America: the Mother of all Glass Houses

Proving, once again, that America is the mother of all glass houses when it comes to immigration and our national identity.

America is uniting for immigrants

Labor unions, women’s movements, muslims and more are marching together to stand with their immigrant friends and relatives to show support against an antagonistic President who has recently enacted an unjust travel ban, ended Michelle Obama’s “Let Girls Learn” program and has just begun a push to build his oppressive and highly un-neighborly Wall.

The president seems to be trying very hard to disassociate America from so many of the people that make up this country one has to imagine what country he thinks he is the president of.

And the people of this nation are rising up against his idea of what makes America Great.

If you look at the makeup of people who are uniting against him, one thing is going to be certain; making America great will mean getting a new president.

The battle for the 14th Amendment

For as long as our constitution has been around, certain members of our community and their hired guns in Washington have tried to change our immigration laws in an effort to “keep our country white.” The 14th amendment has been under attack since it’s inception during the civil war.

This infographic helps to demonstrate the effects on such an attack.

14th Amendment2

Is Obama like Lincoln?

Is Obama similar to Abe Lincoln?

lincoln-obama

If Obama comes out with an executive order to help a marginalized and highly oppressed portion of our society gain legal status to live in the US, then, yes, he will be.

On January 1, 1863 Abraham Lincoln issued an executive order to free Slaves in Confederate held lands. It did not free all the slaves.  This executive order was issued without Congress voting on it, and gave slaves the right to create their own destinies, free from the fear that they could be captured and returned to previous owners.

The people who wanted the white man to always have dominion over the inferior black man, were very hateful and vocal about their anger over this issue. So much so that Lincoln would later be killed by one such person.

This is very similar to what Obama will be introducing in the next few days. His executive order is expected to give some 5 million undocumented immigrants (not all of them) permission to live within our borders without fear of being captured and sent back to their former country.

Let us also not forget that Abe Lincoln was a Republican, which should make the loud, hateful Republicans pause, but of course, it does not. Anything that Barack Obama wants, these guys want the opposite–even if it’s in their own best interest. Their hate can  be read in every immigration article’s comment section online.

So let’s hope our  Conservative lawmakers and their supporters don’t get their panties in a bunch over what will inevitably be another step in our country’s racial evolution. History truly does repeat itself. This has already happened, and it is happening again.

Get over it.

Plan A- Equality

There has been a lot of talk about what needs to be in our upcoming immigration bill. I have been debating this issue for a couple of years now and see that a sixth imperative needs to be added in order for any new immigration legislation to be truly successful.

Equality.

Without Equality an immigrant will find this whole process less than fulfilling and almost certainly harmful.  If they are not 100% a part of our community, an immigrant will have no vested interest in helping us succeed. They could go back home at any time and compete against us, or otherwise help another country’s economy. With the recovery from the recent recession taking so long, we need all the help we can get right now getting our country back on track. We need more people creating jobs and providing affordable services.

Every US citizen needs to be equal in the eyes of the law and our government.

taxation_without_representationIf there is a sub-class of citizen who lives among us, works with us and pays their fair share of taxes, but who cannot vote or otherwise fully participate in their destiny, we will have failed to give all of our citizens equal access to the American Dream. If they can’t vote, they would be vulnerable to be treated like second class citizens by our government, police, and other institutions and groups of our society. If we have learned nothing else from our civil rights era, we should have at least learned this.

no_taxation_without_representation_mousepad-p144410742047262307envq7_400Taxation without representation was one of the precursors to our struggle for independence from England. If not being able to control our own destiny was a good enough reason to rebel against an oppressive government and seek our own self-determined solution, then why would we subjugate a portion of our society to suffer that same fate? This would be about as un-American an act as we could possibly inflict against a part of our society.

In order to appease the more conservative among us, if we accepted someone into our society and they committed some horrible act that warranted their expulsion, we should also have the right to revoke their citizenship and deport them, never allowing them to return. This should be the only difference between someone born on American soil, and someone adopted into our family. This would prevent them from becoming a disenfranchised part of our community, as well as protect us from someone who would do us great harm.

1115Q_CIVILhousing1_35p Equality should be the number one goal for all of our society. There are those among us today who are fighting for this very freedom and it should shame us to no end that we continue to allow this type of behavior to endure. A hundred years after the civil war gave slaves their freedom, African-Americans still had to fight for equality. Many still struggle today.

 

 

National_Association_Against_Woman_SuffrageAlmost a hundred years after women won the right to vote, they still fight to gain equal footing with men in many areas.  The rights for Gay men and women are being fought today and there is little sign that this will end any time soon. Dare we add another group of  Americans to this sad list of  persecuted and under-represented citizens?

What will it take for us to treat each other with dignity and respect, and become a truly civilized society?

Next week- Conclusion

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