‘The West needs people’

‘I’m the prime minister of Spain. This is why the West needs immigrants.’

Pedro Sánchez at The New York Times

Some “leaders have chosen to hunt” undocumented immigrants and “deport them through operations that are both unlawful and cruel,” says Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. Spain’s “government has chosen a different way: a fast and simple path to regularize their immigration status.” Spain has “done this for two reasons. The first and most important is a moral one.” The “second reason that made us commit to regularization is purely pragmatic.” Unless Western countries “embrace migration, they will experience a sharp demographic decline.”

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‘If you are reading this it is because I’m dead: here’s what I want to tell you about how to live’

Carlos Hernández at The Guardian

“I will leave this world without understanding why the international community chose to remain impassive while Israel perpetrated a genocide right before its eyes, broadcast live,” says Carlos Hernández. That is why it “was, is and will be so important to be aware of history. Looking back is the best way to face the present, to avoid repeating mistakes and to be prepared for future threats.” Looking back “shows you that freedom, life and democracy are never guaranteed.”

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‘African American personal faith and organized traditions have had historic impact’

Anthea Butler at The Philadelphia Inquirer

When “you hear the word faith in relation to the history of African Americans in the United States, what do you imagine? Do you see a preacher, or a gospel choir, or imagine a church mother?” says Anthea Butler. There are “not the only measures of how faith informs and shapes the history of African American life.” For “African Americans, faith has not been simply about belief in a deity. By necessity, it has also been about having the faith to fight for freedom.”

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‘Is there any hope for Reagan’s “informed patriotism?”’

Daniel M. Rothschild at the National Review

While “civic knowledge and national pride may be on the ropes, they’re not down for the count,” says Daniel M. Rothschild. Reagan “warned that the current ‘resurgence of national pride’ would not last long without what he called ‘informed patriotism,’” and the “national pride of Reagan’s era has dimmed considerably.” We “need to develop new institutions to teach informed patriotism, make it an active research project for scholars and intellectuals, and invite Americans of all walks of life into the conversation.”

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