ceiling on admission, promising no more than 50,000nadditional immigrants as a consequence.nWhat should come first is not the interest of the alien orneven of US businesses, but the interest of the historicalnpopulation of the country. Family members must, as Lammnand Imhoff among others insist, be included under ancomprehensive total. We should continue, as Jeffersonnwished, to open our doors to talented emigrants not becausenthey will make money for IBM, but because bright and ablenpeople are a precious and scarce commodity. More fruitpickersnwe do not need. Cut off the welfare payments andnwe shall be surprised at how many agricultural workers arenliving right now in Chicago and New York. The mostnpressing need, however, is the reestablishment of nationalnquotas. These need not be based on the formulas of then1920’s, but nonetheless should give first priority to thenpopulation base of the nation.nOne doesn’t wish to be unkind, but cultural pluralism isnnot the most attractive legacy we can leave to our children.nAs a nation, we have barely survived the existence of twonseparate populations, black and white, and we have a longnway to go in working out better relations between those twongroups. What shall we do when the whole of Americanbecomes a multiracial Alexandria? As the Romans realized,ncitizenship implies certain very concrete rights and duties:nthe right to trade and make contracts, the obligation to servenin the army, the right to intermarry. While it is true thatnthere are no laws restricting marriage between the races,nsuch unions are very uncommon. According to censusnfigures, less than two percent of existing marriages are ofnmixed race, and even projecting a modest rate of increasenover the next few decades, it is highly unlikely that we shallnrealize anything approaching a homogeneous population innthe near future.nThe problem, if it is a problem, is not simply one morencase of white intolerance. The pressures against mixed racendating and marriage are every bit as strong in the black andnOriental communities. This is not a question oi ought, but ancase of is, and the result will be a nation no longer stratifiednsimply by class but by race as well. Europeans and Orientalsnwill compete, as groups, for the top positions, while thenother groups will nurse their resentment on the weeklynwelfare checks they receive from the other half Perhapsnsuch an arrangement can be worked out, but whatevernemerges will not be a nation, certainly not the United States.nThe situation is quite as serious as even the mostnfrightened alarmists have suggested, but we cannot beginneven to speak seriously about changes in the law until we arenwilling to violate the code of silence that the left hasnimposed upon the topic. There is a pressing need for plainnspeech and open discussion in which those who happen tonagree with the overwhelming majority of Americansnthroughout our history are not stigmatized as xenophobesnand racists. If the notion of aliens’ rights really takes hold, wenare in danger of losing the entire concept of Americanncitizenship. Above all, we have to quit lying to ourselvesnabout who we are and what we face. If sober and sensiblenpeople cannot solve the immigration problem through annorderly process of debate and legislation, then there arengenuine crazies out there only waiting for the chance to usensuch an issue as a springboard to power. <^nnnThe Woodpile Skullnby X.J. KennedynNot one now to mock your ownngrinning? quite chop-fallen?nThat log I took for one more log to stacknSpills from my arms and, sprawling on its back,nDrops from its splintered face an ant’s death’s-head.nJaws pincered round a crumb of hardwood bread.nI weigh it on one fingertip—in shock.nHave to sit down upon my chopping block.nTo think: a neck so slight could so hold steadynAn oak trunk till its final throes got ready.nHow did my chainsaw know enough to bitenWith such precision? Tumbrils in the nightnCould not have trundled to a guillotinenA marquis for a severing more clean.nI doubt he’d meant so faithfully to stand—nHe hadn’t heard his regiment disband.nFate fell on him as on some primitivenWho feels beneath his feet the tundra givenOnto a tar pit and, before he wists.nWakes to the spades of archeologists.nThis dying, while a country mile from great,nLeads one to think a bit less well of FatenFor feigning such remote indifferencenWhile handing down malicious accidents.nI wouldn’t put it past Their EnmitiesnTo thin us out as winter winnows treesnWith callous unpremeditated blowsnAnd bask in comfort from our overthrows.nWind wedges through my woodpile. But this chillnClimbs from a new sense: I can blindly killnAnd can be killed. Bemused and metaphoric,nI stand, ham Hamlet to a formic Yorick.nMARCH 1989/11n