A Nation of Immigrants

The short version first . . .I am amazed by the dichotomy fifty years can bring; it is more like 48. How to couch this without stepping on every toe around me. You see, during the administration of President John F. Kennedy, he wrote a brief but stirring book, A Nation of Immigrants . Written by this, the youngest President in American History, readers of this treatise were amazed by his grasp of the immigrant situation. His vision was unique in that he was born into a family of immigrants. During the opening of the twentieth century, his family emigrated from Ireland, settling in the State of Massachusetts. Born in 1917, John F. Kennedy grew to great stature becoming an avid boat handler/steersman, an excellent swimmer, a diligent student, while still the son of an immigrant family.A practicing Roman Catholic, he was the first American president to belong to the founding faith of Christianity. As an Irish Catholic, he faced many uphill battles during his younger years. He offset any religious issues by living his faith daily in all that he did.I was amazed at his exploits in World War II as a commanding officer on a Motor Torpedo Boat, designated as PT-109. Lt. JG Kennedy and his entire crew were shipwrecked when their boat as literally cut in two parts by a Japanese destroyer. His courage, heroism, and determination helped him to save most of his crew by swimming from the site of the wreck to a small island. After making several supporting swims each approximately 10-12 miles (one-way) over ocean waters, he successfully rescued most of his crew with the aid of the other sailors who were not as injured as those they helped, with each swimming approximately 10-12 miles one-way. For the review of the book I read about these exploits, please see John F. Kennedy and the PT-109 by Richard Tregaskis . Most of the crew were saved and resumed their tours of duty with Lt. JG Kennedy on a new boat called a Motor Torpedo Gunboat, with added 20- and 40-mm gun mounts, extra armor as well as double the number of anti-submarine depth charges as well as double the number of 50 caliber machine guns. The Gunboats were a bit larger and had a bit wider hull to handle the additional firepower and armor.Upon his return to the States after following his discharge from the Navy, Kennedy began working on a campaign to win a United States House of Representatives seat. He was able to win effectively with his wartime service and his completion of his time to serve in the Navy as well as his excellent school and college endeavors. He was able to also run for United States Senate from Massachusetts which he also won with little trouble. Finally, he was encouraged to put his name in the battle to become President of the United States, and in 1961 he was successful in being selected as not only the President, but the youngest President elected ever.His time in office and his interest in the impact of immigrants on United States history and politics led him in the direction he took by writing A Nation of Immigrants . He studied with conviction and determination to write as accurate a history of immigration into the United States as possible. His efforts are still relevant, timely, and worthwhile especially as we are once again looking at foreign nationals into the United States, seeking either asylum or opportunity to immigrate into the United States. Unfortunately, the Clarion call of President Kennedy is being out-shouted by the opposition from the present occupant of the Oval Office. President Kennedy advocated cooperation, support for training to gain citizenship, and helping hands from current citizens to those who aspired for that option. Today, we order the building of a wall to hold back oppressed, legitimate seekers who want to become citizens and become full participants in our brand of democracy and fair play for all citizens including those who are legitimately seeking that goal. Rather than building walls, perhaps we should be considering the citizen training that future immigrants’ nee citizens will bring with them into their new homeland of the United States of America. There are suspected evil operatives with the good immigrants, I am sure -- such is the way of our world. But rather than spending billions of dollars keeping people out, perhaps that money could be better spent finding a way to discern the wheat from the chaff and bring those legitimate citizens to our country where we can educate them to be fully-functioning citizens. That might be the best use of hard-earned tax dollars. Maybe it might even spur Congress to come up with a working piece of Immigration Legislation we have needed to change the way things are toward the way those things should be. What a novel idea!!Recommendations:This is a five-star read. Might need to be an older elementary student to grasp all the parts, but anyone who wants to read it should. It is clearly a way to approach immigrants and immigration that was a key component of President Kennedy's legacy for all of us.One note as an aside regarding Profiles in Courage by John F. Kennedy. This is one of those feel great about being Americans by reading about some stellar examples of Americans in this book. Clearly deserved the 1957 Pulitzer Prize that it garnered. It was a great book that I read when I was a fourth or fifth grader in elementary school on that dark day in Dealey Plaza in Dallas, TX. President Kennedy was a great man who was taken from us all too soon. Things would have been mightily different had he survived to run in 1964. Some research I am reading suggests strongly that President Kennedy wanted all American Forces out of Vietnam no later than December 1965. Imagine what that have done to change those last years of Vietnam and all the other situations since then -- what a change that would have been.Review ofby John F. Kennedy by Richard W. Buro is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License Based on a work at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34848226 Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at Contact HarperCollins at http://permissions.harpercollins.com/. Please address your needs from the information contained there.