This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

Immigration.

Even uttering the word seems to send chills down the spines of many Americans, including some of my friends.

But, like many issues these days, untruth supplements truth.

Look only so far as the Washington Post this week.  Editors performed a major public service by posting an immigration quiz, asking readers to take it.

Any who did and paid attention to the results, learned a few truths.

Fears of immigration arise mostly from the plaintiff cries of one Donald Trump who always blames someone for something, with truth lost in the shuffle.  His sycophants mimic his cries.

Here is how the Post started its quiz:

“With former president Trump describing an immigrant invasion — and even Democrats acknowledging that the U.S. border is insecure — it is easy to worry about the large number of immigrants arriving in the United States.

“Will they bring crime?  Mooch off your taxes?  Change American culture?”

What follows below is a summary of the Post quiz, with the answers…truthful answers.

Question 1 of 5/What share of the U.S. population was born in a different country?

The truth?  14 per cent.

That proportion is less than many might imagine, particularly given claims that the United States has already taken in too many foreigners.  The United States chooses to admit some of these immigrants on work, family, or other visas.

Question 2 of 5/What share of all immigrants to the United States entered the country illegally?

The truth?  Less than 25 per cent.

Many Americans believe the proportion is far higher.

Question 3 of 5/In 2022, around 11 per cent of the U.S.-born population were living in poverty.  What was this number for immigrants?

The truth?  Around 14 per cent.

Again, many Americans believe the proportion is far higher.

Question 4 of 5/In 2019, American-born citizens got an average of $8,000 per person in welfare and other entitlements.  What was the number for immigrants?

The truth?  Around a quarter less.

Same point.  Many Americans believe the proportion is higher.

Question 5 of 5/Close to 3 per cent of U.S.-born men under 40 are incarcerated.  What is this figure for foreign-born men living in the United States?

The truth?  Around 1 per cent.

Trump, of course, has argued that immigrants are predominantly criminals, contributing to rising crime in the United States.  Again, not true – but, then, truth doesn’t matter to Trump.

Now, for the Post’s conclusion.

“For sure, many Americans welcome immigrants as critical additions to the labor force who have helped boost economic growth and contain inflation, and as contributors to the nation’s rich cultural diversity.

“But many accept Trump’s tale of hordes of immigrants ‘destroying the blood of our country,’ bringing only poverty and crime.  Even those who do not subscribe to all of Trump’s blood-and-soil nationalism still hear reports of unprecedented numbers of migrants seeking asylum and worry about disorder.”

I highly value what the Post has done.  As the Bible would say, its writing “separates the wheat from the chaff.”

For me, two things are true:

• First, all of us in America are immigrants.  We or our forebears came from somewhere else to settle in America – and we always should remember our past, which has enabled our future.

• Second, the time is long past for elected officials to display the political courage to solve the illegal immigrant problem.  Those in office in Washington, D.C. – both in Congress and the Executive Administration — have been more interested in using immigrants as political pawns than they have in finding the smart middle ground.