This entire nation should hold its head in shame and embarrassment over the outrageous, ugly, prejudicial display of behavior by so called “good Americans”, many of them probably quite devout Christians, who blocked buses in Murietta, California, which were carrying Central American children and women refugees to a Border Patrol facility to deal with the growing migration crisis into America’s borders.
These women and children, some as young as infants, are escaping bloodshed and violence in Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua, not trying to undermine US security, but seeing America as their last hope for survival!
We have an ugly history of nativism, of anti immigrant bigotry, throughout our history, but that does not excuse this kind of behavior in a humanitarian crisis as this one is! Carrying the American flag and shouting “USA, USA” is something that makes one want to vomit, as this is not patriotism, but rather pure hate and poison by people who seem unwilling to recognize that this experience will scar the lives of those children, something these bigots would not wish to be visited upon their own children!
America has become a nation with a hardhearted manner, due to the viciousness of the right wing talk show hosts, and the Tea Party Movement in Congress and the states, and nothing is beyond the pale to these hateful, sick elements in our society!
We must not allow such hate to consume us any further, and this is not freedom of speech or assembly, and future such demonstrations must be cracked down upon by police and the Border Patrol.
It is most ironic that these despicable people are sure to be ignorant of the fact that their town is named after an Hispanic land owner, and that the land they call “their own”, was stolen from Native Americans, and then controlled by Mexico, until the US went to war in an aggressive manner in the Mexican War of 1846-1848, and took the land away from our southern neighbor. If anything, we, as a nation, are the true “intruders”, not people from Central America trying to save their lives and those of their children!
Hello Professor,
I too did my Independence Day subject posting on this subject.
The Shame Of Murietta, California
https://mindsandtimes.wordpress.com/2014/07/03/the-shame-in-murietta-california/
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.â€
Citizens of this country use to hold up with pride these words that were emblematical of our values as a nation.
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July 1, 2014 when I saw the news footage of the “foaming at the mouth” lunatic hordes of people brandishing their venomous insults towards the Border Patrol’s buses filled with Central America’s growing migration crisis of women with their children refugees, my heart was saddened at the loss of compassion for others that has become so prevalent today in this country by the Extreme Reactionary Conservatives.
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“The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!â€
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I cannot help but think other poor Italian mother who had to send her child, particularly her male child, to this country for a better life. One that could provide the hope for employment to combat starvation, to put a roof over their heads, and with the hope of a safe life to build a family around.
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A hard, and heart tearing decision to send off her child to another country from that of her birth, but the only survival choice, and prevention from being absorbed into the corrupt, criminal Mafia that was so prevalent for the poor in Italy at the turn of the 20th century.
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I thought of the Irish who were starving in the land of their birth when a wealth of food was being shipped out to England by the controlling wealthy 1% in Ireland at that time.
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In a single day on the 15th of September, 1847, at the height of the famine, the following goods were shipped out of Cork Harbor for England:
186 bags of flour
286 barrels of barley
334 barrels of wheat
96 casks of ham
486 boxes of eggs
219 head of cattle
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“Eighteen forty seven,
Was the year it all began,
Deadly Pains of hunger,
Drove a million from the land,
They journeyed not for glory,
Their motive wasn’t greed,
Just a voyage of survival,
Across the stormy sea.”
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I thought of those of Jewish descent for centuries who had to flee from countries such as Russia and Germany to keep from being exterminated by the ignorance of others in those countries simply for the beliefs of their faith.
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This country was built and prospered from the many waves of immigrants over the years looking for a better life not only for themselves, but more importantly for their children. That is a pretty good motivation to succeed in a person’s adoptive country. The real plus benefit for our nation is this indisputable truism. “Sometimes from humble beginnings, greatness can bloom”.
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Immigration has always been the fresh blood transfusion to keep our country growing and aided toward its progressive development. It is this diversity that makes us, The United States, great.
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So I will close with sadness for how far many in this country clamming to be “good Americans simply trying to take back their country†hollow, bull shit verbiage, but while tomorrow as we celebrate our proclamation to the world on July 4, 1776, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happinessâ€.
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I give this last example of the ignorance, the intolerance to their fellow man, and claiming Christian Values, when their actions are anything but. To the “Tea Party, Ultra-Conservative, Whipped Up Nut Jobs,†I say; “You are not the answer, you are the problemâ€. I hope your hatred will be short lived for the sake of the United States of America.
Wow, Engineer, you expressed yourself in words better than my entry, and I applaud you for that! It brought tears to my eyes, but what you wrote is SO TRUE! Thanks again for your regular contributions and your friendship!