I, Immigrant

[beamjockey]

On Tuesday, in El Paso, Texas, President Barack Obama gave a speech about immigration:

According to the transcript on the Wall Street Journal's site, Mr. Obama said:

This flow of immigrants has helped make this country stronger and more prosperous. We can point to the genius of Einstein, the designs of I. M. Pei, the stories of Isaac Asimov, the entire industries that were forged by Andrew Carnegie.

Not to mention the empty libraries that Andrew Carnegie, with immense foresight, erected to hold the many, many books Isaac Asimov would write.

Anyway, it's nice to see a President dropping the name of one of science fiction's stars. It's almost as if SF had become respectable.

(-:

Comments

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Or Before the Golden Age, in which he talked a lot about his childhood in the introductory material to the stories he enjoyed at the time. (He also writes a vivid description of the Racism Fairy avant la lettre.)

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

...Several of his US paperback editions also had an "About the Author" passage obviously written by Asimov in which he mentioned his immigrant status somewhat flippantly.

[maiac.livejournal.com]

It gives me a thrill to see that President Obama mentioned Isaac Asimov.

[stephanieb.livejournal.com]

Well, Obama is a fellow geek. It wouldn't surprise me at all if he was well-versed in classic sf.

[serge-lj.livejournal.com]

After all, this is the man who once looked at his wife's dress and referred to its belt as having a dilithium buckle.

[hradzka.livejournal.com]

The way you know neither party is serious about immigration issues is that neither one has spared a moment's thought for people who jump through all the hoops required to immigrate to the United States legally. Lots of time, expense, and paperwork; we could make it a lot simpler and easier.

[anton-p-nym.livejournal.com]

one of us... one of us...

-- Steve's also reminded of how Paul Krugman was influenced by the Foundation series, though economics is a poor substitute for psychohistory.