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Some of the qualifications could be: [1] escape from
real and imminent threat of political execution; [2] living
under hostile conditions that directly affect one's ability
to peacefully live and earn a livelihood; [3] threat of
famine, pestilence and overwhelming natural disasters that
are likely to continue without abatement; [4] religious
persecution; [5] repression and persecution due to
ideological beliefs that are in opposition to the ruling
government.
In the current case of Hispanic migrants seeking
asylum in the US of A, it appears that they are fleeing dire
threats of death or injury due to governments that are
unable or unwilling to staunch the power of drug cartels or
corrupt governmental leadership.
Herr Trump has raised a false narrative that "these"
people are criminals awaiting their chance to pillage the
countryside and to rip off the goodies that the social
fabric provides to those of lesser means.
He knows that his base will howl to the moon and back if he
feeds them the tried and true red meat of brown-skinned
people selling tacos on your streets and speaking Spanish as
their primary language.
But how quickly America forgets. Remember back decades
ago when boatloads of Europeans, both north and south,
steamed towards fabled Ellis Island to begin the journey of
becoming "Americanized" and thus becoming a part of the
American fabric?
Remember the millions of Irish, Italians, Germans,
Poles, Eastern Europeans who flooded New York City with
their strange foods and heavy accents and foreign customs?
They were welcomed and eventually blended in with the
surrounding tapestry of what is now called America.
Their saving grace? They were white. Poor...but
white, some ignorant... but white, some unable to speak the
language...but white, some with no job skills...but white,
not with any American political party...but white, not
knowing American history...but white.
Can you imagine when the alleged first trespasser,
Christopher Columbus, came to the United States and had the
audacity and temerity to claim an occupied country for the
Queen of Spain!
Absolutely no regard or respect for its then-current
owners and occupants the native American Indian tribes.
But a craven Christopher Columbus simply disregarded
rules of territorial integrity and claimed the New World as
"his"! What racial arrogance. But for the native American
Indian not putting up a spirited defense against this
trespasser, history would have had a different outcome than
what it now has.
I had the opportunity to sit down with two native
American Indian chiefs, Deer Runner and Night Wolf, and
asked them about how they lost so much land to migrants and
trespassers back in the 17th and 18th century.
Me: Tell me, what were the pivotal facts that caused the
native American
Indian to lose so much of his land and wind up on
reservations?
Chief Night Wolf: We were willing to share our land and
resources with the foreigner but when he discovered gold on
our land and timber land that stretched as far as the eye
could see, he wanted it all.
Chief Deer Runner: Every treaty that we signed with the
foreign government was violated and our people shuttled off
to reservations that had no value to us. We were killed by
the hundred of thousands when we resisted and suffered from
European diseases from which we had no immunity.
Me: Have you ever been fully compensated for your losses by
the any government that sits or sat in Washington, D.C.?
Chief Night Runner: Never! We were promised money and
fertile land and water rights but we were always shorted and
when we complained we were placed on still more
reservations.
Chief Deer Runner: Your Hollywood movies always show us as
renegades and evil people but that is a false story line
used to reinforce the image of us as savages. From the east
coast to the west coast, we were hundreds of tribes and we
had all of the resources necessary to maintain our way of
life but the foreign invaders never honored our people or
their ways and corrupted us with lies and theft of our
lands.
Me: Looking back, what should have been done to prevent the
near genocide of your people and the taking of your lands
and resources?
Chief Deer Runner: We should have formed a confederacy and
met the invaders at our borders and turned them away since
they came with evil intents and we should have only allowed
in those who were peaceful.
Chief Night Wolf: Could you imagine native American Indians
setting up
check points along the east coast to regulate those
Europeans coming to our lands! They are the trespassers on
our land but yet they act as if by their gun power they have
full rights to rule and reign over us...in our land!
White Americans love to say that they are a nation of
immigrants but when those immigrants are brown or black
people, they are then called invaders!
To date, the trillion of dollars that we have lost as
indigenous tribes will never be repaid. America owes us but
to them, might makes right so we will never be repaid for
that land theft and the outright murder of so many of our
peoples.
Contact Lafe Tolliver at
tolliver@juno.com
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