And Crown Thy Good With Brotherhood

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I come from a long line of illegal immigrants. When my family arrived here they acquired land illegally and built their lives. They had many children who took part in all this new land had to offer. Today we are spread out all over this great country and have never received “official” documentation that we are legal citizens of this country.

Shocking? Not really because when my family came to this country they never met any Native Americans and therefore never received permission to reside here. Other European illegal immigrants told my family what to do and where they could get property and gave them documents proving their right to be here, documents not obtained from Native Americans, and off they went.

Native Americans fought vigorously to stop all of the illegal immigrants but they were unsuccessful. Why? Because the desire to escape oppressive governments back in the “old country” was strong and my family was tired of being fearful and starving and afraid all the time so they came here and took what they wanted and lived lives and developed strong healthy families. That’s what immigrants do. Legal or otherwise.

The Native Americans didn’t want them. They knew they had delicate resources, just enough to sustain the many scattered tribes across the land and the encroaching mostly Europeans were soon depleting valuable reserves of buffalo and land required to keep ancient tribes thriving. Some illegal immigrants brought disease and weapons and crime. The Native Americans lost the battle of ownership. Oh, along the way my early relatives picked up a few slaves to manage and enrich the growth of their lives here. But don't worry. They weren’t illegal aliens. They were property.

My family did well. We did indeed cultivate property and families and friendships and lives here. My family still owns the original homestead from before the Revolution which is the purpose of this joyous weekend---we won! All of this was taken from the Native Americans and on the backs of slaves my family owned. Their lives in their native European lands were horrible and they felt they had no choice. They were uneducated and miserable and came here with their pitiful belongings and began lives. They denied themselves the knowledge that they did this while displacing the original inhabitants and by utilizing the horror of slavery. The desire to make a decent life for a family is strong. My ancestors did all they could to never be hungry again, for their children to never be hungry again, and for generations of their family to live well in America.

There were Native American wars and death and destruction to retain our homes. There were slave revolts and eventually the slaves received their freedom but at a great price to all. Slaves starved for years and years after the Civil War and suffered and lost children and roamed the country trying to find homes of their own but all too many found nothing but hateful people who didn’t want to share any piece of this country with anyone. Especially slaves and Native Americans.

The Mexicans living in the west suffered the same fate of the Native Americans and were displaced and sent packing further south into Mexico even though much of the west belonged to Mexico, i.e. Spain, and they had shared it with Native Americans for centuries. But the European illegal immigrants were powerful and strong and there were too many to fight. Some of the Mexicans continue to return to their native lands even today but they are driven back by border guards who are themselves illegal immigrants from way back in the history of our country.

And so today the descendants of these tough Europeans feel as the Native Americans did. They fear the new illegal immigrants and don’t want them to take the resources away from them, the same resources we stole from the Native Americans and Mexicans way back then. The slave descendants are still fighting the battle to belong as full members of our society. How long is that going to take? 

If I lived in Mexico I’d be crawling here on my hands and knees every day to hop the fence on the border. Every time I was caught I’d come back. That’s because I come from tough illegal immigrant stock. The power of freedom and a better life is strong. Maybe like my ancestors I’d let nothing stop me and I’d form alliances with bad people in an effort to stay here no matter what and raise a family and acquire land. It’s the human way. We fight hard to have a better life.

For every illegal immigrant who climbs the border fence or goes through the scary tunnels by the Rio Grande there’s a story. A sad story of poverty and despair and fear. Fear every single day of their lives. No one cares about them or helps them. Not their new country nor their home country. Everyone hates them. Everyone wants them sent back on the next bus---with a sandwich and a bottle of water. The official deportation menu.

They are oppressed and starving. Just like the folks in Afghanistan, Iraq, and other parts of the world where we are providing assistance at a great cost. When Afghanistan explodes, and it will, the flood gates will open and we will have those immigrants, legal and illegal, flocking to our shores for protection. And we will take them and protect them and house them and educate them and care for them because we always do---unless they come from Mexico.

I’ve had the good fortune to know lots of people originally from Mexico because my family has been in California for a long time. I do not know any Mexican gang members or criminals in the same way that I don’t know any Mafia members amongst my Italian friends or any other criminal types from any other group in my wide selection of friends from all over the world. I just know ordinary people living ordinary lives and trying to manage families as peacefully as possible.

Criminals and terrorists from all countries will always be able to get into our country or any country they desire to be in because they have money, resources, and sometimes pay off officials to help them on both sides of the borders. We can’t keep them out. Tough legislation to keep illegal immigrants out is laughable to them. They don’t give a fig about our laws. Our tougher laws keep out people who are desperate for better lives.

I do know a lot of perverts and criminals in Congress but there are also many moral and honest people running our country. Should we just toss the entire lot? Maybe we should just take all of Congress and put them on buses and planes with sandwiches and bottles of water and send them all back to their familial countries of origin. That would make room for the decent people slipping over fences to pick grapes.

Who would you rather live next door to? A migrant field worker who works in the fields all day or Anthony Weiner? Excuse me for a minute. I'm going to go make his sandwich. I think I have some bottled water in the garage. 

O beautiful for spacious skies, 
For amber waves of grain, 
For purple mountain majesties 
Above the fruited plain! 
America! America! 
God shed his grace on thee 
And crown thy good with brotherhood 
From sea to shining sea! 

--Katherine Lee Bates

 www.sharonstrawhandgarner.com

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