To an already over-populated world undoubtedly harming its environment and contributing to climate change, the thought of adding more people to a global population of seven billion is not a subject easily dismissed nor left blithely unconsidered.  Yet, the arms race of the previous century has been displaced by an undeclared demographic war among nations, and America cannot but continue to grow its own population.

The populations of other nations are soaring into the hundreds of millions more than the United States, and in today’s world, no nation can afford unilaterally to disarm itself demographically.  Without its HispanicLatino population, America would have signed a silent surrender years ago.  Through the sheer size of their populations and with only marginal increases in production, other nations are reapportioning the world’s economic power and adding to America’s economic misery.

Denying the need for a nation to replace and grow its population is to refuse to engage in reality.  Every able-bodied person is important to the United States.  The new demography will give nations like China, with six cities already larger than New York City, the opportunity to claim to be the most exceptional nation of all – as some Chinese already do.  China already has 160 cities of more than one million inhabitants; the United States has ten.

Until the nations of the world as a group decide to stem their individual population growth, the unbounded rules of demography will generate a hopelessly lopsided world in which America ends up as a second-tier nation.  While small nations throughout history at times have created and exercised disproportionate power and influence over vast portions of the world, the weight of demography eventually bears down on reality.  Over time, the smaller a nation’s population, the smaller its eventual standing among the nations of the world.

The promise of America is that it is still growing – but it must not fail to harness its growth so that even as a medium-sized nation in the years ahead it can remain and continue to lead.  As the United States grew through its history, it continued to add stars to its flag as new states joined the Union.  America has a new demographic star that formed when the HispanicLatino population began to grow.

The key to America’s future is making sure that HispanicLatinos grow stronger within each state, including such places as Arizona, Alabama, South Carolina and the rest of the states whose leaders are intent on suppressing the greatest source of America’s continuance as a nation – a nation that regrettably and ill-advisedly is now engaged in wide-scale deportations.

In hard economic times, the demographic story of America – its immigrant story – is always difficult for Americans to accept.  They cannot see how taking away the drivers’ license of an undocumented worker takes away a part of America’s future.  The immense challenge for America is to set aside its notions, prejudices, fears and delusions and instead understand the true nature and promise of HispanicLatinos.  More than filling the void Anglos are creating, HispanicLatinos – both citizens and those illegally living and working in the country – represent the strength of a new nation that yet might be.

The popularly-held notion that the accelerating transformation of the population of the United States is from immigration is only a half-truth that only partially explains why the country is entering a new chapter in its history.  As important is how the low birth rates of the Anglo population and their higher death rates compound the problem.  As people die, they must be replaced by new births. HispanicLatinos are replacing theirs, and other groups are not.  The African American population, whose very existence framed so much of the country’s history, is facing the same conundrum.

It is not necessary for HispanicLatinos to be able to recite precisely and accurately the exploding numbers of the size of their population.  More important is for them to appreciate fully the underpinnings of the population dynamics remaking the country.

Like Michelangelo gazing upon a block of marble and imagining the statue within, HispanicLatinos must envision their own new creation.

Feel free to forward these blogs adapted from previous writings, with additional thoughts published invariably in between.