123 years ago a man named Johann Jakob Haas and his second wife, Maria Dorathea (Schrade) landed at Ellis Island Immigration Center. They came from Dettingen Wrtt, Germany. Those 2 people were my great grandfather and step great grandmother. He had 9 children with this second wife. This was called his second family.
(Great grandfather had been married before and fathered 7 children with his first wife, Elizabeth Beck. My grandfather was in his first family.)
At the time I was born, Jakob and Maria had been in the United States of America 47 years. I guess that makes me a third generation immigrant! Not sure how that works, but it seems my kids would then be fourth generation immigrants.
How sad it is that I woke up this morning with this on my mind. And that my second thought was that I am a child of white privilege was even sadder. My grand children are a mix of races. I have one black, 2 Indians, one mexican and then then token white boy. The great grandkids are a hodge podge and we no longer see color at my house.
I know that our government is "cracking down on the illegals" and this breaks my heart. To see a mother torn from her children and sent back to Mexico because a paper is not in her possession that gives her the rights I have makes me sick. She raised her kids by working and spending her money in the local market place. Her kids went to the local school not just for a day or two, but for years. Years. She wanted to be here or she would have gone back to Mexico a long time ago.
Does anyone except me remember when the government cracked down on the illegals because they were taking work from the local people by working in the fields? Seems the migrant farm workers did not come and the crops rotted in the fields because that was work our local people who were legal did not want to do. Hot out there in the broiling sun .
Our government has never made it easy to get citizenship and it has never been cheap. Lawyers and paperswork and courts do not make it conducive for people who work very cheap to afford the help they need. So punish them. I was born into my citizenship, but many were not.
I know of one man who is 3 semesters short of getting his degree in business management. He has worked hard to pay tuition and buy books by working in the fields, but he is not a citizen. He will be sent back to Mexico under the current regieme. His father was granted his citizenship, but has not received the final paper. It is lost out there somewhere, so all he has done has been in vain.
Somewhere along the rocky road to today, this freedom train went off the tracks. The government is fighting the Indians because the pipeline wants to go across thier land and water and do we remember who was here first? Hell no we don't! We took thier land. Then we decided we didn't want them to be there and we took that land and gave them different land and now we change our minds again! I bet the Indians are wondering why they invited us to that first Thanksgiving!
It would be nice to build a big rocket ship and put all the elitist ignoramuses on it and ship them to the moon and leave us peace loving people here to drink out of the same water faucets and play on the same beaches. Remember the hippies? Remember the love generation? Remember the Viet Nam war? Remember Stonewall? We are afraid of immigrants. They might do us harm. Remember Timothy McVey? American born. Remember Columbine? American born! Where is our rationale?
It is going to be a long day. I wish I had a bright spot to give you, but this morning I do not. This morning my heart is bleeding for my America. The one we had before someone decided to make it great again.
(Great grandfather had been married before and fathered 7 children with his first wife, Elizabeth Beck. My grandfather was in his first family.)
At the time I was born, Jakob and Maria had been in the United States of America 47 years. I guess that makes me a third generation immigrant! Not sure how that works, but it seems my kids would then be fourth generation immigrants.
How sad it is that I woke up this morning with this on my mind. And that my second thought was that I am a child of white privilege was even sadder. My grand children are a mix of races. I have one black, 2 Indians, one mexican and then then token white boy. The great grandkids are a hodge podge and we no longer see color at my house.
I know that our government is "cracking down on the illegals" and this breaks my heart. To see a mother torn from her children and sent back to Mexico because a paper is not in her possession that gives her the rights I have makes me sick. She raised her kids by working and spending her money in the local market place. Her kids went to the local school not just for a day or two, but for years. Years. She wanted to be here or she would have gone back to Mexico a long time ago.
Does anyone except me remember when the government cracked down on the illegals because they were taking work from the local people by working in the fields? Seems the migrant farm workers did not come and the crops rotted in the fields because that was work our local people who were legal did not want to do. Hot out there in the broiling sun .
Our government has never made it easy to get citizenship and it has never been cheap. Lawyers and paperswork and courts do not make it conducive for people who work very cheap to afford the help they need. So punish them. I was born into my citizenship, but many were not.
I know of one man who is 3 semesters short of getting his degree in business management. He has worked hard to pay tuition and buy books by working in the fields, but he is not a citizen. He will be sent back to Mexico under the current regieme. His father was granted his citizenship, but has not received the final paper. It is lost out there somewhere, so all he has done has been in vain.
Somewhere along the rocky road to today, this freedom train went off the tracks. The government is fighting the Indians because the pipeline wants to go across thier land and water and do we remember who was here first? Hell no we don't! We took thier land. Then we decided we didn't want them to be there and we took that land and gave them different land and now we change our minds again! I bet the Indians are wondering why they invited us to that first Thanksgiving!
It would be nice to build a big rocket ship and put all the elitist ignoramuses on it and ship them to the moon and leave us peace loving people here to drink out of the same water faucets and play on the same beaches. Remember the hippies? Remember the love generation? Remember the Viet Nam war? Remember Stonewall? We are afraid of immigrants. They might do us harm. Remember Timothy McVey? American born. Remember Columbine? American born! Where is our rationale?
It is going to be a long day. I wish I had a bright spot to give you, but this morning I do not. This morning my heart is bleeding for my America. The one we had before someone decided to make it great again.
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