Monday, October 10, 2011

Columbus Day

Certainly nothing to celebrate -- but it might be a time for reflection . . .
Who are the illegal immigrants anyway?

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19 comments:

Ms. A said...

I've often thought the same thing.

Reader Wil said...

I know an Amergican minister who works with illigal immigrants. Some of them are really inmortal danger. It's a difficult job to find out what the matter is with these people.
In my country many of these illegal immigrants are Christians who are threatened to be killed in their own country, or women who will be killed by their family because they don't want the man their family have chosen for them.. After a long time they can get a permit to stay. Many others are just looking for better and richer liives.
Anyway it's annoying.

Martin said...

I love the message on the Columbus card. It could equally apply to the Brits, much to my shame.

Sam Hoffer / My Carolina Kitchen said...

You've given us a lot to think about and reflect upon Vicki.

When we lived in the Bahamas, we knew a lot of illegal immigrants who had fled from Haiti and they lived in constant fear of being rounded up and sent home, no notice, no warning, just gone. Makes us count our blessings when we think of the plight of others.
Sam

Brian Miller said...

haha in one sentence you set the world on its head...who are they....we all came from somewhere...except those that were here when we got here...

Barbara Rogers said...

May your day be full of joy and your friends offer you plenty of love. Thank you for understanding Indigenous people's feelings about Western European invaders having re-written history, which they continue to do as "Americans." However, as history is always written by the victors, it has always been so.

Elora said...

The irony is that all but the 1% are now slaves...

Elora

R. Burnett Baker said...

I could go off on a rant about this, but it wouldn't be the feel-good-apologist's screed of how evil we all are for being here. Throughout the history of the world this planet has been ripe for the taking and will always be. The grape vines along my back yard take over and cling to every twig, leaf, and fence post they encounter. Though I pull them away and try to prevent them from taking over the entire yard I'll still happily drink the grapes' wine.

Yes Columbus Day is yet another made up holiday created mostly for the benefit of retailers. But for all the posturing about how horrible and evil Chris was, I don't hear anyone standing before the TV cameras and proclaiming to the world that they are going to give up their jobs, livelihoods, houses, and possessions to go back from whence they came and paint each other blue in the caves.

If we all really think that the so-called discovery of the "new world" was such a travesty, then let's start a protest, do what I described above and go "occupy, um, um, I dunno, occupy Wall Street! Yeah, that's the ticket!" Then leave it all to the native Americans or whoever, and disappear.

We are fortunate to be where we are at this stage of our lives, and in this country, warts and all. ALL countries have been founded upon the blood and bones of conquerors. It is an unfortunate part of the human condition.

What we choose to do to try and eradicate that part of human nature is what ultimately matters.

For me, I'll go to work today, serve the shoppers who cannot use their imaginations to do anything but buy things they don't need with money they don't have, and remember that I am fortunate to be living, striving, and FREELY offering myself to the larger world, for whatever that may be worth.

Thank you Chris. ( or Lief, or Han, whoever may have been here first!)

Rick

Vicki Lane said...

You make some good points, Rick. No, none of us want to go back to wherever it was our ancestors came from. And certainly the native tribes that were here often displaced each other. Mankind has long operated on the MIGHT MAKES RIGHT principal.

But when I hear folks up in arms about 'illegal immigrants' - many of whom are from Mexico and are of indigenous heritage -- it does seem ironic. . .

Stella Jones said...

There shouldn't really be any boundaries on this earth. None of it belongs to people anyway, if you were to ask me.
However, my son can't get a job because there are too many immigrants, legal or otherwise in this country and that makes me sad.

Thérèse said...

Not a bad idea! I wish we could all learn how to share more of the same thing based on communication and education.

Desiree said...

Thoroughly enjoyed reading both your and Rick's comments, Vicki. It's all a matter of perspective, isn't it?

NCmountainwoman said...

We have seen the illegal alien and he is us.

Victoria said...

Great post, Vicki!

BB said...

Great thought!

June said...

Ebb and flow, conquered and conqueror...
Everybody's from somewhere else. If you go back far enough, didn't the Indians come to this continent from Asia?
I do like the e-card, though. I know some homes I'd like to occupy. Do you think the former owners would still pay for the heat?

Wayfarin' Stranger said...

"Illegal Immigrant" seems to be code for "Mexican" these days. But, those who make it to the U.S. appear to be hard-working people striving to get ahead. Meanwhile we have NAFTA which seeks to import goods from Mexico tariff-free, while Mexican workers are paid a small fraction of what their labor would yield in the U.S. Let's stop being hypocritical. If we are going to have treaties such as NAFTA, then let's open the borders to free immigration in both directions. Let's not have a 21st century version of British mercantilism. We know how that worked out for Britain. Jim

Vicki Lane said...

I read an article this morning saying that tomato crops in Alabama were rotting for want of people to pick them. The immigrant labor that normally does the work has fled, due to the harsh new immigration laws. And 'real Americans' don't choose to do the hard work for low pay. An interesting dilemma.

Vagabonde said...

I bought a tee-shirt in an Indian Reservation once – it showed Columbus and his troop and it said “Columbus did not discover America, he invaded it.”

I just came back from 10 days in New York. I read an article that there are many illegal immigrants there, and they are not Latinos. Many are Irish nurses who come on a tourist visa and get good wages as nurses here, also many Russians and a host of others. But nobody bothers them because they are not “Latinos.” I went by the park of the Occupy Wall Street group – they had interesting signs. They are mostly against the inequalities in this country. I saw some comments on them on another blog – comments from Southern women saying that these protesters were people trying to destroy the US who should leave the country, and young students who did not want to work but get paid by the government. It is interesting to see the reaction of the uber conservatives.

You had some great pictures – I loved the birds eating the berries.

I was surprised by your cartoon as I did not know corporations had been whining for so many years while pocketing most of the US money…, and then the gullible don’t want to tax them even one more dollar while there are more homeless people here than in most European countries….