Letter from the Fertile Field editorial team
Dearest Fertile Field Readers,
We’re so happy to see you back for our first issue of the new year. It’s 2004 now, about 228 years after our country was officially founded. And here we all are in America in the new millennium…
The question is: why? Why are we here? How did we get here? And what made us stay here? Many of us were born here, and we’ve been here since. But a lot of us weren’t…in fact, according to the US Census Bureau, the foreign-born population of this country in 2000 was 31.1 million people—a 57% increase from the 1990 figure and officially the largest immigrant population in US history. We knew our country was founded by immigrants, but, apparently, it’s still a popular destination for immigrants from all over the world. For those of us keeping up with the news, we know immigration legislation is a very hot topic right now. And in social science research, it’s not hard to see the impact of this visible and important population of immigrants, and especially their children. The children of these immigrants are the high-profile, first-generation American youth who are becoming the diverse and able poster children of a rapidly globalizing world. So given all this hype, we at Fertile Field definitely thought this topic was worth some more investigation…
What is it that makes people come to America? We’ve all heard the clichés about being the melting pot, but truthfully, many Americans acknowledge that our heterogeneity and diversity is what makes us special. There are as many American dreams out there as there are Americans, and each of us has a story. Some of us came to America ourselves. Some of us had parents who came to America so that we could grow up as Americans. And some of us started out here, lived elsewhere for a time, and eventually came back to America, for whatever reason. There are so many ways people come to America, and there is something interesting and unique about each of those experiences. So here we present you with a snapshot of these stories, these journeys, these American lives.
So we invite you to read, explore, find out what an amazing mixture of people call themselves Americans… And remember to share your feedback, because that’s what this country—and this e-zine—are all about. Enjoy!
Sincerely,
The Fertile Field editorial team
(all content Copyright National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States, 2000-2003, do not use without permission)