The Tragic Truth About Immigration in the USA

Let’s start with the fact that unless you are from South America or are Native American your family at some point in history immigrated to the United States of America or was brought here by force. Many people came over in ships from Europe before it was even a country. At which point there was no legal work to come to this continent. Millions of Native Americans were killed by these first immigrants. 

One of the first horrors was the killing of Native American to make way for the new immigrants. The children of Native Americans were taken away and placed in boarding schools. Their entire identity was destroyed. Everything was taken from those children. Their parents, their culture, their language, and their place on this continent. Still we cannot begin to understand why their descendant are so dysfunctional in modern European based society. 

Next came the African slaves. Again the European culture ripped children from the arms of mothers to sell them off like livestock. Again their language, culture, and sense of place was destroyed by the European culture. And yet again we wonder why the descendant of these people are so dysfunctional in modern European based society. And yes we still put their descendant in cages and create laws to make it legal. 

Next came the Japanese. Once again these individuals were treated as slaves. They were worked hard to build the rail system that would connect our country. They were mistreated just like all the others before them. They were put in camps during World War II out of fear that they might turn on the dominant European culture. Again we wonder why the descendant choose to stay in areas where they do not interact with the modern dominant European based society. 

Lastly came the Spanish from South America. We destroyed their government to make sure that our idea of the correct form of government controlled it. We forced their countries into chaos. We developed a need for drugs and bought those from the South American countries encouraging the growth of gangs that murder, rape, and enslave the local population. When they flee to our borders we put them in cages and take away their children. Promising them they will never see them again as we did many of the other cultures. 

We have built this country on the backs of many different cultures. With each generation we have abused those individual for our own benefit. Some of them like many of my ancestors have learned that the only way to survive is to integrate and hide their children within the modern dominant European based society. Often teaching those very same children to hate anyone that does not look European. Others hate and despise that dominant culture and develop small areas that recreate the culture their ancestors came from in the first place.

This is the "Great America" that everyone in the white dominant European based society so desperately wants to defend and continue. They don’t want to know that their DNA often carries the blood of the people this country has stepped on to build the greatest nation in the world. None of us from this country have any moral high ground to stand on.  The best we can do is resolve that this type of treatment will never happen again. Never again means more than just not building camps to put a disadvantages culture in to keep them under the control of the dominant European based society. It means welcoming immigrants and helping them to build a better life for them and their families. Fear of other immigrants cannot rule our country. We are all at least part immigrant in our DNA.      

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Yesterday Secretary of State John Kerry was in the Middle East trying to bring peace to the region. I have friends who are both Jewish and Palestinian. Each wants me to side with their views of this hateful event. Each wants me to see the pictures of their dead children. Children on both sides are being killed.  War is always a horrible answer to a conflict.

The problems in this region of the world go back to a time before I was born. I understand some of those feelings because my family is Irish and as Irish-Americans we faced those same issues of what the Irish call the troubles. It is a mild word for a long period of killing on both sides of the conflict. Parents and families would teach their children to hate the other side from birth. Children were told horror stories of how family members and friends of the family were murdered by the other side. What they did not tell their children was that some families intermarried with people from the other side. They also did not tell their children that hate would never stop the conflict. You cannot paint the other side of a conflict as demons and expect peace. How could anyone negotiate in good faith with a demon?

Real peace will come to Israel and Palestine, when people stop hating one another and start working together for peace over the objection of many of their own people. Ireland was able to achieve peace and so can the Middle East when men and women of vision understand that hate is not the answer that will lead to a peaceful world for their children.

We all say that we are against war when it comes to the United States but to truly be against war means to work for peace no matter where in the world conflict starts. I am hoping that John Kerry has success in his attempts to get the parties to stop shooting at each other. In the end it will be up to the leaders of Israel and Palestine to find a path to lasting peace. The first step will be to see that the other side is made up of people and not demons.