and crossed Lake Michigan and came into Canada. Others came north through New England and crossed Lake Erie into Ontario. Some estimates put the number of former slaves who crossed into Canada during those tumultuous times at between 15 to 20 thousand. They came to Canada because that country refused to extradite former slaves back to their former owners in the States when claims were made for their return. 

The memorial in Harrison Park in Owen Sound recounts the contributions these earlier immigrants made to local life and economic growth. It showcases the coded signals families along the Underground Railroad sewed into quilts hung on fences or clotheslines that told travelers which way to proceed along their journey north. One symbol used a star pattern to remind travelers to follow the North Star to freedom. A sailboat pattern warned of a large body of water ahead that would need to be crossed. A flying geese pattern of triangles used north pointing wings to show the way. A crossroads pattern warned of potential dangers from people traveling in a different direction. Others warned of dangers or obstacles and some indicated safety.

The park later became a gathering place for the descendants of those early escapees to meet for annual reunions each August and celebrate their continuing freedom. The gathering date notes the passage of legislation granting permanent freedom to all former slaves throughout the British Commonwealth. 

In Wisconsin, abolitionists created safe houses for escaped slaves traveling the Underground Railroad to rest along their journey north to freedom before the Civil War and President Lincoln’s signing of the Emancipation Proclamation permanently freeing all those held in slavery in our Southern states. Abolitionists were common in Waukesha, Milton and Burlington. Crowds gathered in Racine and other communities to demand the release of captured runaway slaves. They stood up to the bounty hunters sent from slave owning communities to bring owners’ “property” back home. Wisconsin sent the Iron Brigade to fight with the Union Army in the Civil War to put a final end to enslavement of fellow human beings. They mustered at Camp Randall in Madison before traveling south to free fellow human beings.

All this history has come full circle once more as we struggle to find solutions for those fleeing oppression and punishment in foreign lands. The United States is in conflict once more about what to do with brown skinned people who want to be free and see our country as their last best hope for a better, safer life than they have in their South and Central American homelands. 

Many of us would welcome these new immigrants and encourage their integration into the American fabric. We know that successive waves of immigrants, including those with different colored skin or different languages and cultures, have successfully entered life in this country and made significant contributions to our economy and culture. There are others, stoked by fear and hatred of those with different skin tones or who speak different languages, who want to build walls to keep the “invading hoards” from taking our jobs and raping our women. Canada, in stark contrast, has let it be known that it will accept all those that we refuse to admit. 

The new American rejectionists refuse to even consider the possibility that the new freedom seekers might just be able to help us out. They fail to recognize the contributions those from south of our borders already make to agriculture, the food processing industry, restaurants and nursing homes where they do much of the hands-on care of our elderly and infirm. The do not remember when we actually invited the Braceros to come north to work in the fields picking crops and following the migrant trail to work the fields from south to north when those already here refused the work. 

It always amazes me when we fail to learn from our history and fail to see the opportunity in welcoming new workers and their families into our communities. We are better than our rejectionist past and those who share that belief need to stand and be counted at the ballot box when we choose the next round of representatives to speak for us in Madison and Washington.