{"id":378,"date":"2010-08-02T19:20:43","date_gmt":"2010-08-03T00:20:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nathanhunstad.com\/blog\/?p=378"},"modified":"2010-08-02T19:21:59","modified_gmt":"2010-08-03T00:21:59","slug":"a-darker-shade-of-humanity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nathanhunstad.com\/blog\/2010\/08\/a-darker-shade-of-humanity\/","title":{"rendered":"A darker shade of humanity"},"content":{"rendered":"

The mosque near Ground Zero<\/a>, the English-only city ordinance in Lino Lakes<\/a>, the immigration law in Arizona…quite a lot of people these days are upset by “the other”. Each of these topics in turn deserves a full rundown, but in short, a lot of it boils down to backlash against a changing world, a world that is more diverse and less homogeneous. For some people, this describes a threatening world.<\/p>\n

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Aside from the fact that immigration policy in this country is a mess, all of these issues have one thing in common: the proposed “solutions” are less about solving problems than about making some xenophobic statement. Yes, the status quo regarding undocumented people in this country is untenable, but the solution isn’t to make people with dark skin carry their papers around all the time. Lino Lakes has never spent money on translation services, and it is doubtful they would ever need to. As for the mosque in New York, that just defies comprehension, especially the Anti-Defamation League’s bizarre statement essentially arguing that yes, they have a right to build it, but they shouldn’t because people’s feelings will get hurt.<\/p>\n

The way I see it, a more diverse society is a good thing: more viewpoints, more interesting people, better food. Others focus on the challenge to the existing power structure that it encompasses; often, it is the people who have power now but fear they will lose it in the next round who hold this viewpoint. Lino Lakes, for example, has a tiny minority population now, but what if, what if<\/em> “those people” start moving in? Then what will we do?<\/p>\n

This reactionary wave is doomed to fail, for demographic reasons: it is these reasons that is prompting the wave in the first place. Nevertheless, the damage that may be done as this latest batch of closed-mindedness breaks upon our shores could be significant. There is much more potential ugliness out there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The mosque near Ground Zero, the English-only city ordinance in Lino Lakes, the immigration law in Arizona…quite a lot of people these days are upset by “the other”. Each of these topics in turn deserves a full rundown, but in short, a lot of it boils down to backlash against a changing world, a world… Continue reading A darker shade of humanity<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[135],"class_list":["post-378","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-immigration","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t