U.S. should be open for those willing to come

In his recent book World Order, Henry Kissinger quoted President Ronald Reagan’s 1988 farewell speech to Congress in which he speaks about a “city on a hill.” Here I’ve added another excerpt from that speech, concerning an American sailor encountering refugees.

What we need to realize is that our immigration system does not support the ideals upon which this country was founded. So, I provide portions of Reagan’s speech, which should inspire all Americans to take up the cause of immigrants:

“It was back in the early ‘80s, at the height of the boat people. And the sailor was hard at work on the carrier Midway, which was patrolling the South China Sea.

“The sailor, like most American servicemen, was young, smart and fiercely observant. The crew spied on the horizon a leaky little boat. And crammed inside were refugees from Indochina hoping to get to America. The Midway sent a small launch to bring them to the ship and safety.

“As the refugees made their way through the choppy seas, one spied the sailor on deck and stood up and called out to him. He yelled: ‘Hello, American sailor. Hello, freedom man.’

“A small moment with a big meaning, a moment the sailor, who wrote it in a letter, couldn’t get out of his mind. And, when I saw it, neither could I. Because that’s what it was to be an American in the 1980s. We stood, again, for freedom. I know we always have, but in the past few years the world again — and in a way, we ourselves — rediscovered it….

“I’ve thought a bit of the ‘shining city upon a hill.’ The phrase comes from John Winthrop, who wrote it to describe the America he imagined. What he imagined was important because he was an early Pilgrim, an early freedom man. He journeyed here on what today we’d call a little wooden boat, and like the other Pilgrims, he was looking for a home that would be free.

“I’ve spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don’t know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity.

“And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That’s how I saw it, and see it still.” JOE BARMESS

Pickerington