Jackson Free Press

Nothing brings out the stupid people like immigration. Check out this rambling missive Amerika from "United Patriots of America."

Some highlights: "American has always been a land of legal immigrants. ..."

So the Puritans were "legal immigrants"? How does that make sense?

"Many illegal immigrants want to ... take over American territory, which they claim we took from in the first place."

I have never heard any illegal immigrant say he wants to take over American territory, but it is not a "claim" that we took territory from Mexico. We call that a fact. At the end of the Mexican-American War, the U.S. took California, Texas (sort of), California, Nevada, Utah, and parts of Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico and Wyoming. We did pay them for it, though not market value then or now. Such is war. Nevertheless, it is indisputable that most of the western U.S. was once part of Mexico.

"The wealth of the U.S. was not expropriated from the other nations of the world, but created by daring entrepreneurs who took great risks to earn it."

Oh, those heroic entrepreneurs. How many entrepreneurs have heroically lost their lives while mounting an awning for a sandwich shop? American heroes, every one! Of course, the real howler here is the idea that American has not expropriated wealth from other parts of the world. How about the Phillipines, Hawaii, Cuba, Central America and Mexico? Yes, Mexico.

"America has been invaded by citizens of a foreign nation whose purpose is no less than to take over the U.S."

I think we can all agree that Amerika needs lebensraum and that illegal immigrants are a virus sickening the volk.

Finally, if the picture of a Mexico flag flying over an inverted American flag makes you "raging mad," you're an American. Also, if it doesn't make you mad, you're an American. No one can argue with that.

Has America lost the snobbiness that made us great? Have we begun to pay attention to America's underbelly, such that we obsess over what our gardeners and maids do with flags? Have we become so weak, so corrupt, that we can only gossip over our servants? Stand up for America. Ignore illegal immigration now!

Previous Comments

ID

172334

Comment

Check out the crazies, folks.

Author

Brian C Johnson

Date

2006-05-10T16:08:40-06:00

ID

172335

Comment

Scary people. Here are some other links: From my site: - Prominent Anti-Immigrant Leader Recruits Neo-Nazis to Beat, Rob, Intimidate Immigrants From the Southern Poverty Law Center: - Immigration Watch (regularly updated) - The Nativists - Nativism on Air My friend Bill Chandler of the Mississippi Immigrants Rights Alliance rightly characterizes many of these people as racists; if anything, he's being generous. There are legitimate reasons to support stricter immigration policy, but they're not very sexy reasons, and the movement would be nowhere without its racist and xenophobic undertones. Bush and the bipartisan Senate are basically the good guys in all this--Bush recently saying that mass deportation is not an option, and that undocumented immigrants are "decent human beings"--but the House is so chock-full of pandering xenophobes for whom the debate is only a tension between "We don't need to upset the ethnic balance (wink wink) of our country" versus "They're doing jobs 'other Americans' (wink wink) aren't willing to do," I'm concerned that the national debate over immigration reform won't take us anywhere we really want to go. Cheers, TH

Author

Tom Head

Date

2006-05-10T16:30:23-06:00

ID

172336

Comment

As for the "land of legal immigrants" idiocy, here's my introduction to my list of the top 10 immigrants' rights blogs: The United States was founded by a group of well-armed European illegal immigrants, whose descendants maintained racist immigration policies--designed to keep free non-whites out of the country--for nearly two centuries. Now, rational appeals to the rule of law mix freely with rhetoric that speaks of a need to prevent "Balkanization" (or, as we used to call it, ethnic diversity). Will our leaders pander to nativists, or choose a more humane course of action? Cheers, TH

Author

Tom Head

Date

2006-05-10T17:10:10-06:00

ID

172337

Comment

I think the more important question would be... Does homicidal rage make me a good American?

Author

Lori G

Date

2006-05-16T17:08:03-06:00

ID

172338

Comment

As much as it pains me to point this out, Tom, America was founded by European Settlers. Calling them "illegal immigrants" when there isn't a law for or against, or even a nation to immigrate to, is silly.

Author

Ironghost

Date

2006-09-27T22:44:33-06:00

ID

172339

Comment

Actually, there were lots of nations in the United States at the time, and they had the same right to sovereignty that we do today. I guess that's where the phrase "well-armed" came in. Cheers, TH

Author

Tom Head

Date

2006-09-28T00:59:37-06:00

ID

172340

Comment

Well, we certainly can't leave. :) What's our other option, one that doesn't involve another layer of White Guilt. I'm still not buying it from the Civil War debates, Part XCIII.

Author

Ironghost

Date

2006-09-28T07:52:25-06:00

ID

172341

Comment

Do not take this as excuse-making, but... 1600 years ago, a few Germanic tribes took territory away from Celtic Britons to create the petty kingdoms which would eventually coalesce into England. 600 years before that, THEIR ancestors in Denmark drove Celts from what is now northern Germany and The Netherlands. About 2000 years ago, a group of people from Northeastern Siberia took territory away from the Ainu, and created Japan as we know it today. About 3000 years ago, a group of central Asian nomads pushed the Dravidians out of what is now Pakistan, Northern India, and Bangladesh. And all during this time, tribes from Western African pushed eastward, then southward and drove the Khoisian peoples away. Today, they mainly inhabit a few barren areas of South Africa, and maybe Namibia too. Wouldn't it be a lot simpler to just agree that our ancestors, regardless of ethnicity, treated others in rotten manners, then make conscious and deliberate efforts to open our hearts to one another? Should that be so different for spirtual/religious/humanist (fill in the appropriate blank here) to accomplish?

Author

Philip

Date

2006-09-28T09:07:30-06:00

ID

172342

Comment

Yeah, it's been real violent the last few years, Philip. I don't think anyone is arguing that we all need to pack up and head home--at least, not anyone posting here. The point is that it's ugly to say that this is "our" land as if it was given to us by divine edict. I mean, I know the European invaders (my folks) thought they had a divine edict, but I hope we can all agree that this was self-serving and utterly unconvincing. God told me to kill you! just doesn't cut it as a justification for me. That aside, we are a nation of immigrants. The Mexicans are no better nor any worse than previous immigrants. I think we really betray our heritage when we try to slam the door on the next Americans. Of course, fear of immigrants is a part of our heritage too, but it always turns out to be overblown. They said the same sort of crap about my German ancestors 130 years ago that they're saying about Mexicans now. It was bull shit then and it's bull shit now.

Author

Brian C Johnson

Date

2006-09-28T16:03:59-06:00