Donald Trump’s main issue is the fear of foreigners.  America faced a similar issue in 1941 with the America First campaign designed and financed by Nazi Germany to keep the United States from entering World War II.  Rachel Maddow details this movement in her book “Prequel, An American Fight Against Fascism” published in 2023.  Members of Congress read speeches written and printed in Germany belittling the Roosevelt administration for raising the threat of a German take over of Europe and suggesting Jewish people may be part of the problem.  Senator Robert Rice Reynolds, a North Carolina Democrat, proposed closing borders to European Jews saying they were “seeping into this country by the thousands every single month to take the jobs which rightly belong to Americans”.    He said “I would build a wall---so high and so secure that not a single alien—could possibly scale or ascend it.”  (Prequel-Page 220)  

The America First movement was massive. “When America First called a rally in New York City on May 23, 1941, the crowd could not be contained by the capacious Madison Square Garden---twenty-two thousand New Yorkers were jammed into the arena, waving small American Flags—fifteen thousand more people couldn’t get in” (Prequel-page 217). Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 killed 2,402 Americans and ended the America First movement’s efforts to keep the US out of the war.

Now, 83 years later, candidate Trump is maliciously maligning immigrants.    Trump’s foreign policy plans detailed in The Heritage Foundation’s 2025 report would end the humanitarian parole program.    As of April of 2024, 187,000 Ukrainian citizens have entered the United States with US citizens as their sponsors as they flee the Russian invasion of their country. Trump intends to close the borders to Ukrainians under that program. Trump even refused to say who he preferred to win the war in the Ukraine.

Like Hitler, Trump blames immigrants for all problems.  He proposes mass deportations.  Such rhetoric leads directly to violence and is a failed strategy for any country.  A country’s greatness has never been defined by its isolation from the rest of the world.

In the words of Lao Tzu from his book “Tao Teh Ching” published by Barnes and Noble Books in 1997 (page 125); “A great country is like the lowland toward which all streams flow.  It is the Reservoir of all under heaven, the Feminine of the World. The Feminine always conquers the Masculine by her quietness, by lowering herself through her quietness. Hence, if a great country can lower itself before a small country, it will win over the small country; and if a small country can lower itself before a great country, it will win over the great country.  The one wins by stooping; the other, by remaining low. What a great country wants is simply to embrace more people; and what a small country wants is simply to come to serve its patron.  Thus, each gets what it wants.  But it behooves a great country to lower itself”.

Chinese, Greek, and Hebrew writers refer to wisdom as feminine.  I agree with Lao Tzu, feminine quietness (wisdom) is better than masculine brashness. Americans are great when we protect victims of oppression.  I am proud of American support for the people of Ukraine, and proud of fellow citizens who sponsor foreign families.  The American population is a tapestry woven together of immigrants seeking freedom from oppression. The judge at a naturalization ceremony told new Americans, “Welcome home”.  Fellow citizens, let us keep America a great and welcoming country. Welcome is a powerful word.

By: Bill Patrie, Published in the Bismarck Tribune- September 2024

*Bill serves on the CATCH board of directors.  The views and opinions in this article are his and do not necessarily convey the views and opinions of this organization, it board of directors as a whole, or its members.  

Mathern said the state is on the right track, in terms of the business community and government officials, that we need more workers. He said he has some ideas to present to the next Legislative session, including more staff, and beefing up the recruitment effort. One is to increase staff, and another is to step up recruitment. He also suggests funding for non-profit organizations, like "CATCH," that are looking at ways to help communities be welcoming.

North Dakota wants immigrants, refugees to boost labor force

I love rural places.  I know many readers will dismiss this affection as sentimental.  Maybe it is but I don’t know that I need to justify the things I love to anyone.  I only share in the hope you love the same thing. 

I love the occasional solitude where you can be by yourself.  You are not alone when you are by yourself in rural places.  You are with livestock you know by name, or wildlife you have seen before, a familiar hawk, or pheasant, or a deer on a frequently traveled route.  No language is needed to communicate with these living things, but the interaction is still meaningful to me.  I milked cows by hand, had a horse I rode bareback over harvested fields in the fall.  In the winter, my brothers and I, and our dogs, chased jack rabbits across snow covered fields by moonlight.

I realized how much I love rural places when I went to a professional soccer game in St. Paul.  I really like soccer, my son is a soccer coach, our kids played in high school, and we have grandsons who play.  The stadium in St. Paul is beautiful, the soccer fans fun to be with because of our common affinity for the sport.  But the traffic, the shoulder to shoulder crowd density, and the exorbitant price for concessions left a bitter taste.  I was glad to drive home to North Dakota, the massive metro area in the rear view mirror.  

I served as the director of the Economic Development Commission, I got to travel to many of North Dakota’s rural places.  I also served as rural development director for the North Dakota Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives.  That position also took me to many rural places.  I fell in love with places many readers don’t know exist.  The Pembina Gorge, the Sheyenne River Valley, the Turtle Mountains, Bullion Butte and the Badlands, and the stunning productivity and beauty of the Red River Valley.

These beautiful places were discovered centuries ago by the indigenous people who traveled through or built permanent homes.  I live near Double Ditch Indian Village.  I understand why the first Americans chose to live here. I see the beauty of the Missouri River Valley, the woods and the fertile floodplains that sheltered and nurtured them.

I understand why European immigrants chose these rural places to live, fleeing the oppression of politics and religion.  Those folks were the huddled masses yearning to breathe free that Emma Lazarus wrote about.  By 1953, North Dakota had been populated by 240,000 naturalized foreign born people.  They frequently named their growing communities after the places they had left, just adding the word “new” as a preface.

I want others to know and love rural places like I do.  I want them to experience the joy of uncongested living, as close to nature as they want to be and with neighbors who will come to their aid or leave them alone as the situation requires.

This summer has been a wonderful time for my wife and I to see North Dakota that you would not see from the interstate highways. We have seen bustling rural communities with help wanted signs all over town. 

Rural folks understand the need to cooperate with their neighbors to get critical services.  Perhaps it is time for rural people to invite those seeking work and a place to live to come to their communities.  The Burning Hill Singers declared North Dakota “by the heavens blessed”.  It is time to share that blessing.