Last weekend we detoured on our drive from Philadelphia back to Cleveland to visit family cemeteries. We began south of York, Pennsylvania, stopping at the late-18th century graves of some Myers’s who were my ancestors. The next day, in Pittsburgh, we visited Maxine’s parents’ and grandparents’ graves. They are much more recent, but we know that her Moorhead line also goes back to pre-Revolutionary days.
The Myers forebears, who settled in eastern Pennsylvania, were Swiss German; the Moorhead forbears, who settled in western Pennsylvania, were Scots-Irish. I guess they are all considered to be northern European immigrants.
Interestingly, both of our mothers were descendants of immigrants who came here as part of the great immigration wave of the late-19th century, mine from the Czech lands and Maxine’s from Wales. So her roots go back to the British Isles (though not to England itself), and my Swiss German heritage is supplemented with Slavic blood, as well as some Norwegian (from my paternal grandmother).
Of course, little of all that really matters or is definitive about anything. For example, based on their names, I assume that the women who married into the Myers family throughout the 19th century were also northern European, but it would take research that I have not attempted to find out.
The result is that we pass for white Americans wherever we go. Some call this “privilege,” by virtue of our ancestry, and I accept that. Accept it or not, we no doubt make the most of that privilege every day, usually unconsciously.
When I think of what I know about our family heritages, I can only conclude that we are remarkably unremarkable. We are today what we have always been, so deeply embedded in the American mainstream that you can hardly see us. I do not know of a single individual in either of our backgrounds who would qualify for a mere footnote in a history book, unless it was some extremely narrow or specialized history. History-changing soldiers, or inventors, or political leaders, or artists, or anyone else? Not on our family trees!
This is not to say our ancestors did not contribute to our nation’s progress. Our family stories are populated with people who worked hard at their jobs, who contributed to their communities and churches, who raised children into becoming good and responsible citizens. Some of us served our time in our armed forces, and I assume most of us voted. And I do take pride in the particular accomplishments of a few of us.
At the same time, I know of no one in either family who was bad enough to make the history books. The only “troublemaker” I have come across was a Revolutionary-era Myers who refused to pay taxes to the newly-founded United States of America because of his religious (Brethren) convictions, which recognized no human authority, whether royal or republican. I celebrate his adherence to his convictions! But for the most part, we are just folks, generation after generation after generation doing what we did for our own benefit as well as for the greater good of our neighbors and nation.
As far as I know, with the aforementioned exception, we’ve been true patriots, loyal to our country and to its ways and its freedoms. We are not families given to outward shows of emotion, so our patriotism has not always been obvious. It is just part of who we are. We don’t always need to talk about it.
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So it is as heir to the most ordinary of American stories that I claim that our story is not the only kind of story that is American and that must continue to be American. My roots are deep enough in the soil and soul of these United States that I can live in a garden with many different kinds of roots supporting many kinds of lives and life-styles. I believe in the values and vision that have, corny as it sounds, made us into, if not a melting pot, then a rich and fragrant stew of many kinds, colors, and consistencies of folks.
(Native Americans have a place in this “stew,” but it is distinctive because of their sovereignty.)
I want the America that my old immigrant forebears made our home to remain forever a potential home for new immigrants. And no, I am not for “open borders,” so don’t throw that at me! I am for immigration policies and practices that welcome others to live here, giving special attention to those fleeing from persecution and terror. Such welcome is what it is to be The United States of America. Standing up for it is what it is to be an American.
I suspect many of those from whom Maxine and I are descended would be perplexed by our current move toward what some call the “unitary executive,” by which the occupant of the White House would be able to wield nearly unlimited power over our country. I believe that the Myerses and Moorheads of 250 years ago would wonder why we would give up the rule of law and embrace rule by personal fiat. They would, I trust, be surprised by my “No Kings” sign. They might wonder what has gone wrong. Hadn’t they settled the question of “kings or no kings” in their time?
Let’s not disappoint them. Let’s not allow the tyranny that those early immigrants to America had thought they had put behind us to destroy our future as a free people. Let’s work together to continue to be the nation of immigrants we have been from our beginning.
