Well, US have their own "Holocaust" history, as ugly, racial and unfair, as the German one. Almost all countries has such histories, that often are suppressed and the current "winners" banalize it. Even Sweden, Norway and Finland, have a very ugly past in their treatment and stealing from the indigenous population in the north.
We are however here and now, the only thing we can do is to try to be honest and realize the true history of the rightness of our forefathers, it is often an ugly and criminal one. It is also important that the agreements that was done in the spirit of "making things right" are kept. That it is, with time and negligence, a costly proposition, cannot be an excuse.
Hakan
At 10:53 22/05/2006, you wrote:
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/May06/Random19.htm
Misconceptions in the Immigration Debate
What Would Crazy Horse Do?
by Jack Random
We are not a nation of immigrants. We might have been. We nearly
exterminated the entire population of indigenous peoples but in the end
we failed. The natives are still here despite our determined drive to
genocide. The tribes are still identifiable despite our determined
campaign to scatter and destroy their languages, cultures and religious
beliefs.
We are not a nation of immigrants; we are a nation of conquerors. We are
a nation that seizes by force what we desire. We are a nation that has
never been content to share our discovered treasures. We did not steal
the land from Mexico; we stole the land from the Apache, Lakota,
Iroquois, Cherokee, Nez Perce, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Seminole, Blackfoot,
Ute, Paiute and countless other tribes that still exist. We joined
Mexico is stealing the land from those who did not wish to possess it
but merely to live on it in harmony.
We are not a nation of immigrants. We are a nation of natives and
ungrateful visitors.
We are not a nation of laws. We are a nation that bends laws to power.
We are a nation that chooses not to enforce laws when they conflict with
our designs or the all-powerful will of the international corporations
that control our government. We are a nation that breaks laws at will
and violates treaties and international agreements with willful abandon.
We are not a nation of laws. We are a nation of lawyers, accountants and
corporate boards of directors.
When the president explains that employers have not been prosecuted for
hiring illegal immigrants because the immigrants have mastered the art
of document fraud, he is putting forth another myth. Employers have not
been prosecuted because they are the president's constituents. They are
in fact sponsors of politicians in all border states. Anyone who
actually believes that the authorities will begin prosecuting employers
because legal immigrants have better identification cards has drunk from
the well of magical wonders. There may be selective prosecutions for
show and political retribution but that is all. Anyone who believes that
employers will stop hiring low-cost undocumented workers should let his
psychotropic prescription lapse.
We are not a nation of justice -- justice least of all. If we were a
nation of justice, we would honor our debts. We would make just
reparations to natives and African Americans who were compelled to
migrate as slaves. What the nation owes to the Lakota (1) and Cherokee
(2) alone amounts to more than what we will ultimately spend to destroy
the nations of Afghanistan and Iraq -- more even than our national debt,
a debt that is deeper than the skies over Bear Butte are wide.
We are not a nation of justice. We are a nation of exploitation. We have
conspired with corporate governments throughout the hemisphere to
exploit labor and extract resources. We have created a free trade zone
without factoring wages into the equation. Though it seems complex, it
is not that difficult to understand. It follows the fundamental laws of
supply, demand and profit taking. Corporations will seek all means of
maximizing profits, including cutting the cost of production. Jobs will
move to where the costs are least. Labor will move to where jobs pay
living wages. Wherever possible, good paying jobs will be replaced by
low paying jobs and no wall or barrier will prevent these laws from
being carried out. In the corporate mind, it is a cold calculation: cost
versus benefit.
It is easy to see why our politicians ignore the root cause of the
immigration problem: global trade policy. Republicans need a new
scapegoat to replace the gays and abortion activists that have served
them so well. Democrats cannot afford to alienate their corporate
sponsors.
What has happened to Mexico (a momentary beneficiary of job migration)
is happening now in America. Regardless of immigration reform in
whatever form it takes, we will continue to lose well-paid jobs and real
wages will continue to decline until we understand that the cause of our
misfortune resides with the corporate masters of a global economy and
their proxies in government. It will continue until we embrace our
fellow workers in all nations in unity and strength.
If we fail to revive organized labor on an international scale, the
bleeding will render us powerless. There are no walls that can prevent
our demise. We have allowed international corporate conglomerates to
divide and exploit us nation by nation because we are too proud, too
naïve, and too nationalistic to value unity with individuals outside our
borders.
If we do not stand together to lift up the whole (wages and working
conditions in every corner of the globe), then like the children's
nursery rhyme in the time of the great plague, we will all fall down.
In the long term, we must make sure that the costs of exploiting labor
are greater than the benefits. Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and Evo Morales
in Bolivia are showing the way.
In the short term, we must repeal NAFTA, CAFTA and all international
trade agreements that regard human labor as something less than cattle.
If the pandering, reactionary right prevails in the current climate,
like the Israelis in Palestine, we will construct a monument to
intolerance and ignorance on our southern border. If it comes to pass,
there will come a day when a new American president stands in the land
of the Chiricahua and demands:
Tear down this wall!
Patriots on both sides of the border will comply and all humanity will
applaud.
Jack Random is the author of Ghost Dance Insurrection (Dry Bones Press)
the Jazzman Chronicles, Volumes I and II (City Lights Books). The
Chronicles have been published by CounterPunch, the Albion Monitor,
Buzzle, Dissident Voice and others. Visit his website: Random Jack.
NOTES
1) Payment for the Black Hills and all the resources extracted there
from in accordance with the Fort Laramie Treaty.
2) Recognized as a sovereign nation by the US Supreme Court in a
decision that was ignored by President Andrew Jackson who subsequently
carried out the mass relocation recorded in history as The Trail of
Tears.
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