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dragonlady7via http://ift.tt/2jJgwTJ:
I’ve had family in this country for 397 years as of last November. Members of my family have been involved in wars from King Philip’s War on up through the Iraq War.
My most recent immigrant ancestor came circa 1912 from Ireland. (My father is descended from four immigrant grandparents, none of whom were here before 1910. My mother is descended from a number of families, all of whom were here before 1850.)
The circumstances of my ancestors’ arrivals here were widely varying. Some came legally, others not. (I know, for example, one great-grandfather simply didn’t get back on the ship he was a coal shoveler for.) Some have been exceptional citizens, others not. (An ancestress led a mob that mutilated a sheriff’s deputy during the Anti-Rent Wars; I leave whether that’s good or bad citizenship up to the reader.) (She, by the way, was an immigrant, from the Palatine region of what’s now Germany.) Studying the history of our family has been a family pastime for a couple of generations now; I’ve learned most of my history lessons through that lens, and it’s a good way to get a cross-section of the history of this great unfinished symphony, as it were. (There’s limitations to the point of view, for sure, but it’s a great starting place for the field of study.)
My point is. America is made of immigrants, for good or ill. (If only my ancestor’s side had lost in King Philip’s War, we’d have a whole different story now; the Wampanoag were not immigrants. But that’s another matter.) It’s an important part of how we have formed ourselves, and the stories we tell to and of ourselves.
This latest executive order is a massive betrayal of every value we as a nation hold dear. The American experiment is a series of promises. This breaks every one of them.
This is not America. This is not my country.
This is a transparent bid to engender chaos so that the illegitimate regime can consolidate power by martial law. We must resist. We must stand up. We cannot wait for the external crisis that this was clearly designed to provoke.
I’ve had family in this country for 397 years as of last November. Members of my family have been involved in wars from King Philip’s War on up through the Iraq War.
My most recent immigrant ancestor came circa 1912 from Ireland. (My father is descended from four immigrant grandparents, none of whom were here before 1910. My mother is descended from a number of families, all of whom were here before 1850.)
The circumstances of my ancestors’ arrivals here were widely varying. Some came legally, others not. (I know, for example, one great-grandfather simply didn’t get back on the ship he was a coal shoveler for.) Some have been exceptional citizens, others not. (An ancestress led a mob that mutilated a sheriff’s deputy during the Anti-Rent Wars; I leave whether that’s good or bad citizenship up to the reader.) (She, by the way, was an immigrant, from the Palatine region of what’s now Germany.) Studying the history of our family has been a family pastime for a couple of generations now; I’ve learned most of my history lessons through that lens, and it’s a good way to get a cross-section of the history of this great unfinished symphony, as it were. (There’s limitations to the point of view, for sure, but it’s a great starting place for the field of study.)
My point is. America is made of immigrants, for good or ill. (If only my ancestor’s side had lost in King Philip’s War, we’d have a whole different story now; the Wampanoag were not immigrants. But that’s another matter.) It’s an important part of how we have formed ourselves, and the stories we tell to and of ourselves.
This latest executive order is a massive betrayal of every value we as a nation hold dear. The American experiment is a series of promises. This breaks every one of them.
This is not America. This is not my country.
This is a transparent bid to engender chaos so that the illegitimate regime can consolidate power by martial law. We must resist. We must stand up. We cannot wait for the external crisis that this was clearly designed to provoke.
