Posted: Apr 26, 2008, 2:45 AM CST
highplains wrote:Ya'll mean...that everyone that comes here and "squats"....we should just ship 'em all home....back where they came from.....
hmmm...being an American Indian...that sounds like a damn fair deal to me......
I mean...after all....let's take a look at Thanksgiving....there's one meal we shoulda never picked up the tab on.......LOL
This is a very good point and not at all irrelevant because it is an historical point. People 'born' in America seem to see being a citizen as a deserved right rather than as a gift and a responsibility. Living around the the world and traveling has made me appreciate my luck in being born American, it also helps me see America in a less provincial light. Actually refusing to lean another language because it is the language of immigrants? Sad. Really sorrowful.
Europeans took over the North American continent without any consideration for the indigenous population--yes it happened a long time ago, but it went on for hundreds of years and the negative attitude toward Native Americans, whose cultures the Europeans destroyed, continues to this day. It is more true of America than almost any other country that we are a nation of immigrants, yet those who are 'born' here seem to forget their parents, grandparents, etc. were those very immigrants, many of whom were 'illegal.' If you look at the accomplishments of Americans, many of the most important have come from immigrants not born in America or first or second generation Americans.
It may be that so many Americans do not have a broad vision because they don't travel. Traveling, not just tourism but spending real time in other cultures, leads to a broader understanding. It also shows that other countries are also not welcoming to foreigners. Many Germans are wishing the Turks would just go home, though many of them were born here too. That doesn't mean it is okay to think that way. In fact, Americans, of all people, should be more understanding about immigration, not less understanding.
It really is sickening to hear all this moaning and groaning and whining about how immigration i(legal or illegal) is ruining the country when, in fact, it is immigration, both legal and illegal, that built this country. The American economy is currently in recession, but this is due to the current policies of the current administration, not to immigration issues. Short term memory, narrow and limited vision, this is what I see in many of the comments here.
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