by Robert M. Traxler
“We are a nation of immigrants.” A statement attributed to many people, including President John F. Kennedy. The statement is not true, but it has been repeated so many time folks believe it.
So which nation did you, not your father or mother, grandparents or great, great grandparents, immigrate from? More than 87% of Americans were born here so we are native born Americans. Born in a different nation, immigrate to the United States of America, and you are an immigrant; if born here you are not, pure and simple.
Most folks believe man originated in Southern Africa and Mankind, or need I say Personkind, then immigrated and populated the Earth. If you live any place outside a few valleys in Africa, you are an immigrant by the standard used today in our nation.
The Europeans are all immigrants, the Asians are all immigrants, South America and North America is populated by “Personkind” who moved there from Africa. Native Americans are not native using the standard that if an ancestor moved here from a different location, then we are all immigrants.
The common belief is that humans crossed into North America from Asia using a long-gone land bridge, perhaps caused by manmade global warming, 13,000 to 15,000 years ago, thus they are immigrants. Europeans arguably showed up in 1492 or even earlier so they are immigrants; many folks with Dutch ancestors can trace family back to 1609 and are called immigrants, go figure.
Most of us were born in the United States and are Native Americans; just why in our rush to judge and label folks we forget that is anyone’s guess. My grandfather was not born in this country, but I consider myself a full-fledged native American and abs
olutely not an immigrant, though Granddad Traxler was. Even if your parents are illegal immigrants, not American citizens and you are American born, you are not an immigrant you are an American with the rights of any American citizen.
So exactly how long does a person’s family need to live in an area to be considered a nonimmigrant by the politically correct crowd? If your family was here before our nation became a nation are you an immigrant? Is it three or thirteen generations before you are an American without a hyphen. Or is it possible to be placed in a non-immigrant status?
Do we refer to the folks who were here when Europeans arrived as Asian immigrants as their ancestors came from Asia? Dig deep enough into our lineage and we will find we are all of African descent, as popular anthropology tells us the human animal (you and I) are from Africa. Is that a problem? Not to me; if folks want to refer to me as an African American it is fine as long as we all are African Americans. The French are African French, Chinese are African Chinese, and all are African something.
Not being very smart, I cannot see why the politically correct crowd work so hard to divide us. The reason can probably be found in money — it is to someone’s financial benefit to divide us and reject the idea that anyone is a native born American and not an immigrant. Political groups benefit from a divided electorate; for example, many Hispanics vote the same way, many ethnic groups support folks from the old country, so identifying ourselves as just Americans is not to their benefit.
Common sense is not all that common to the politically correct crowd who want to divide and conquer. The largest obstacle to the Senator Bernie Sanders type of National Socialization of America is a love of country and fidelity to the American Constitution. If the advocates for socialism (or social justice as they call it) can degrade the nation as a group of oppressed immigrants and minorities, then they can call for unity under the banner of national socialism. If they can make us lose our American identity, then they can replace it with a socialist identity.
The adage that we are a melting pot of peoples is true; however, it is time to allow the contents of the pot to become a nation melted into one people under God with liberty and justice for all.