… either tough love, or very soft hate …
America welcomes refugee children not with open arms, but with arms openly carried.
A few of the protesters who marched against a proposed shelter in Vassar, Mich., on Monday were armed with semiautomatic rifles and handguns. In Virginia, an effort to house the children at the shuttered campus of Saint Paul’s College in Lawrenceville caused such an uproar that federal officials pulled out, even though a five-month lease had been signed. Someone spray-painted anti-immigrant graffiti on a brick wall at a former Army Reserve facility in Westminster, Md., that was being considered as a shelter site.
Some cities have raised health and security concerns. Northeast of Oyster Creek, League City passed a resolution opposing any shelters from opening even though the federal government had no plans to do so. The resolution claimed that “illegal aliens suffering from diseases endemic in their countries of origin are being released into our communities.â€
A number of faith-based groups have come together to assist the children and try to shelter and sponsor some of them. But even these efforts are being met with ridicule by the Right. I guess there’s still no room at the inn.
According to the Breitbrats, militia groups have called themselves up to “patrol” the border.
The alert to the civilian militia groups, which includes many groups who showed up at the Clive Bundy ranch in Nevada, calls on all able bodied militia members to converge on the Laredo sector of the Texas/Mexico border. A man who identified himself on a national conference call as “Ruthless†said their objective it to “put up a man-fence†to prevent the illegal aliens from crossing the border in their area of control.
As I think gulag said yesterday — don’t shoot until you see the whites of their diapers.
I wonder, in how many of these angry white “Christian” families backgrounds, there were refugees seeking asylum in the US.
I know my whole family – from Russia and Ukraine – were refugees trying to escape war-torn Europe. Specifically, the battles between the German and Soviet armies.
They all ended up in Nazi work camps eventually.
And after the war, those refugees were put in displace person’s camps, until the Allies governments could figure out what to do with them.
Fortunately, most of my family came to the US because their camp was in the American Zone – some ended up in Australia, because they were in the British Zone.
And some, the unlucky ones who found themselves in Russian held territory the day the war was over, ended up in Siberia, because their camp was in the Russian Zone.
They were all refugees, and were treated civilly when they arrived here and “Down Under,” and given aid, assistance, and help to find jobs.
The ones in Siberia? Not so much… MORE work camps – aka: GULags.
So, why is this any different?
Oh yeah, my family members were white European refugees, and not brown refugees from Central and South America.
It all comes down to race/color/religion/country of origin.
If you’re white, you’re alright!
If you’re brown, go back down!!!
gulag — reception of various national/ethnic groups on these shores has depended a lot on when you showed up. You’ve probably heard the Irish had a hard time of it at first, although at the same point in the 19th century Germans were coming here and mostly thriving. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries eastern Europeans were not welcomed by anyone but sweatshop owners. In the mining town where I grew up the old folks still talked about the time the “Hunkies” (Hungarians, but they may have been something else) were forcibly run out of town by the mostly Scots-Irish “natives.” After World War II I think there was a period in which people were more accepting of immigrants, especially if they’d had a hard time with the Nazis.
Gulag, I know what you mean. One thing that is astounding to me is that over the past few years, I have found myself to be a target of ethnic prejudice for the first time in my entire life. I am a straight, white man, and all my life I’ve enjoyed the same unearned privileges as any other straight white men, but now I’ve discovered that I’m not a Real American because my ancestors were non-English speaking Catholics.
I don’t want to make too big a deal out of it, of course, but there have been a bunch of little things like Ann Coulter saying that no one whose great-grandparents were born here cares about the World Cup. Well, I like the World Cup, and my great-grandparents on my dad’s side were born in Lithuania, Poland, and Slovakia.
Which is fine with me, actually. I feel like I’ve received a cordial invitation NOT to join the Know-Nothing brownshirt posse, and I’m quite proud of it. These idiots have so marginalized themselves that if they start a firefight, they aren’t going to know what hit them. Instead of Real Americans against the alien hordes, they’re going to find that it’s the assholes and xenophobes against everyone else.
“Man fence”
They just want to get together again so they can fondle each other’s man guns again like they done at old Cliven (let me tell ya about the niggra ) bundy’s!
“Man fence”
“Everybody on the pile”
These guys love their guns more than their children. Such sad, sad people.
I know what you mean Stephen, my paternal grandparents were from Slovakia and Ukraine. I am probably a little older than you are, because back during the “red scare” days, it didn’t take much to bring the evil eye. Of course, being a child at the time almost certainly amplified the drama, at least in my own mind.
I am sure there is a body of psychological studies that explain why some people have a longer memory of the immigrant experience and more sympathy for newer immigrants, while others want to build a wall once they are safely inside. For a layman like myself, it suffices to chalk it up to fear and ignorance.
Militias never seem to miss an opportunity to “strut their stuff.” Sooner or later, “mistakes will be made.”
maha,
I know what my family went through ws largely and aberration from the reaction most immigrants here had.
Here’s what I wrote at Steve M’s great blog the other day, when he brought up the “Diseased Alien” howl’s from the Reich-Wingers:
“So where did people get the notion that these kids are rife with dangerous communicable diseases?”
Uhm…
Well, it’s not like this is new here.
Previous generations of existing Americans (non-Native Americans, of course) said the exact same thing whenever new immigrants arrived here, from:
Germany.
Sweden.
Ireland.
Scotland.
China.
Italy.
Russia.
Poland.
Ukraine.
Etc.
Basically – WHEREVER they came from.
They were said to be diseased.
And had difficulty getting anything but the most menial, dangerous, and unhealthy jobs.
You know, kind of like Mexican and Central American immigrants today!
Don’t forget that classic 19th Century NY City sign (which, I’m sure was displayed in many more cities):
“No Irish Need Apply!”
The last immigrant in my family was William Thomas of Dwygyfylchi, Gwynydd (north Wales), who had the advantage of a “normal” name. And of course he had learned excellent English as a child thanks to Queen Victoria’s schools, even though it was a second language. He was my paternal great grandfather, and he arrived in 1885.
Some of my Ma’s people showed up from Ireland shortly after the Civil War, but nearly all of the rest of my ancestors that I know of were here before the Revolution. Some were already third generation Americans by the time of the Revolution. I had two great x 4 grandfathers in the Revolution and a few great X2 grandfathers in the Civil War, both sides. I tell people that my ancestors were the ones who misspelled their ancestors’ names when they got off the boat.
However, in spite of being white and early, my kinsfolk blew their advantages by turning into hillbillies. I’m related to a lot of sharecroppers and dirt farmers, plus a lot of miners. I’m probably kin to half the trailer trash in the Ozarks. But my point is that I get amused (although probably not as much as Bonnie does) at anti-immigrant types whose people didn’t get here until the 20th century. I like to tell them we should have closed the borders about 1890. Just kidding, of course.
so they can fondle each other’s man guns again like they done at old Cliven (let me tell ya about the niggra ) bundy’s!
Oh jeez uncledad, now I can’t un-see that!
Ann Coulter saying that no one whose great-grandparents were born here cares about the World Cup.
I can trace my lineage in North America back to the 1600s, and I enjoyed the World Cup.
Ann Coulter’s schtick is to say calculatedly “outrageous” things to get hyucks from assholes while pissing off decent people, because without attention she’ll die. I doubt she even believes the garbage she spews.
“The last immigrant in my family was William Thomas of Dwygyfylchi, Gwynydd (north Wales), who had the advantage of a “normal†name.”
That poor, poor man.
Having to leave his native land, and going across the ocean to a new country, because of the severe “Vowel Famine” in North Wales. 😉
By today’s standards, I’m an “anchor baby”. Then again, no, both parents from Canada.
Reminds me of a joke; a guy said to me, “there are only three types of people in Canada; lumberjacks, whores, and hockey players.” I said ” oh yeah, my mom’s from Canada!”. Then he asked me what team she played for.
erinyes,
ROFLMAO!
CUNDgulag’s comment about the resentment of immigrants mad me recall an excellent chapter on the subject in Stephen Jay Gould’s, “The Mismeasure of Man.” The harrowing experience of the crossing, the language barrier, prejudice, along with astoundingly bad methodology led to the conviction that, some groups of people were intellectually inferior. Immigration quotas were lowered, in the period before WWII, for many, including Jews, with disastrous results.
It’s worth the read.
My mother’s ancestors came over from Ireland in time to fight in the Civil War. My father’s in 1913. My mother’s family was comparatively well to do. She would bristle a bit, when my father’s family would talk in Slovak or Russian. I think she always felt a wee bit more of a “real” American. But, they got along.
erinyes…. 🙂