The ‘open gate’ indicator

Years ago, I was a young student at East Tennessee State University. My American History professor, whose name, sadly, I cannot now remember, said, “You can tell the greatness of a nation by the ‘open gate’ indicator. That is, when the gate is left open, do people flood into a country or do they flood out? The more the people flood into a country, the greater the nation.”

At the time, Germany was East Germany and West Germany, separated by politics and the Berlin Wall. Hundreds of East Germans were killed in their desperate attempt to reach West Germany and thousands upon thousands of East German citizens risked their lives to escape to the West.

My late uncle, Ray Cruz, who married my late aunt Dolly, fled to the United States from Cuba following Castro’s takeover of the country. He was an honorable and likable man who built a new life for himself on the “other side of the gate.”

A young woman who is a member of my congregation was born in America and served honorably in the United States Air Force. Her parents were Cuban refugees who also sought safety, freedom, and a new life on the other side of the gate.

Every day I see people of Hispanic origin who were born in a country other than the United States. Whether they are here legally or not, I do not know. What I do know is that their very presence here testifies to the reality of the continuing greatness of America.

For many of them, the gate was closed so they tunneled under it, climbed over it, or broke through it — all for a chance at a new life, economic prosperity, and the promise of a brighter day for their children and grandchildren.

I asked a law enforcement officer some time ago if there were many illegal aliens in our area. He replied that there were many. “What do you do about that?” I asked. He shrugged and said, “Nothing, as long as they stay out of trouble.” “For one thing,” he continued, “the INS doesn’t want to deal with just one or two illegals. For another, the vast majority of them stay out of trouble and work hard. And, finally, if I were from the countries they are from, I’d try to come here, too, legally or not.”

There was a time in our nation when the Irish were the despised aliens. “No dogs or Irish served here,” some signs read. In another time, the same attitude was aimed at the Italians, the Germans, the Scots, and others. In other times, various races and persons of other nationalities have faced hostility and downright hatred. In the American South, there are still some die-hards who resent the intrusion of the “aliens from the North,” the “Yankees,” as they are called.

Yet we are a nation of aliens. Even the American Indians, some anthropologists contend, migrated across the Bering Strait from Asia. Most of our ancestors arrived at a time when there were no “legal” or “illegal” aliens — just immigrants trying to go through the open gate to seek the opportunity on the other side.

If you dismiss the Vikings and the Native Americans, the modern history of the United States began in 1492 when “Columbus sailed the ocean blue,” and set foot in this hemisphere. From that time to now, there has been an unceasing, unrelenting flood of men, women and children pushing through the open gate.

People are not, in great numbers, flooding into Cuba, North Korea, Iran, China, or scores of other nations. Indeed, they are leaving those places, if they can.

No, they are still — if they can get here — coming to America. When they stop coming, it will mark the day that America has lost that which has made it unique among the nations. For now, they still flood through the open gate. By their coming, they affirm that, of all the nations of the world, the United States of America is still the land of hope, of opportunity, of freedom. The aliens among us who have made it through the gate remind us that we are still a great nation.