IMMIGRANTS ARE AMERICA'S BACKBONE By Ellen Zionts • For the Courier-Post • July 3, 2016   "Good fences make good neighbors," according to the poet Robert Frost. On my father’s side, I have a samovar that was carried from Russia, where the Jews escaped the pogroms. They came here to escape religious persecution that is a cornerstone of our democracy. On my mother’s side, I have an old clock, a reminder of the time the Irish were starving and escaped the potato famine and came here so their families would not die. They immigrated for a better life. They both landed at Ellis Island, where the Statue of Liberty was seen as the promise that all were welcome. From the time my ancestors landed, the generations have negotiated the social classes and climbed the upward climb from the bottom to near the top that was the promise. It is the hope that statue embodies. All who want Donald Trump and drink the Kool-Aid of protectionism are prejudiced at best and uneducated at least. The middle class has been sold out to foreign labor and taxed beyond the limit while white-collar liberals hold their noses behind gated communities that shield them from the common denominator that they claim to embrace. These are the people who secretly rejoice in Trump. They think he is an outsider who will rip apart the status quo. Those of us who think Trump cannot win must think again. Trump has tapped into the same fury and fear that toppled the British government and their economy. Those who voted for the Brexit are now looking at their shrinking pound and downgraded economy. This is the same trend that caused the Arab Spring that gave Egypt the Muslim Brotherhood. It is all about retooling for the technical age where the plants are run by highly complex computers and not people. Those who have been displaced are distraught and have been sold out by an elite government that has been bought by big business, Wall Street, the National Rifle Association, the lobbyists and special interests. The transition period from manufacturing to the computerized revolution is going to be long and painful, leaving the disenfranchised in its wake. Congress thinks its job is to get re-elected and to pander to the special interests that make that possible. These are all too true and need changing. My fear as the descendant of immigrants is that those who would build a wall will tear down our democratic principles and we will be left with something far worse than the status quo. Before World War II, this same isolationism caused our country to retract from the evils of the world and Nazi Germany. Until Pearl Harbor, we turned our back on the Jews and built a wall around the United States. We tried to retreat from having the conscience that this nation is built upon. We are our brother’s keeper. We are a nation of immigrants. We wanted the Berlin Wall down and it finally came down. Frost writes, "Good fences make good neighbors" and "Something there is that doesn’t love a wall, that wants it down.” These are the choices as history repeats itself again. Muslims at the Istanbul airport said that mending needs to happen after the latest terror attack. These young people committing acts of terror are being brainwashed. This has nothing to do with anyone’s faith. We must not forget what made us the greatest country in the world. The immigrant has always been our backbone and must ensure democracy for the coming generations.