It feels strange to be writing about the US from here as Donald Trump touches down across the sea in the UK to protests, howls of rage and ridicule. (In the interests of fairness I must add that there are presumably people in the UK who think his visit is a good thing and support it. Farage and Johnson come to mind. Enough said.)
The image of that Trump balloon baby floating over Westminster will surely become one of the most surreal iconic images of our times. And what strange times they are.
America once took in the poor, the hungry and the downtrodden of the world. It gave them shelter, allowed them to work and to feed and clothe themselves, it gave them the chance to live. Some built roads and skyscrapers, some built empires, all built livelihoods that not only gave them better lives but often the only chance they had at life itself. From the famine fields of Ireland and the ghettos of Europe they came, and they made their contribution to America.
Now the poor, the hungry and the downtrodden are being housed in cages and subjected to genocide. (The UN’s definition of genocide under the statutes of the International Criminal Court includes the measure ‘forcibly transferring the children of the group to another group’).
I’m writing this on a bus from Falmouth to Hyannis in Cape Cod. The bus is like what I imagine a bus in 1950’s Ireland to be like – full of characters, banter and good humour. The driver knows most of the passengers, most of whom also know each other, and stories are being swapped as each one boards.
It’s exact fares only on this bus and, rather than take our big notes for which he couldn’t give us any change, the driver just took what dollars we could scrabble together. He wouldn’t even take my quarter coins which would have made up an extra dollar – telling me to give them to my friends as souvenirs when I went home instead.
The openness, friendliness and interest in other people is what have struck me the most about all of the Americans I have met as I’ve travelled around this little part of New England. From Boston to Cape Cod to Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard, everywhere I’ve gone, I’ve met the same reaction. People here want to know where you’re from and are interested to hear your story. And whether they’re familiar with your culture or not, they are always complimentary.
Americans are living under one of the most divisive, unstable and – seen through the eyes of the world – unpopular regimes in history. Despite this they remain friendly, open and welcoming. It’s a good time to visit. To support their tourist economy that puts money in the pockets of ordinary people, to see their monuments, to understand their history.
Boston is a great place to start, to explore the events that led up to the American Revolution and the push for independence. From the city’s great Freedom Trail – which you can follow by yourself or take a guided tour – to the Boston Tea Party Museum – where you’ll get a chance to heave a tea crate over the edge of a ship – the city’s history is written in every twist and turn of its streets. Follow the tales of the founding fathers of independence, including Samuel Adams and Paul Revere, to the stories of more recent ‘immigrants’, such as John F Kennedy. His great-grandparents emigrated from Ireland in the 1800s to found this American dynasty and give the US one of its most charismatic presidents; a man who believed in equal rights for all Americans, whatever their race, colour or creed.
A Nation of Immigrants by John F Kennedy was published after his assassination in 1963. In it he writes about the 42 million people who have immigrated to the US since the arrival of the British in 1607 – the largest migration of people in all recorded history.
He says that ‘Immigration policy should be generous; it should be fair; it should be flexible. With such a policy we can turn to the world, and to our own past, with clean hands and a clear conscience’. And he quotes George Washington who said ‘The bosom of America is open to receive not only the opulent and respectable stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all nations and religions’.
We visited the JFK Library in Boston and the smaller, more intimate JFK Museum in Hyannis on Cape Cod, with its collection of rare, archival family photos. Afterwards we made our way along the beach to where the Kennedy Compound can be seen looking out to sea, the sea that so many immigrants crossed on their way to find a better life.
Colonisation and immigration are two very different sides of the same story and America has had its fair share of both. While much is said of the British settlers who came in the 1600s and who finally gained independence from their rulers back at home, the stories of the native Americans their arrival displaced are not as widely told. Down the road from the statue of JFK in Hyannis, there’s a statue of the native American Iyannough, who gave Hyannis his name.
Americans have faced tough times on their journey to independence and I’m sure there are tough times ahead. But I really hope that despite all of their difficulties, the people can manage to retain the welcoming openness and friendliness that I’ve experienced everywhere this week.
Visit the US: 18 top things to do in Boston