'BIRTHER BILL' UNWORTHY, RECKLESS LEGISLATION

By William Tong
February 8, 2011  The Hartford Courant

On May 2, 1973, two Chinese immigrants gave birth to a son in Hartford Hospital.

My parents were not U.S. citizens, but on that day I was born an American, the first of my family to know that privilege. I assume my original birth certificate exists somewhere, but it is precisely because I am an American that I have never bothered to look; no one has ever demanded to see my original "papers," and I have never lived under a cloak of suspicion or an authoritarian regime. And thanks to the unfathomable sacrifices of my parents and grandparents, I never will.

But recently, state Sen. Michael McLachlan, R-Danbury, introduced "An Act Concerning Qualifications to Appear as a Candidate for President or Vice-President on a Ballot in this State," or the so-called birther bill. This would demand that the president produce his "papers" when the fact of his citizenship has been proved beyond doubt.

Across the country, extremist legislators in other states have introduced similar birther bills to demand that a candidate for president produce his original birth certificate before the next campaign. Not to mention that some senators and congressmen in Washington want to deny citizenship to children who are now, as I was, born in the U.S. to parents who are not citizens. Connecticut it seems, is not immune.

The introduction of a bill is a legislator's right, just as it is the right of his constituents to elect him. But those with the right to introduce legislation in the General Assembly should bear some responsibility for raising bills worthy of it. The legislature is no mere repository for conspiracy theories and hate mongering. The institution of the legislature remains, at the very least, a monument to our common investment in one another, the figurative and literal brick and mortar that binds us. Our government must be an expression of who we are, and the mechanism by which we determine who we hope to be.

The birther bill, in contrast, is a reckless and seditious game of pandering to political extremes. What if the president were required to produce his original birth certificate in Connecticut? Would he not be required to do the same in the 49 other states? And would there be a 50-state spectacle of proofs and challenges, 50 separate and distinct ways to cast doubt on the duly elected president? To breed such baseless and unnecessary doubt as to the legitimacy of our president would do great violence to the republic and the security of our nation.

The birther movement is about much more than birth certificates. It is part of a troubling racial and cultural agenda. No one asked for original birth certificates from George W. Bush or William J. Clinton. But today, Barack Obama is president. Piyush Amrit Jindal is the governor of Louisiana, Nimrata Nikki Randhawa Haley is the governor of South Carolina and Marco Antonio Rubio is a U.S. senator from Florida. I, too, have had the chance to serve, as the first Asian American elected to the legislature. Each of us was born in the United States, each to at least one parent who was not a U.S. citizen. But if we were born today, some of our elected leaders would deny that we are even Americans, which is, for certain, all that I have ever been.

This month, I will celebrate the Chinese and lunar New Year and I will think of Joseph Pierce. Cpl. Pierce was a Chinese American raised in Berlin, Conn., one of as many as 50 Chinese Americans who fought in the Civil War. I wonder whether anyone asked him for his birth certificate before he took the field at Gettysburg.