Editorial

Marilyn Hempel

The lack of civility in American public speech these days is deeply disturbing. Even in my own home town, known for its cluster of colleges and intellectual atmosphere, outside agitators felt emboldened to disrupt a public forum on health care reform by yelling and threatening the local speakers with bodily harm.

Of course, people can and should debate important matters of public policy, but when conversation devolves into vitriolic mudslinging, when lies masquerade as truth, all is lost.

In 42 B.C., Cicero insightfully warned the Romans, “A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and he carries his banners openly. But the traitor moves among those within the gates freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the galleys, heard in the very hall of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor—he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and wears their face and their garment, and he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation—he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of a city—he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to be feared.”

What does all this have to do with U.S. population issues and the coming 2010 census? Those of us who have toiled for many years in the population field are aware that some so-called population activists give our cause a bad image. Some of them appear to fear and even hate those who are not like themselves, including immigrants.

This edition of the Population Press concentrates on tallying the numbers and impacts of Americans, not where they come from. We investigate the collective impact of human activities on the Earth and the consequences for ecosystems that sustain all life. To talk about U.S. population growth says nothing against particular individuals in this country. Nor does it cast aspersions on any sender country. Rather, it is about deciding how many Americans can live sustainably on the Earth. The facts are clear: with only 5% of the world's population, the U.S. consumes 25% of the world's resources. We Americans have a huge impact on the planet, an impact that is increasingly unsustainable. Since immigration is a major driver of U.S. population growth, inevitably the question arises, "How many people should be welcomed as future immigrants to the U.S.?"
We do not advocate hostile actions or feelings toward immigrant Americans. We recognize that all of us, if we go back far enough in history, are immigrants. We believe that every person, everywhere, deserves the full and equal measure of basic human rights.

Unfortunately, to discuss immigration issues is to risk seeming to attack immigrants themselves. Even worse is the risk of inadvertently encouraging somebody else to show hostility towards a foreign-born person or group.
The Population Press encourages all people to take a very personal stake in assuring more civility and less hostility in the United States as we work through the difficult task of changing our country to become more sustainable. Unjustified name-calling and fear-mongering on any side must not be allowed to stifle public discussion about the effects of population growth and the role of immigration numbers in propelling that growth. The issue is not who is using resources, but how many and how much. All of us should be careful of the language we use so as not to imply or suggest negative generalizations about the "other".

We acknowledge that there are no easy policy options to ensure population stabilization and immigration reform. However, we hope that all those involved in the policy debate can agree that when people move here from a homeland they love, away from friends and family they cherish, because of oppressive governments or lack of employment opportunities, it represents a sad and un-empowered choice for the immigrant, as well as a newly amplified potential for increased and unsustainable American consumption. The Population Press strongly supports democratic equality, the empowerment of women, and family planning services in all countries. It seems clear, however, that America cannot be the alternative home for all the people in all those countries that fail to live up to these ideals.